The Girls get Jobs and learn about the social aspects of football*

* Or I think the game is over, cause people are leaving.
     It's a great day in a parents life when their children get jobs, because that is the day you can say to them, "You want a new phone, pay for it yourself."
     I don't mean that in a nasty way. I mean it in the way, you are learning new life lessons. You earn money, you need to budget for what you want. The good sign is both girls are savers. When Nastia had the job at AMC she had saved over a thousand dollars. It came in handy during the time she didn't have a job. Elena up until recently was a spender. It went in one pocket, and came out the other as fast as it could. Elena wants to get driving lessons and they cost about $500.00, she is saving for them. Nastia is saving for them too.
     Nastia got her job over at Stop and Shop in northern New City. She filled out an application on line and was invited in for an interview. Her Mother bought her over. Teri walked around the store while Nastia interviewed. I got a call from a very happy oldest daughter saying that she had gotten a job. Her starting salary is about $10.00 an hour.
     I don't get home until 3-3:30 during the week, so she told them she couldn't start work until 4 pm. Her first few weeks were twice, three time a week working. Recently she was bumped up to every day except Wednesday, her bowling night with me.
     Recently she made a mistake at her register. A Customer hands her a check for payment. These days check are rare, not like when I was younger. Before Debit cards and online banking I needed to reorder checks every six months or so, in addition to balancing the check book every month. Now a days I write one check a week for bowling because I don't carry cash. The Cashless society is coming.
  Nastias big mistake on the register that day, according to her was she asked the customer if she should give the check back to them and the person said yes. She had run the check through the register, but it didn't mean that the money had been taken from that persons account, so that person got $200.00 of free groceries. I hope they needed that money. Nastia was put on probation. The ramifications of that are if she messes up again, she can be fired. How She gets off of it she doesn't know.
     Nastia's second mistake was not telling her parents. Her excuse to me a few days later when I asked her was she was trying to act like an adult and deal with it. Understandable, but it cuts her off from her family and deeply hurt her mother. I was hurt in the beginning, but the more I thought about it after her and I talked, the more I understood.
     Elena in search of her first job had little success. She filled out online applications at every place she could think of. Every time someone saw a help wanted sigh, she'd apply. She even applied twice to some places. I make her sound like she filled out dozens and dozens. She didn't, there is only a finite list of places we will let her work and where we will drive her. The hours can't be too late, at least until she is driving and they can't be places I don't want her to work.
     Elena isn't without experience at working. She has mowed her aunts lawn for the past two years and starting the second made an improved effort to do a better job by raking up the cur grass. This was done without being asked and without any extra pay.
    On a Saturday, as We are heading for the movies about 6 pm or so Elena's phone rings and she says yes this is her and after a few moments of silence she says she can't talk right now, then she hangs up. Someone asks her who that was and she says it was Shop Rite in Pearl River wanting to know if she would be interested in a job there. Again Someone says call her back and tell her you do have a moment to talk ,which she does. She schedules an interview for the following Friday.     
       The day before She was to go for the job Teri asks me if I am going to go in with her. I say,"No, how would it look if a parent walked in with her, it would make her look weak and not very adult." Teri gets all bent out of shape and says she will go with Elena to the interview and walk in with her. I agree, she was the good luck charm with Nastia, maybe it will work with Elena.
     The Afternoon of the interview I get a call she has the job. She starts at $10.50 and if she stays for six months, I think it goes to $11.00. Being her first real job and being she is less then eighteen, she has to get her working papers. Back when I was a kid, (Yes, it's another one of those stories) you wanted working papers you went to the office, signed some papers, they handed them to you. Now You have to have a job first before you get them. Then You have to go for a physical, then You go back to the Guidance Office and hand in the papers. When the Principal gets a moment, he will sign them. WTF.
      Elena's interview was on a Friday,  on Monday she gets her papers, on Tuesday we go to an immediate medical care place for her physical. A cute female doctor walks in asks her how is she feeling, maybe does a listen to her heart, then signs the papers and charges us $65.00. I'm not mad at her, manner a fact I tell Elena on the way out, "Maybe I need a check up." She doesn't find any humor in it, wonder why?
     Elena calls her new boss to tell her she has completed her working papers and the boss gives her a date about two weeks in the future to come in, at three O'Clock. I tell Elena and teri I can't do it. Teri says she will work from home and take her over. It doesn't solve the problem, just makes it worse. Elena will tell them she can't come in until 4pm, like Nastia, lets see how that works out. Nastia at her interview told her boss she couldn't work Wednesdays, so it took about three weeks before they scheduled her for a Wednesday.

The Social Aspects of Football.
Several years ago I went with Nastia to the home coming game for the North Football team. I went to South and the thought of going to a High School football game seemed dumb. I'm not that into football any more and it was high school. And as Steely Dan once said, "And I'm never going back to my ole school." ( yea, it is a bit of a stretch.) , but I went. It was a Saturday afternoon that started out warm and as the wind picked up and the clouds rolled in it got chillier and chillier. Just about half time when I thought I couldn't stand it any more Nastia says she's had enough and wants to go home. I say, "Well, if You really want to go it is only half time." and We go.
     I thought high school football was over. Not by a long shot. Last Year Elena 's friend decided thy wanted to go to the home coming game at North. It was a Friday night at seven. We said they would be picked up at nine-thirty. Teri and I went out to dinner and at about nine-thirty picked up both girls, it was fine and easy. When We got there, we could see the girls wandering around near the concession stand in the close end zone. We called them over and asked if they were having fun, which they said yes to and who was winning, which they replied, I think we are.
     This Year, on a Friday night at seven they went to there first away game at South. Both had been there to practice driving, so they knew the grounds a little. They were going with their friend Ariana and her mother offered to drop off if We picked up. We accepted. They went to a football game, Teri and I went out to Dinner in New City to a sports bar. I could watch the Yankees play off game and not drink beer because I was driving, lots of fun.
    I wanted to pick the girls up at 9, Teri said I should wait until 9:30. I waited. About ten minutes after nine I get a phone call from Elena. She says, " I think the game is over, people are leaving."
Well I guess it was. My Daughters and their football knowledge, amazing.
   I get into my car as I tell them I will be there in fifteen minutes, which is what I figure it will take to get to South from here. I take Kings Highway, turn right on Old Mill Road, go around Lake Deforest. AsI head toward the four corners I see flashing lights, so I slow down. As I approach the corners there is a car across the way, off the road and one on my side, both flashing their light with nothing going on. I roll through the intersection and start up the hill. About half way to Demarest  Mill road I am stopped by traffic. I sit and sit. One, two , three minutes pass and We have not moved. Is there an accident? Could they be letting cars go from South? Can there really be that many cars at South. We move up and they are letting cars out of South and they just keep coming. Finally they let us move and I crawl up the road to South, make the turn and crawl toward the school. From a distance there are nothing but cars filling the road, coming and going. There was really that many cars at South. I am supposed to pick up the girls at the parking lot we first practiced driving in. I call Elena and tell her I am near the lot and they have to cross the road to get to the car, they do. Then I find out Jessica's mother again has taken Ariana home with her. This is twice and I feel like my kids are chopped liver, if you know what I mean. Too late to complain and maybe I should just let it go. The Girls are in the car, we slowly make our way deeper into the school's roads, around the closest traffic circle and slowly back out of the school, all the time listening to the war stories of the girls about this and that. One Day I'll look back fondly on an evening like this when they are no more.