School Daze

Just a brief note as I come up from air from this pre- back to school frenzy I am living in...

Remember when I said I would be the crazy Mom at the store at 10:00 PM the night before school starts to do the back to school shopping? Well, I was close to dead on with that prediction. I went yesterday--for some reason I went in the afternoon just in time for the pre-four-day-weekend rush (and I think it must have been Double Coupon Day or National Grandparent Shopping Day or something because everyone seemed 135 years old with walkers, motorized scooters with max speeds of 2 MPH, canes, limps, etc.). I managed to purchase about 75% of the school supplies on the lists and only mangled three old ladies, tripped up Grandpa Joe, and toppled two displays when I body checked a Grandpa with a walker (humor, people, humor--No elderly shoppers were injured in the production of this blog entry).

For some reason, I was not able to find a single highlighter in the whole store. Who can guess as to the reason behind the extraordinary demand for highlighters? Maybe it is so students can decorate the mandatory $5 apiece (which I absolutely refuse to purchase for that price after paying $100 in fees—I will cut up old t-shirts and sew them together first—can you just see The Girl rolling her eyes at me right now?) nylon book covers with eye-catching fluorescent designs? Could be...since art budgets have been slashed hither and yon, students must have an outlet upon which to express their creativity. A fluorescent green F*ck You! or blaze orange James Schmo is gay! sufficiently fulfills those artsy desires, I suppose.

Anyway, the big kids start Monday. Hopefully, 75% supplied is enough for the first day. Eighty-Eight Fingers goes in for testing while I sit in the Junior Kindergarten Orientation Thursday morning (gods help us all, especially the pore wretch of a teacher who is responsible for him in the testing room). He officially starts (oddly enough) on 9/11. Bad omen? I think it very well could be.