And the Bad News is..
We have all been affected by the good-news-bad news syndrome. Seems a few years back, someone coined the phrase.” I have some good news and some bad news,” followed by. “Do you want to hear the good news or the bad news first?” In my opinion this phrase has been overused when telling about situations or telling jokes, etc. Even though I think the phrase has been overused. I am going to tell you about some good news-bad news situations that have happened around our house in the past week. The good news followed by the bad news has happened to the teenie bopper who lives in the Massey household, namely “Trixie.” “Trixie” will be sixteen years old (going on twenty five) come next January Anyone knows when you are almost sixteen going on twenty five, good things and bad things happen to you all in the same day.
It all started happening last Thursday when “Trixie” was elected sophomore attendant for her High School Homecoming festivities. The good news came in the announcement that she had been elected over two other girls to rein at the homecoming dance. At the homecoming football game, she was presented with a bouquet of roses and high school cheers, while a photographer snapped her picture along with the Queen and Junior attendant. The picture was for the Friday addition of the Greeley Tribune. When the Friday edition of the Tribune finally arrived. I anxiously opened the paper to see the picture of the royalty. There it was, appearing on the prestigious third page of a daily newspaper the picture we had all been waiting to see, The High School Royalty. The bad news was “Trixe” was not included in the picture. The cutline on the picture said it was her but the picture was that of one of the other candidates. To make matters worse, the only Massey pictured in the background was Mr M. Now Mr M might have made a cute homecoming attendant a few years back, unfortunately more than a couple of trains have passed over the track since that time. It is certainly not often that a teenage girl gets to see her dad pictured along with the homecoming queen, as part of her 1985 high school homecoming royalty.
Other good news-bad news things that have happened to “Trixie” in the past week were…the good news, she had her first date. A date for the homecoming dance. The bad news was…Mr M and myself were asked to attend as sponsors. So every time she looked over her shoulder she saw her old Dad and Mom standing with their hands over their ears trying to muffle the sound of the loud rock music. And last but not least, is the good news that “Trixie” got her first car last Thursday. A silver Mustang 11 with red bucket seats and a sun roof. What a “cool” set of wheels. It is the perfect teenage car, you know the kind that a mature overweight adult has to put on and take off. It has been washed, vacuumed polished and sat in for a week. The reason that it has been washed. vacuumed, polished and sat in for a week instead of driven is the bad news… “Trixie” doesn’t have a drivers license yet. She will not be sixteen for three long months. So for the next three months she will have to drive on a learners permit. This means that when her car is seen by all the kids at the high school, she will have to be embarrassed by having her little brother and heir mother peering out the windows. Having a teenager around the house that is getting old enough to drive a car is kind of s good news-bad news situation for this old Mom too. The good news is…In three months,I can finally stop being a taxi service when it comes to the teenage pastime of attending all the high school activities. The bad news is…for the next three long months, I will have to go along for the ride to places that I have never had the desire to go.
