Two packages of stickers, twice a week
You’d think I’d’ve been more interested in saving money for the [expensive] private liberal arts college that my beach urchins eventually attended instead of spending approximately ten dollars a week on stickers. You know the kind. Cute little aminals and things, sometimes sparkly or metallic. They are in the greeting card section of the store. Even though I would always get bored when I was a kid and I went downtown with a friend who just had to read all of the blasted greeting cards… Even though one of my great aunts would slip little pictures of Jesus or scriptures (actually I’m not sure what) in the greeting cards at the grokkery store when Radical Betty took her shopping… I get easily bored with the greeting card section of the grokkery store. Or any store for that matter. But somehow, whenever we passed the greeting card section, I would always buy stickers.
Once upon a time, when I had two tiny little children and worked an intense and beloved part-time job, I had a *routine*!!! Yes, I did. I worked afternoons 2-7 and every Tuesday and Friday morning, I would load the urchins into whatever vee-hickle I owned at the time and we would go to the Westgate Kroger. I would almost always have a long, detailed list of whatever provisions we needed to get through to the next grocery trip and although there were more interim emergency grokkery trips than I care to remember, that schedule usually worked. I know there are lots of mooms who get their babies all cleaned up and dressed for an outing and somebody poops or vomits copiously at the last minute and the whole dern thing gets derailed. I can count on maybe one hand the times I had that happen to me. There were the usual meltdowns sometimes when we were out (I *had* to cry [don’tcha know]) but we *usually* managed to get out and back without any major body fluid explosions. I am not the best of mooms and I don’t have any secrets, I was just lucky and yada yada. ’nuff o’ that.
I went to the Westgate Kroger on the way home from work today. We needed milk. I *hope* the GG didn’t put the milk that was in the refrigimitator into his cereal yesterday morning because boy-oh-boy was it sour! I know he didn’t put any milk into his cereal this morning because I dumped the bad milk yesterday and we didn’t have *any* milk this morning. I bought milk at the Westgate Kroger today. Since the Plum Market has opened up, I don’t go to the Westgate Kroger any more. Not very often. Today I was in there and I was in a time warp thinking about buying stickers for a 2-year-old and the time (before I had kids) when a guy was trying to hit on me by asking me if I was “into” amulets or if I was a “lady” minister! Kee-reist…
And, yaknow, I might be richer if I hadn’t bought all those stickers all those years ago but it sure was fun and, in the long run. it all worked out and we managed somehow to send our kids to that [expensive] private liberal arts college *anyway*, even though I had quit my [beloved] part-time job by then and didn’t find/pursue another well-paying job until *after* one of the urchins had graduated from college. Go figger. And I don’t have a conclusion here but this is a blahg and I don’t need one, yada yada.
G’night,
KW
May 27th, 2009 at 8:31 pm
… the milk was sour… ?
May 27th, 2009 at 8:35 pm
We were into collecting Beauty and the Beast cards and some stickers. Are private liberal arts colleges expensive? Our two are a graduate of and a student of public universities. (which seem pretty FRIGGING expensive to me, and getting more so…)
May 27th, 2009 at 11:22 pm
The Red Wings Won!
May 28th, 2009 at 8:55 am
We sometimes did the fancy stickers from the greeting card section. However, one long car trip to Michigan (or Texas?), I got a package of the colored dots that you might use for garage sale prices from the office supply store. Way cheaper and lots more stickers. I had pads of paper too, so they could make designs with the dots. The dots also ended up on the car seats, the upholstery and the back windows. I believe when we donated the Honda Wagon it still had a few random dots on the back windows. From stickers to sticker shock at ANY university! I’m glad our kids have all turned into such interesting adults.
May 28th, 2009 at 9:24 am
I do need to make the disclaimer that most private colleges give substantial scholarships to almost everyone. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t be able to cultivate anything approaching a diverse student body. Also there are those damn loans.
As for those who drink sour milk, I have no words…