Talk is cheap

  I don’t think anyone would accuse Jim, Nola or me of being too talkative.
  OK, so Nola can sometimes be a little chatterbox but, in typical 7-year-old fashion, her words seem to come in short, machine-gun-like bursts before she lapses back into silence.
  She much prefers reading and playing games on WebKinz World to conversation, which, when we attempt them, seem to foreshadow what’s to come in her teenage years.
  Me: Watcha doing, sweetie?
  Nola: Nothing.
  Me: What’d you do at school today?
  Nola: Mmmmmm… I can’t remember.
  It’s not really surprising, considering my husband of almost 17 years spent a year saying nothing more to me than “Hey, how’s it going?” before he finally asked me out.
  I can’t blame Jim entirely for Nola’s reticence. After all, anyone who reads this column regularly — or was at a recent Business by the Book meeting at First Baptist in North Augusta — will probably remember the joke I like to make about myself. I won’t repeat it here (again), but if you want to know what it is, just email me.
  Even when I was a teenager, I much preferred the written word over the spoken, as my best friends Terri and Barbara could have attested to. The three of us were compulsive note-writers, composing long, involved letters to each other. And these letters weren’t just typical teen gossip; they were stories that one of us would start and then would pass along to the other two for additions. Our stories involved fame, wealth, fabulous boyfriends (in the form of Duran Duran members) and epic journeys.
  And, yes, while they were written down out of necessity — we had to protect ourselves from our damn teachers who actually expected us to do our schoolwork (what?) — we just weren’t really talkers. We even sat in the hall during lunchtime, scribbling away at our masterpieces and trying to outdo each other.
  But even though we were writing instead of talking, reading Jennifer Sbar’s story on co-rumination (“Talk, Talk,” page 18) brought back my high-school days.
  Co-rumination is a fancy term coined by researchers who recently found that opening up about feelings might not be all it’s cracked up to be — at least not for teenage girls. These researchers found that girls who talked obsessively about their problems with their friends were more likely to be depressed.
  It makes sense to me. Terri, Barbara and I might not have been talking and we might not have been talking about our real lives, but, in our letters, we never had problems like excess weight, bad hair days or low self-esteem. We didn’t have all the problems normally associated with high school.
  Everything was wonderful in our made-up world. And that made our real lives just a little more depressing.

This month in Parent
  Spring is in the air, and if you can’t tell by the weather, you certainly can by taking a glance at the Short Stuff and Calendar sections of Metro Augusta Parent this month.
  Turn to our Short Stuff section, beginning on page 6, and you’ll find not one, but two great giveaways. The world-famous Lipizzaner Stallions are coming to the USC-Aiken Convocation Center on March 15 and 16, and we have a family pack of four tickets to give away. That, my friends, is an almost $150 value.
  You’ll save even more money if you win tickets to see The Lion King at the Atlanta Civic Center. This mesmerizing musical shows throughout the month of April, and Metro Augusta Parent has a set of four tickets to give away to this event as well. Considering tickets run about $65 each, that’s an almost $300 savings. But you have to enter to win.
  Entering our giveaways is easy: all you have to do is email your contact information to Erika Bolin. Her email address is erika.bolin@metrospirit.com, and be sure to mention which contest you’re entering in the subject line of the email. Winners will be chosen on Good Friday, March 21, and we’ll contact the winners shortly afterwards.
  Good luck!
  After entering the contests, you should flip back to page 24, which is where our Calendar section starts. March contains many great events, including plays by the Children’s Musical Theatre Ensemble and Storyland Theatre, as well as celebrations of St. Patrick’s Day, Dr. Seuss’ birthday and, of course, Easter.
  Just goes to prove what I always say: Anybody who says there’s nothing to do in Augusta has never taken a look at our calendar. So take a look, then go out and have some fun!