I’m sure we have all heard the expression, “book smart, but no common sense.” It seems slightly contradictory, but quite accurate in many cases.

I can vouch for that.

A few weeks ago, my friend and I got the bright inspiration to walk all the way to Kismet from the Fire Island Lighthouse. I had been told it wasn’t an extremely long journey, and, timed just right in the early fall, would be quite lovely and scenic. 

Well, it was certainly scenic. 

I don’t get it. Why is it that, more and more, parents insist on taking their young children to movies that they have no business seeing at hours of the night when they would be better served settling in for a bedtime story? Nearly every movie that I’ve seen in the last few months has featured the background noise of a screaming, crying young child, pretty much from the opening credits onward.

Seriously folks?

Flash back to the little girl in the pale yellow tutu, arms flailing, feet scurrying in a mad dash to join her class onstage for her very first dance recital… Flash forward to (as I write these words) this upcoming weekend, when that same “little” girl will perform in her 20th – and final – show. 

Where ever did the years go?