The current Washington politicians make me long for a political coup. Let's start this bitch over. I'm so sick of all the fighting and picking on issues that are done (Gardasil and Merck? Is that the best you got, Michelle Bachman?). We know Rick Perry can be bought. We know he doesn't believe in the "united" part of the United States. (We really should have allowed Texas to susceed from the Union when Perry proposed the idea. It would have been the last we'd heard from him.) And the guy with the 9 / 9 / 9 plan? From my angle it looks like 666. All I want is the government to get out of my pocket and my life. Stop telling me how to live it. How much do I have to pay them to leave me alone? That's all I want to know. My daughter's in middle school, I have ENOUGH people with their hand out.
And speaking of that...
In the last four business days, my daughter has asked for $65.00 for school-related issues. That's a little excessive if you ask me, especially when I've had no notice of these things. First she wanted money in her lunch account, although at the very beginning of the school year (a mere three weeks ago), she said she only wanted to pack her lunch. Awesome. Saves me $12 a week and she eats healthier fare from home. Well on Friday, she wanted money for occasional lunches, so I wrote a $25 check. On Friday afternoon she brought home school picture information that was due today. I struggled with this decision for a while. I didn't buy them last year because the school changed from a photographer that did a stunning job year after year and who has contracts for all the schools in the county, to some local idiot that can't compose a picture to save his life. (The Spring pictures had backgrounds of leopard-print everything (for the mascot), but it looked like some creeper's basement and the resulting photos like kiddie porn test shots..... disturbing.) With everyone having camera phones and all the shots the teens and parents post on Facebook, who uses real pictures anymore? I haven't developed a photo in over two years. I don't plan on it any time soon either. My mother has been cleaning out her albums and sending over tons of pictures for me to keep. God, I hate when people try to move their shit into my house. Sorry mom, but they've mostly gone into the trash. I keep one or two photos of the people that have meant the most to me. I don't have the inclination to store them on a closet shelf for 10 years before I look at them again. If it's taken me that long to want to see them again, I bet I don't care about the damn things.
So my daughter whined until I caved and chose the school picture package she wanted. Thirty fucking bucks for 11 pictures. Highway fucking robbery. Notice, that we had to pay for the pictures before seeing the pictures, something that Lifetouch NEVER made us do. So if the local yocal screws up the fucking pictures, you're screwed. Nice gig, if you can get it.
Monday, she brought home a permission slip for a field trip that was due on the same day the picture money was due. So now I'm looking at $10 more for a field trip for my daughter to watch some damn Civil War reenactment. Are you kidding me? She wouldn't go to this if it were free and in our livingroom. Dude, the Titanic sinks, ET goes home, the North won. Thanks for the update. The school, in its infinitive wisdom had to get a GRANT to cover the cost of the bus trip. Really? A grant. The kids are using history textbooks that are 11 years old; 9/11 isn't even mentioned and they want to use grant money to see a Civil War reenactment? Could they maybe, look around and find a grant to cover the costs of new textbooks?
So in my wallet wisdom, I cut back the picture package. Ten bucks isn't going to break me, but it's the $25 + $30 + $10 + $___ + $___ + $___ that is. I don't know what she's going to ask me for next week. This school, at some point, will send home a request to take the kids to Washington or New York. By then it will also be candy, popcorn and candle time; or track season, Spring pictures and yearbook costs. I'd be happier if the school would simply say, "this year is going to cost you $1000; here's your payment coupon book."
As a nursing school professor once berated me for not going through the pinning ceremony and walking for graduation (both had associated costs) by saying "you should do it for closure"; my reply was "I'm getting closure-- I'm closing the wallet."
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