7.23.2006

This One Time, At Band Camp...



JackMan left this morning for a week of sunburns, blisters, bugbites, bee stings, and monkeybutt. I'm so jealous! Biggy and I were both marching nerds, so I'm thrilled that, FINALLY, one of my kids is following step (even if he is in drumline and considers himself better than the band), and I can live it all again vicariously--the twelve-hour practices, the evening dances when you're too tired to stand, the cold showers at 5 a.m....

And I can't wait for Friday night football games, competitions and exhibitions...

Of course, in my enthusiasm, I lost a few mom-points before his departure. First, I fetched the big-ass suitcase from the garage and was sitting in his floor packing it when he walked in. You'd have thought I'd decorated his room in unicorns. Apparently, only GIRLS use large pieces of luggage. I was supposed to fit seven days' worth of clothes, towels, bedding, dvd player, toiletries, etc. in a smaller, less conspicuous bag--a duffle bag like those Lacrosse players in the A&F catalog toss over their shoulders while smacking each other's bottoms. THEN, he noticed I'd written his name--TWICE--with a sharpie on his 1/2 gallon thermos. He was mortified. Strike three came when I handed him the Target bag full of snacks I'd bought for him to take along--Little Bites muffins and brownies.

I hope he calls me.

14 comments:

minus five said...

dude, how embarrassing of a mom can you be?

writing his name with a sharpie? i would have never picked you as a mother who would do this to their child.

shameful, really.

my own mom wrote both our first and last names on our lunch sacks every freakin' day until some point in high school. that was only because i figured out a way to tell her, miraculously in a way she didn't deem insulting, that writing our names on our lunch sacks makes us look like dorks. i was already a dork. i didn't need help with my name plastered across a brown bag.

and snacks? that was a nice gesture and all. my mom never gave us snacks, so i would have liked that part. maybe he's at the age where he needs to pick out his own snacks. like some slim jims.

the suitcase. you never want to draw attention to yourself with something as large as a suitcase. or with anything that looks like it belongs to the family. he will probably also be embarrassed that you just told everyone you packed for him.

Tania Rochelle said...

He won the suitcase argument. He took two duffel bags.

As for the being embarrassed I told everyone, he knows only five people read my blog, and he doesn't care what you guys think.

Collin Kelley said...

Lord...I'm surprised you didn't sew his name into his underwear. Cut the cord, honey, cut the cord. :)

Tania Rochelle said...

We've already established that I can't sew!

Mary Campbell said...

I think it is kind of sweet all of those motherly gestures. I really liked how you compared suggesting a suitcase to painting his room with unicorns. That made me laugh out loud.

I think Sarah is just jealous that you haven't sent her a care package with special snacks in it. Maybe she'd like some Spam or Deviled Ham along with those slim jims.

minus five said...

tania doesn't send me anything. she can't remember to go to the post office. i am sad about this.

Tania Rochelle said...

It's not that I can't remember, Sarah. It's just that it's a multi-stage process that includes my driving around with the package in my car for three weeks.

minus five said...

exactly. its the same thing, really. i still get nothing in the mail. i've gotten used to this over the years, since i've never met another person who was as good of a mailer as i am. i love mailing things. i love buying stamps. i love to go to the post office. i also love envelopes and writing addresses.

Collin Kelley said...

I'd rather cut off a finger or two than go to the post office. Maybe they have efficient POs up thar in tha big city, but down here, it's nothing but long lines, indifferent clerks and people who COULD buy their one stamp in lobby machine, but want to hold up the line instead.

Anonymous said...

sarah, i'm going to mail you cigs. will this count as you receiving some mail if you are mailing me something in return?

Anne Elser said...

YOu sent regular kid snacks with him, right? That's not too bad actually.

When I was a kid, I was sent to summer camp with WEIGHT WATCHERS snacks.

minus five said...

collin: our post offices here are the worst i've seen and i've seen some bad ones in my time. i hold up lines to buy stamps because they have the cooler stamps behind the counter. i also don't like to mail my packages with the ugly scan code stamp equivalent. i like to have the exact postage in actual stamps. this makes the clerks even more mad. its all about presentation.

i also like to ask them a lot of questions. about the arrival time. the benefits of signature confirmation. things like that. if i worked at the post office, i would steal stamps. both postage stamps and their rubber stamps with ink pads.

tania's mom: cigarettes by mail counts as the best mail i could ever receive. let's home you're more dependable than your daughter when it comes to going to the post office.

Collin Kelley said...

Minus, you're the kind of person holding up that line that makes me homicidal.

Jason said...

I'm still hung up on the idea of taking a DVD player to camp? Isn't the whole point of camp to be away from that stuff? That's funny.

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