Back To School

It's BACK TO SCHOOL TIME!!!

Horns! Confetti! Plaid pleats! Groans! 3-Ring binders!

Flipping through the local news I read that the Outlook on back-to-school shopping good so far. The things you learn as a parent, I suppose I always knew, but I never knew that stores were relying on this income. Jimmy is coming off a 2-week preschool vacation and starts a heavier courseload this week, and I'll tell you how much we've spent on his back to school shopping. $$ZERO!! I suppose that's not unexpected seeing as Jimmy is all of 3 years old, but now that I think of it....I did get him $8.50 worth of juice boxes at Sam's Club. Hmmm...we all know that juice boxes are primarily used for school lunchboxes, there's a whole industry on school-related products. The backpacks, the sandwich bags, the froot snax, the ice packs, the thermoses, all with kids themes. The foldable sporks, the crosswalk STOP signs, the special buses, the schoolyard equipment, all items created for the child who leaves his home every morning, never mind all the trapper keepers and galoshes and crayons and shitty left-handed scissors that kids could use from home but are nimbly accepted as "school supplies." The system is so suffocating, all these "wholesome" items are just part of the big swindle of The Man to continue to keep us giving the rich more of our money and thus keeping us down, and working. Can I tell I watched a Michael Moore movie in my sleep the other day?

On a lighter note, Jimmy sincerely loves school. I mean, it's preschool, there's no actual "courseload" it's a bunch of kids playing around. Without Mommy. But that's ok, because who woulda thunk that having 3 hours to go to Border's by yourself would be....so....divine. Ahem, but really, how many times can you go to Border's every week, the system isn't actually wholly divine for me, there have been a number of bumps in the road (wtf is this blank 'communication notebook' for, you teachers!!) but "at the end of the day" <--I hate that phrase, except in this case, when I tuck Jimmy in at night and I ask him if he's ready to go to school the next day, and the eager eyebrows go up and the cutest little head nods, I know it's a good thing.

BUTTT, since I saved so much on Jimmy's back to school shopping (and thanks to Daddy for snagging a Thomas backpack at Goodwill last spring), I have an extra $25 floating around to fetch me a brand new pair of back-to-school Contact Lenses tomorrow morning!!! I can't wait, I only hope our living room Emmy festivities tonight don't result in the same kind of ocular pain I subjected myself to the last time I went to the eye doctor.