I was talking to my sister the other night, and she can tell you that my life and experience as a parent are the biggest form of birth control for her. After the day we had with Jessica on Saturday, and a lot of the things that we've gone through with the boy, any discussion I have with her often leaves her saying "I'm so not ever having kids."
Yesterday I spent the better part of the morning jumping through hoops trying to fix things for summer camp arrangements. Yes. I said fix things. You totally believed we had everything lined up. Ha!
I got a letter and a phone call Monday, both of which monkeywrenched my life.
First, the letter -- the cub scout camp cancelled the bus service for the next 2 weeks because only six boys signed up, and they need 20 to make it worthwhile. The week after next, Geoff is out of luck -- no bus. And there is no way I am driving like I did last week. If you remember, I spent the better part of last week driving. 20 minutes to camp, 90 minutes to my office, 90 from office to camp, 20 back to house. Four days of the week, and then Doug was able to get him in the afternoon last Friday, so I only had the 110 minutes worth of driving in the morning. I caught a break.
I called the camp and they gave me the names of three other campers in the area who were also taking the bus, and I decided I would call and make arrangements to carpool. I could take, if a parent could drive. The very first parent I called told me he'd take AND bring home, because he was staying at the camp as a volunteer, and it wouldn't be a problem to take Geoff with him.
Hallelujah.
He and I had a long talk about camp and life and living where we live and me working where I work and my commute, and he was tremendously cool, and it was awesome. So that problem was solved.
The phone call that I got Monday night was from the camp where I signed the kids up for the last 2 weeks of summer. They noticed I'd written on the application that I wanted Day Camp for Geoff. Well, they're not doing day camp, they're only residential. And they're rate is a lot higher than that which was listed on my form (which I received in the mail from them)... to the tune of $400 bucks a week. Gah.
Jessie still wants to go, but for only 1 week instead of two, which I'm feeling is fair because she really looks forward to going to this camp. Next year, she'll be too old.
So for one week I think I can push her off on friends, or take her to work with me for a day or two. But the two weeks in question are late in the summer, right before school starts, and I was wracking my brains trying to figure out what to do with the BOY. Every camp I checked was DONE by August 15th... and I'm looking at that week and the following week of August 22.
Then, it pops into my feeble little bear-like brain.
The YMCA camp Clayton used to work at, where he took Jessica for 2 years. Bingo. I found their webpage, the rate was the same for members and non-members, AND, on top of that, they have openings AND they're open that week. I called the camp and spoke with the director. I asked how long she'd been working there and she told me 25 years... so I asked if she knew Clayton and she did -- and we had a long lovely talk about how much fun he was there at camp. She totally remembers Jessica "How could I forget a big black man like him with a little blonde five year old girl hanging around with him!"
So we're in.
Flaming hoops? Pfth. Yeah -- life challenges got nothing on my phat, mad parenting skillz, yo.
Tuesday morning, my son got on the bus and there was only one kid on it. Sitting in the very last seat, all cool and having the bus to himself. What does Geoff do? Get in the seat WITH the kid. They were about the same age, and I bet that kid wanted the seat to himself, and is thinking "Dude, the whole bus is empty and you've gotta sit right on top of me???"
I'm going to have a little talk with Geoff about personal space and the unspoken rules of bus riding. I'm hoping this moring he sits in the row opposite.
On that note -- gotta finish packing up for lunch and getting the laptop into the bag. Have a good day you guys.
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