Claudia and Mean Janine, #7

Ahem. So. I’m back. Blame Netflix (seriously, if you haven’t watched the new Baby-Sitters Club series there yet, what are you waiting for? After you finish my back catalog of blog posts, do that. You won’t regret it). I will likely do some posts on the new series at some point.

So. Four years since my last post. Well, that baby girl I had in 2015? She is now 5 and will be starting kindergarten this fall (likely will do so virtually. Thanks, pandemic). Plus, at the end of last year, I had a baby boy. Life is bananas. Plus, now that I have kids, I can't fathom letting a 13 year old or 11 year old child babysit my kids. Just bonkers. Anyway, I don’t really have much free time as of late, but I have been working from home full time since March, and both kids have been home as well, so Mama needs some outlet to keep her sanity in check. Take care of your mental health, y’all. 

Now, the book. The One in Which Mimi Has a Stroke. Episode Six in the Netflix series. Crazily enough, I don’t remember reading this one as a child - I know I read Claudia and the Sad Goodbye, where Mimi *spoiler alert* dies, but I have no memory of this one. I think that is supposed to be Jamie Newton on the cover, based on the subplot, but who knows for sure? Claudia is rocking what is formerly known as a Cosby sweater, but due to his very non-Cliff-Huxtable assholery towards women, we will have to think of a new term for crazy sweaters now.

Since this is early in the series (so, their first time through 8th grade), only Kristy, Claudia, Mary Anne, Stacey, and Dawn are members. Stacey’s parents are still married. This takes place one week after Kristy’s mom married Daddy Watsonbucks. In fact, Kristy’s family is in the process of moving across town to the mansion. Now, his mansion is always referred to as “across town,” which I have always assumed to be, like, 7 to 15 miles away, since they always make a big deal about how it is too far for her to ride a bike to meetings. We find out that Watson lives 3 miles away. Three. Now, I was a child of the 80s, and I know that I rode my bike farther than that during the summer. And just how small is Stoneybrook that 3 miles is considered across town? Anyway, in this book they arrange for Charlie to drive Kristy to meetings for the small fee of $1 each way (which, considering gas prices in the 80s, is a very good deal). Now, let's break this down. The babysitters get to keep the money they earn from each job, and just pay $1 per week in dues to the club treasury. There are 5 babysitters, so the treasury gets $5 per week. So, Charlie will get $2 each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, for a total of $6 per week from the treasury. Way to operate a business in the red, Captain Great Idea. Even when there are 7 members, they are only clearing $1 per week. That is redonk.

Ok, to the main story now. The whole first chapter is establishing just how different Claudia and Janine are. Janine is the super genius with an IQ of 196 and takes college classes for fun during the summer. Claudia is terrible at school but an artistic savant. Janine is introverted with few friends, Claudia is super popular and has a thriving social life, for a thirteen year old anyway (who am I kidding? She has more of a social life than I do, even before the pandemic hit). Now, this hit a little too close to home for me, because my older brother was the popular, outgoing one, and I was the introverted good girl with very little social life. My mom used to joke that I was born 35 years old (Claudia's mom makes a joke about Claudia being a teenager her whole life due to her difficulty to live with.) Never thought I would be identifying with Janine, but there we go. Plus, Janine dresses like a classic 80s sitcom nerd (pleated skirts and blouses), while Claudia is adventurous in her fashion choices. Claudia even mentions that anytime Janine hands down her clothes to her, she immediately gives them to Mary Anne or Kristy. (Nice little burn on her view of Kristy and MA's sense of style there). 

Can always use some SJP "Square Pegs" throwback fashion.

So, Claudia and Janine bicker all the time, because Claudia can't understand anything that Janine is saying (seriously, AMM made Janine sound like a robot, all "how will your agency function when your founder relocates to a different district?" Like, she's 16 years old, she is not C3PO). Then Janine gets frustrated when Claudia can't answer her questions (since she couldn't interpret that to mean, "what will y'all do when Kristy moves?"). And there are so many other examples of this, so let's just throw a yada, yada, yada here. Well, Mimi usually acts as peacemaker, but has been increasingly tired lately. After a particularly nasty fight between the sisters, Mimi goes to bed early. A few minutes later, the girls hear a thud from her bedroom, where they find Mimi unconscious. Ambulance called, parents notified, and they soon find out that Mimi had a massive stroke. Initially, Mimi can only communicate via blinking, but soon recovers enough to be able to talk, even though she has difficulty mixing up words, plus has lost a lot of use of the right side of her body. She is soon released to go back home, but a family member has to stay with her at all times to help with her speech and physical therapy. Claudia volunteers a lot, giving up BSC plans and art classes, but her parents don't want to ask Janine because they don't want to interfere with her college classes. One day Claudia comes home from a sitting job and finds Mimi downstairs by herself, while Janine is upstairs on her computer. After a Real Housewives-style, table-flipping throwdown, the sisters have a heart to heart, where Janine confesses that she feels like she is not needed because they never ask her to help, and Claudia admits that she feels like she is not good enough for her parents. And everything is wrapped up in a nice, shiny bow.

Subplots - the BSC starts a playgroup for the month of July, where kids can hang out in the McGill backyard three days a week (yeah, I would not be volunteering my yard for that). Biggest story out of that is them trying to deal with Jenny Prezzioso, who is the four year old super brat who only dresses in fancy, ruffly dresses and never wants to get dirty. Plus, they let Mallory Pike be a babysitter in training for their group, which is the lead up to her joining the club eventually. A secondary subplot involves Jamie Newton, who Claudia sits for several times, and the christening party that Mrs. Newton throws for baby Lucy. She hires the entire BSC for the day to act as "helpers," meaning babysitting, decorating, and waittressing. Those Stoneybrook parents love to exploit the BSC for all the child labor they can get. 

And that's all I have to say about that. Sorry I didn't have my normal level of snark on this post, but, come on, it has been four years since I've done this, so my skills are a bit rusty, plus it's hard to do so when the main plot is a grandmother having a stroke. 

Fashion! Fashion! Fashion!

Claudia: “I finished dressing in my favorite art class outfit - black jeans, a giant bright blue T-shirt, and a snake bracelet that I wore above my elbow.”

Stacey: “wearing a pair of knee-length lime green shorts, matching green high-top sneakers, and a large white T-shirt with a gigantic taxicab on the front.”

Dawn: “striped pants with suspenders over a red shirt.” Claudia thought this was more New York than California.

Jenny Prezzioso: “wearing a pale pink, spotlessly clean party dress with puffed sleeves and white smocking across the front. On her feet were lacy white socks and pink Mary Janes.”

Jenny: “a brand-new white sundress with ruffles around the bottom, trimmed with pale pink ribbon and white lace, and brand-new white sandals. The sandals were the fancy kind, more like shoes with holes punched on top in a pretty design.”

Mary Anne: “was wearing a jeans skirt, a pink and white striped blouse, and loafers with no socks.”

Claudia: “It was a big, loose white shirt with black splotches all over it, and white pants that came to just below my knees. My shoes were dainty gold sandals that laced partway up my legs. Then I put on my pink flamingo earrings and a pink bracelet that said CLAUDIA in heart-shaped beads. Finally, I braided my hair into four long braids, tied a ribbon around the top of each, and fastened the ends with butterfly clips.”

Stacey and the Cheerleaders, #70

This was always one of my favorite BSC books, must have read it hundreds of times (I even remember many of the outfits). However, I was always confused by the cover image, the book never has Stacey on a sitting job where she is practicing cheers. I'm guessing it is probably Charlotte Johanssen, Stacey's favorite charge, but only a guess.

And, to prep you for this cheertastic recap...





If you were a female teen in the late 90s/early 00s, and don't know that opening sequence by heart, then, well, you're probably not reading this blog anyway, so whatever.

So, Stacey arrives at school one day with Claudia, and gets hit in the face with a snowball, thrown by none other than the star of the SMS basketball team, RJ Blaser (yeah, we've never heard of him before, and likely never will again after this book). RJ is described as being 6 feet tall (in 8th grade? Trying to remember my 8th grade basketball team now...) and wears a varsity letter jacket (letterman's jackets in middle school? Come on, AMM, that doesn't happen, does it? Plus, varsity? Would junior varsity just mean the 7th grade team?). Ahh, snowball to the face, gotta love middle school flirting. RJ invites Stacey to a movie that weekend, "Mall Warriors II." And the rest of the week, all the members of "The Group", meaning the basketball players and the cheerleaders, start to be really nice to Stacey, inviting her to eat with them, passing notes in class, etc.

Stacey goes on her date, several of the cheerleaders and other basketball players are at the movie as well, plus Cokie Mason and Sabrina Bouvier (which is confusing - here she is mentioned as a classmate of Stacey's, but I'm pretty sure that she is contestant in the child beauty pageant that is featured in another book, so...are there two Sabrina Bouviers of different ages in Stoneybrook? Or did AMM/ghost writer just make a continuity error?). They then go out to Pizza Express with several of RJ's friends, and Stacey realizes that she has nothing in common with RJ (she gives the date a 3 out of 10. Ouch, bro...). However, she is feeling some serious sparks with RJ's teammate, Robert Brewster (yes, that Robert, who becomes Stacey's boyfriend for much of the series).

Stacey then attends the next basketball game, which is her first, and apparently the game is packed because the SMS Chargers (the first time I think we've heard what the mascot is) are undefeated (Stoneybrook must be a hotbed of great athletes, because the SMS baseball team was also undefeated, but that's a different story...). Kristy spends the whole game trying to explain the game to Stacey (yeah, she thought they were saying "fowls" instead of "fouls", bless her heart). Oh, and apparently AMM doesn't understand basketball either, because the game is tied with 3 seconds left, and one of the SMS players hits a shot, and they win by one point. Now, I know that is technically possible if he hit a foul (not fowl) shot, but it wasn't written that way, so SMS should have either won by 2 points or 3 points. Sigh... Anyway, after the game, Stacey hugs Robert and the cheerleaders encourage her to try out for the squad - "she's definitely pretty enough" says Sheila to Darcy (more characters you can forget about after this book). Robert asks Stacey out on a date, and Stacey decides to try out (the book keeps referring to this as "auditioning" for the squad, I just never used that term for cheerleading tryouts, not even for dance team, but maybe since I never "auditioned" for either, I wouldn't know...). 

Robert and Stacey have their date (which she was stressing about because she had a "hair kink" that day, gosh, that happens to me every day #thickhairproblems). Robert gets all deep, tells her that he doesn't like the status of the jock, because players will cheat off of dorks, not do their assignments and still get Cs, and players and cheerleaders will routinely skip classes for "emergency drills" and not get in trouble.

However, angst aside, Robert and Stacey hit it off, and they continue to go out, hitting up concerts and going on double dates with Mary Anne and Logan.

Meanwhile, Stacey enlists Jessi's help in coming up with a routine for the tryout (I get the Jessi is a great dancer, but is a ballet dancer the best person to prep you for a cheerleading routine? I mean, I guess that's all Stacey has to work with, but that is two completely different styles of dance - Sparky Polastri would not approve).

The cheerleaders take Stacey outside during lunch one day (which is against the rules, and confirms to Stacey what Robert told her) because they want to preview Stacey's routine. Stacey shows them, and apparently they are blown away by her ballet-inspired routine, because their jaws drop and tell her "you are, like, really good." Stacey passes the first round of tryouts, and Sheila tells her that she has nothing to worry about. Then, Stacey overhears some of the other cheerleaders gossiping about her in the bathroom (girls, you always check the stalls before gossiping, always...). They say that maybe she is too good for the squad, and apparently one of them had a crush on Robert and is jealous of Stacey. So, after the final round, in which Stacey is clearly the best (according to Stacey, granted), Stacey gets the shock of her life when they announce that Kathleen Lopez won the spot (you can forget that name too), not Stacey. After the announcement, Corinne, the cheerleader with the thing for Robert, tells Stacey that she was better than the whole squad and that they felt threatened by her. Now, for one thing, that explanation would never happen in real life, most likely the squad would just never mention it and start ignoring Stacey again. Plus, I mean, really? Better than the whole squad? A girl who never had formal dance/cheer/gymnastic training, only practiced for a few weeks before the tryouts, is "better than the whole squad"? I mean, AMM, why do you always make the BSC members be the best at whatever they do? Claudia is the best artist who wins awards, Mallory wins writing awards, Jessi wins roles over older ballet dancers, can't some of the BSC just be mediocre?

Anyway, Stacey goes crying to Robert, he immediately quits the baskeball team out of protest (because, yeah...), and the teachers start to "investigate academic abuses" by the athletes. Kathleen Lopez, the girl who beat Stacey, quits the squad once she learns that she wasn't the best one. The cheerleaders write a snarky editorial in the SMS paper about "jealous people" trying to ruin athletics at SMS, while Stacey and Robert write their own editorial about trying to bring justice and fairness to SMS. Yeah, we know how editorial writing goes at SMS...


Deep Thoughts by Stacey:

* "Ok, time-out- Do I sound hopelessly boy-crazy? I'm not. I may not be boy-crazy, but I'm boy interested." Pfft. There is literally a book called "Boy Crazy Stacey", you keep telling yourself that, girl.

* "I just want a gorgeous, smart, considerate guy who takes my breath away and happens to love me even more than I love him." Seems like Stacey might have a match.com profile in her adult years...

* "Logan is cute with a capital Q"

* "Robert is a 9-1-1."

Cheer Fashion!!

What Stacey Wore: "I had wolfed down my breakfast, put on my new plum-colored corduroy pants and white down jacket for the first time, and taken a nice, slow walk to school with my friend Claudia." When Stacey fell down in the snow in this outfit, her butt left a purple imprint thanks to her pants. Let that purple butt imprint mental image get you through the day...

What Claudia Wore: "For instance, at the BSC meeting she was wearing baggy wool men's pants, gathered at the waist with a black leather band (umm, Stace, that's called a belt, sweetie); a white tuxedo shirt with rolled up sleeves; Capezio-type flats with mismatched white and black socks; and a glittery bow-tie barrette in her hair."

What Stacey Wore (RJ date outfit): "I chose a black-and-white plaid unitard with a tank-style top, covered with a black, oversized cotton knit jersey." Sooo...no skirt or anything over the unitard. That's....interesting. And very Jessie J.

What Claudia Wore (basketball game): "She was wearing a sequined vest over a man's white shirt and bell-bottomed spandex pants."

What Stacey Wore (Robert date outfit): "I decided on a pair of new jeans with a brand new white cotton cardigan with gorgeous floral embroidery and a scalloped, crocheted neckline. On my feet were suede ankle boots. Flat-bottomed suede ankle boots." Umm...I'm confused, is Stacey wearing some kind of top under that cardigan?

I'm back....

Forgive me, readers (if there are any left out there), for I have sinned, it has been, um, too many months since my last confession, I mean post.  Since my last post in 2014 (sigh...), I did have a healthy, squirmy, energy-sucking, time-consuming, beautiful (maybe I should have led with that) baby girl, who is now sixteen months old (holy crap, both longest and shortest sixteen months of my life). No, I did not name my girl after a member of the BSC, but she does share a name of one of the charges, but that was not intentional (I'm not that obsessive of a fan girl). And, holy crap, the thought of having an 11 year old or 13 year old babysit my daughter is completely batsh!t insane to me, what were the parents in the 'Brook smoking? 

Anyway, I am hoping to restart the blog, but the posts will probably not be that frequent (what, frequent like a year between posts? I can hear your snark, dear reader. Or maybe that is my internal monologue...). 

I'm hoping to have a new review/recap posted in the next week or so, and in the meantime, if you are a fan of podcasts, I found a good BSC podcast that I have been enjoying, just two dudes reading and dissecting the books. It's called "The Baby-Sitters Club Club", give it a shot if you will.

Check out their website, or catch them on iTunes.