Hello Kitty compound

Behind the electrified fence and countless guards, those at Tokyo’s branch of the evil Hello Kitty empire produce more and more mind-boggling merchandise; thousands of them working away whilst the phenomenally famous feline silently looks on.

I think I got the habit of using(most of) my real name because Table Talk was my first posting board and Mary Beth had a Thing. But my family calls me Chica anyway, and I have no shame. Sometimes I think about pseuds I might use, but, eh. Especially because my pseud on match was that of sexual victim Angela Frandina. Which I found hilarious, but sweet Italian guys were always telling me I should be more careful and not put my name online that way. At least until they were like "You don't like that, do you?"

Hello Kitty compound

Dude. I so need to get my ass to Tokyo...

Whenever I hear the word "compound" I think of scary militia types. Whenever I heard "Hello Kitty" I think of weird scary mouthless anime thingies.

To me, the Hello Kitty compound would probably be a hell on earth.

In the grim future of Hello Kitty, there is only war.

In the grim future of Hello Kitty, there is only war.

But it's an awfully cute war. With less yelling and screaming.

Damn you, Tom Scola, I'm playing 40K tonight and now it's stuck in my head!

So, I picked up Ben at his school, and we went to the elementary school, to get the other kids.

It was a nice day, so we decided to stay on the playground for a while. At one point, I walked by a couple of the mothers of kids in Chris's class, but they were in deep conversation and I don't know them yet, so I did the little nod thing, because this is New England. As I did it, I realized one of the moms was looking at a notice and saying, "Oh! I HATE this!"

Now Chris has the teacher Julia had last year, and she's a teacher who keeps the parents hopping, so I'm smirking on the inside as I head past. I get in the shade, and decide to see if I got a hateful notice, or if that mother is just cricket mother (as in, is it her turn to buy the live crickets the kids feed to the class lizard, or what).

Oh, I got a hateful notice, all right.

There's been head lice at the school.

What did Buffy say? Something like: what about home schooling? You know, it's not just for scary religious people anymore.

(And if it is, well I can get there in a Sabbath's walk.)

Oh, Cindy. That's a pain in the ass. But if I remember correctly, you just have to check them really carefully, and if they don't have it, you're fine. (Although I think you can use the shampoo proactively, too.)

I know you're right. It's just that I'm neurotic, and so the minute I read the notice, I started itching from head to toe. From what I've looked up on the web, you shouldn't use the stuff unless your kids are infected. Chris's hair is easy to check, because it's so short. Julia's hair? Not so much. She's got a bob, and it's really thick and layered. Also, she gets a little dandruff thing going on from time to time, and I have never seen a nit, and so I'm googling, then poring over her hair (and making her completely miserable). I *know* I'm just seeing her regular little hair debris, but am completely doubting myself, because that's my gift.

The good news is, rumor has it that the infection's happened with third graders. Julia and Chris are in first and second grades, and don't even have lunch and recess with the third graders.

One of the other mothers said it went around school at the end of last year, but I never got a notice. I saw the secretary in the parking lot on her way out, and she said that's because there was only one, that time, so I'm thinking this time, there are at least two.