Next please!

And the back-to-school festivities continue today and I have a three-hour layover at high school central. In other words, I'm volunteering to help with the picture-taking and the schedule-handouting. Today I help herd teenagers into lines to get their picture taken. I get free pictures of at least one of my children for my services. I hope Jimmy won't be too embarrassed to have me there talking to his friends and telling them what to do.

Tomorrow I'll help hand schedules out to frightened little 9th graders who have never been to such a big school and don't know where anything is and look so small compared to the massive sequoia forest of senior boys. Paul is one of those "frightened freshmen," but he does know his way around the PE area and possibly the band room. He's been forced into the auditorium (theater) more times than he probably wanted to be, on account of Katie doing so dang much on the stage in one kind of performance or another.

Speaking of Paul, he's been away since Sunday at cross country running camp. We've been joking how it's not much of a camp since on the equipment-to-bring list, such items as TVs*, DVDs*, mp3s*, and video game consoles are some of the suggested items to bring! When I think of "Cross Country Running Camp," I think of marathon running sessions (literally!) and collapsing into bed at 6 p.m. after eating wads of spaghetti noodles. But there is really only 49 minutes of running per day. Otherwise, the schedule of activities has bowling, swimming, huge granite blocks of free time, pizza party, movie night, etc. Paul won't want to come home! But he is probably packing up his gear at the moment and getting on the bus to arrive home at noon.

Time for me to clean up. Fake child has been here since 6 a.m. and goes home in less than an hour and I want to NOT look like I have just rolled out of bed three minutes ago. At the very least, I need to change out of the pajamas.

*Do not even THINK about telling me that these words need an apostrophe before the "s." It is nails-in-the-blackboard to my eyes to see them apostrophized. An apostrophe DOES NOT mean "Look out, here comes an S!"

Comments

CindyInSanJose said…
I am SO with you on the apostrophes! Eats Shoots and Leaves! I kind of miss the school frenzy. When your youngest is a junior in college, it's mostly about writing whopping checks - not nearly so much fun as shopping for new shoes and jeans and pencils and pens and notebooks and neat things like protractors and compasses. Oh well. Enjoy.
Eats, Shoots, and Leaves is one of my favorite books of all time!

I think I'll still go school supply shopping even when the kids are all on their own. I love pencils, pens, notebooks, binders, and all those paper products!
Dennis said…
I know I should know this and I have an thought/joke/story rattling around in my head but I cannot come up with the story behind eats, shoots and leaves (I have not read the book but promise to do so) so please remind me. Losing one's (apostrophe?) memory really stinks.
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eats,_Shoots_&_Leaves:_The_Zero_Tolerance_Approach_to_Punctuation

A panda walks into a café. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and proceeds to fire it at the other patrons.

'Why?' asks the confused, surviving waiter amidst the carnage, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

'Well, I'm a panda', he says, at the door. 'Look it up.'

The waiter turns to the relevant entry in the manual and, sure enough, finds an explanation. 'Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.'
Jenni said…
I am guilty of apostrophizing. Sorry. I hang my head in shame. Maybe this is why I feel like I am lying when I tell people I'm an English teacher.
Jen said…
I'm an apostrophe user and proud of it! Good luck to all those kiddos of yours starting school. What a relief for everyone, I'll bet. Summers do get to seem too long. I know I'm feeling it, BIG TIME!
I've done the apostrophe thing too...even though I know it's wrong the apostrophe is there before I can stop myself! I haven't read the "Leaves" book yet but all of the ladies in my book club recommend it. Hey, Princess: Have you read "Goose Girl" by Shannon Hale? We are reading it for book club now and it reminds me of the stories you used to tell and the pictures of the princess you drew when we were younger.
LOVE Goose Girl! Shannon Hale is a favorite author of mine. She writes the kind of fairy tales that I wish I could've written.