What ever happened to camp for the sake of having fun?

For years, I did the whole summer camp thing. As a kid, summer camp was a time to chill out, make some new friends and really get away from the brain-drain that is acadamia. As an adult, working camp was a change of pace for me and again, getting away from rigors of brain drain. Plus, I got a decent tan sitting by the pool as a lifeguard. Can’t go wrong there!

 

So, this year, I think for the weeks that Isaac is off from his morning program summer session, we’re going to give him that break. He’s entering kindergarten, so a lot of places will take him at this age. Really, we’ve only got 2 weeks to account for this summer. And yes, I could so take those off, but for cripe’s sake, Isaac does tend to go batty, and does tend to need SOMETHING.

 

So, I started scouting out programs, because around here, if you don’t scout them out now, there’s most likely not going to be any room in them by the time you get around to May. So, as I’m going through the flyers and things and have noticed something that slightly alarms me-

 

Camps are now trying to compete with each other programming wise-who can have the biggest adventures, who can have the most dare-devil, high adrenaline experiences.
Really? What ever happened to having fun? Whatever happened to general camp programming? Why is it now all about the adrenaline kick? Even for FIRST graders, there is a general atmosphere of “adrenaline rush.”

 

Whatever happened to summer camp to turn off your brain and do things that are fun? Yes, there needs to be an element of trying new things-but for cripe’s sake-whatever happened to the good ol camp overnight to try your hand at cooking over an open fire? Why does it always have to be the high ropes course?

 

I don’t know. I just don’t know. I really want to know where having fun for the sake of having fun went.

Monday Mornings-Post last shift

I’ve been asked by a few people if I’m ok with not working at the ‘bux anymore. Frankly, I can’t be more ok with it after what happened this weekend. I’m now glad to have the weekends to myself again and not doing a straight 6 day week. I don’t have to deal with post menapausal women on power trips and then the people who have been there so long that they just don’t want to anymore. I’m seriously glad I’m done. I won’t have to endure the yahoos of the world aruging with me about a .30 syrup addition and their cards not working because they forgot to reload them.

It’s been a wild ride, and would I ever go back? Sure. Fast paced, hectic, hilarious-I’d totally go back. Would I go back to my old store? Probably not unless a few people were gone. There are enough stores in the area that I can find one that I would fit in with.

It’s not the end of the world. Frankly, the more I think about it, the less of the end of the world it is. I was really sick of black and khaki. Really.

Party questions-what’s a mom to do?

Since the announcement that darling child wants to have a birthday party and all of the reasons that it just is seriously more practical than tromping around my dinky little excuse for a house (that I’m still bitter about. no, don’t tell me to get over it. I just am. So there.), I’ve wavered back and forth on party packages that the place we’re going to offers. 

Since I’m holding the  party from 1:30-3:30, there is question 1:

Do we do pizza or not? Two of the  packages come with pizza. If we did do the pizza packages, we wouldn’t be eating said pizza until 2:30. All packages come with popcorn and soda or juice for each kid. Plus, we’ll be doing cake-I’m really debating on the ice cream. I’m thinking NOT.

Question 2:

Goodie bags-Do I make them myself or add them on? This place will do what they call “deluxe goodie bags” for 3.00 each. At this point, I have absolutely no stinkin idea what’s in these suckers, so I don’t know if they’re WORTH 3.0o each. I know for about the same, what I could do…but that leads me to this question:

the top package has a free return pass for each kid. Is that worth the difference in price? Oh-and I asked and can’t add those on without getting that top package. 

 

Question 3:

when I asked Isaac who to invite, he didn’t list anyone from his morning program..Do I ignore that fact and roll with it, or ask if he wants to invite a few kids who he’s been with for a few years?

 

Oy. my head’s going to explode. 

So, help me out, bloggy peeps! A tired, coffee-withdrawing mom doesn’t know WHAT to do!

And I thought I’d seen the be all and end all of stupidness

Just when I thought that working at the ‘bux and teaching had shown me all of the stupidness that life had to offer, I find something else that tops the list. 
So, here’s what happened. 

 

Last night, darling child of mine announced that he wanted a birthday party. I had not planned on this. It was going to be a similar thing to last year, where we take a friend and do something special. Then, a few other factors came into play, and a full out party became (believe it or not) the most practical thing to do. 

So, I go and order a cake. I hem and haw and hem and haw. I settle on Speed Racer.  Cool beans. This cake has the Mach 6 and Racer X  on it in a race scene. COOL. 

So, since Doug wasn’t with me when I made this choice (I was coming home from Faith Formation day. The store was on my way home…) I pulled up the design to show him on the computer.

The place that was selling the decorator kit had the following disclaimer on it:
“Icing and cake not included.”

 

Yes, you read that right. Icing and cake not included.

 

Yeah. Really?

 

This is just a seriously sad state of affairs when this has to be said outright. Really sad.

Green Apron Tales-I’ll do what I please. So there.

We’re down to 1 shift left. Frankly, because of the way this all went down, I’m just over it. Seriously over it. 

So, since I’m that over it, I’m in “I’ll do what I please” mode. I’ll say what I want, not care and go from  there. It works for other people around the ‘bux and they seem to all get stellar performance reviews. 

It floors me that some of the things are ok. For example, I worked a 4 hour shift yesterday, and I saw FloridaShift (who was in micromanage mode) on the floor for all of one hour. She spent the rest of the time in the back doing the pastry order and taking her sweet time on the banking. She even had the NERVE to tell me not to tell people I got fired. 

 

Umm. Really? 

 

yeah. I’ll do what I please. My information, My life, my tale to tell customers if they ask. Plus, to make matters worse with that statement, she had the nerve to say she didn’t know what happened to me, and it was her role as a supervisor to make sure confidential information didn’t get out.

 

Umm..yeah. Whatever. She needs a grip. 

 

So, in the vein of “I’ll do what I please,”  I told her exactly how I felt by being treated like one of her kids. NO THANK YOU. 

 

and technically, I didn’t get fired.  I pulled my own trigger, because Big W couldn’t. So there. Plus, when my child asks me when I have a  day off, you know it’s time to cut back. So there again. 

 

But, all is still insane at ‘bux. Vetchick came up with one of the best cup codes EVER.

A guy came in, orders a Carmel Apple Spice. Technically, the cup code for that is CAS. 

Vetchick wrote CRAP-CR=carmel, AP=apple. 

So, guy’s drink was labeled CRAP. 

 

Absolutely best.code.ever.

 

So, one more shift to go, and it’s all I’ll do what I please. Should be hilarious, as Vetchick says!

For cripe’s sake.

I’ve always known my darling child had a defiant streak. It has manifested itself in a lot of different ways over the years. Now, he’s into the “uh-uh, nope, I don’t want to” stage. Lovely. Fun, fine. All sorts of well and good, until it comes down to testing.

So, yesterday, Isaac told me that his teacher was testing him. Fine. No biggie. Happens every year. Well, I found out this morning that he was being defiant on several items! So, that would affect his scores on the testing.

 

Now, the director told me that they’ve never had a kid just go “Nope.” on a test. Never.

 

well, they’ve never had Isaac!

What scares me about this is that the idiot patrol that is the school district I live in has Isaac pegged for a specific classroom WITHOUT SEEING THE TESTING RESULTS! This plus what I’m hearing frightens me greatly. They are avoiding seeing him in action, and I’ve been demanding an integrated classroom, but they are actively avoiding that.

 

Really?

 

So, it’s either integrated at the public school, or I’m sending him to a local private school. I just cannot allow a self contained classroom.

 

For cripe’s sake. Why can’t this be easy, and why does all this drama happen (as always) before my birthday so I’m stressing? ARGH.

Green Apron Tales-A victim of the economy

So, as everyone knows, the economy is in the toilet, thanks to our last president. So, I was wondering when it was going to hit me here in East Nowhere.

 

Well, it finally has.

 

With my availability, I meet the requirements for employment with the ‘Bux, but Big W was told by our regional manager that one more position needed to be cut. They cut my running and screaming partner…and that guy. MP transferred to Hawaii, the shift who trained me transferred to CT, and that left just me with the low availability and the possiblity of being cut.

 

So, after hemming and hawing this week, I came to the conclusion that Big W couldn’t pull the trigger. He’s totally not comfortable with letting people go, especially if their performance reviews are good and they are decent employees. Yeah, that’s the category I fall into.

So, I pulled the trigger for him. I figured that I’d save him the awkward moment of letting me go, and just do it for him.

 

So, we’ll see what happens from here. I’m totally re-hirable, and I’ve got one more week of slinging coffee after this one.

But what I can say the bright spot in all of this is-I can finally have a few days off and stop working 6-7 day weeks. AND I won’t have to deal with the warming oven.

 

There is another adventure in the wings, but I’m not going to say anything about that until everything is locked, loaded and ready to go.

ok, so Slumdog Millionaire I’m not-I’m more of a Bend it Like Beckham Girl..

I’ve been trying to find a workout that I’ll stick with. I swear, some days, I truly think I have ADD. It  could be all of those speddies I worked with for years, but I’m not sure. A lot of things that people find interesting, I find disgustingly boring. Seriously boring. So, when TheAngelForever decided to start working out, and found something she liked, I figured if she could do it, so could I. 

So, I figured I’d try what she fell in love with, which is Walk Away the Pounds.  Here’s where my workout ADD comes in. About 1/2 way through the one I found on Exercise on demand, I was completely bored out of my tree. Seriously. Kick, kick, kick? Really? Umm. yeah. Sure. Ok. Not for me.

So, as I was parusing the categories on the Exercise on Demand, I saw “Dance Party.” For those who don’t know, I danced from the time I was 3-4 to the end of junior high, when my life became too crazy, and the dance studio I was at went competitive. I just didn’t want to move studios a second time, so I just quit.  I was praying that the category wasn’t loaded with “Sweatin’ to the Oldies.” I couldn’t have taken that. I would have had to take all of my workout mojo and throw it out the window. 

So, I’m paging through things…and I see things that look interesting, including chair dance, aerobic strip tease (no, not kidding…seriously. I still may try this one, just to see what the whole deal is..), salsa and something called “Back to Bollywood.” 
Hrm. My interest was peaked. 

Turns out that this is a preview of the Masala Bhangra workout that is basically Indian dance from the Punjab region of India. COOL!!! Seriously Cool!  This whole workout has gotten a huge boost from Slumdog Millionaire.  I did the one on exercise on demand, and was loving the instructor, Sarina Jain, and was laughing my way through the sucker. She’s hyper as all get out, intense and hilarious. When the instruction is “Shoulders up and down like you’re saying ‘I don’t know what I’m doing!’ ” That’s something I can get behind! Turns out she teaches classes in NYC. Hrm…

 

So, I went on a quest. A quest to find more of this workout that made me want to get off of the couch. Turns out that no one in the stinkin area carries the Masala Bhangra Workout DVDs. I’ve been to Buy More, Target boutique, and WallyWorld. Figures. I’ve got to order these suckers…and in my whole ADD state, if I don’t jump on something, I’ll just forget it all.

 

So, I was totally pleased when I paged through “All Star Workouts” On FitTV and found a Masala Bhangra HOUR workout! Woohoo!

So, after slinging coffee, I came home and pulled the workout off of my DVR and did it. 

 

Umm. Yeah. I have muscles I didn’t know existed. I seriously was having a total blast of a time, and it was the most awesome workout EVER…but now, Oh, my lord. I’m SOOO sore… 

 

But now, I can dance like Bend it Like Beckham! And I’ll be back for more. 

 

and maybe, just maybe, that stripper workout. Just for the whole shock value.

 

Still don’t get it? Here’s some video of  the whole thing on the Today show. There is video of Hoda and Kathie Lee doing it..and that’s just frightening. Don’t go there.

Fred the Pig

This is Fred. 

Fred is a pig that lives in Isaac’s room. 

Let’s discuss my insane child and Fred. 

One night, he was in his Batman Pajamas, and he came out carrying the pig. The 3 Kings left the pig in Isaac’s shoes for being a good boy. 

I said :
“Oh look! It’s Batman and Piggy Wonder!”

Isaac said:
“No, this isn’t Piggy  Wonder!”

I said:
“So, what’s your pig’s name?”

He said:

“Fred.”

yeah, Fred.

Now, Fred is not your average pig. Fred barks. Fred likes to eat broccoli.

 

See? told you my child is nuts.

 

wonder where he gets it?

An Open letter to the Entity that controls the weather

Dear Entity:

This year, you are just ducky (so far) in my book. Please keep it that way. The warmer temperatures are just so nice, and ducky. 
Can we keep it this way for my birthday? Please? Is it too much to ask?

 

thanks!