QUOTE OF THE DAY (OR MORE): "No, no. You don't understand. This is an '89 Calico. I'm pretty sure that exceeds the Kelly Blue Book value. The cat's totaled." --A comedian whose name I forget talking about a vet who presents a $3,000 bill for a 12-year-old cat

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Hello...McFly




Okay... so remember the list of cookware/bakeware items my 13-year-old was supposed to bring to school to make quickbreads with the other 8th graders?


Here it is again:


two 10”-12” mixing bowls

one set of measuring spoons

one fork

one set of dry measuring cups

one liquid measuring cup

one rubber spatula

one mixing spoon


I learned in a subsequent email from the teacher that the kids, who are baking in teams of two, could divide up the necessities between them. I was glad I wasn't going to have to label all that stuff... I mean think about it - labeling every measuring spoon and every dry measuring cup ... and not being able to get the darn masking tape off of the bottom of anything. I relaxed a bit, foolishly basking in the knowledge that our duty would be cut in half.


You see the foreshadowing here once again, don't you?


Last night as we were preparing the items to accompany him to school, I brightly mentioned: "oh - hey, buddy. Your teacher said that you could divide the items between the two of you; did you do that?"


"Oh yeah," he answers, my little McFly, "yeah we did."


"Whew," I sighed with relief. "How did you split it up?"


"I agreed to bring the first 4 items and she agreed to bring the last 3."


My first thought was: "Great; that's really fair..." and then my slight irritation increased as I gazed upon the list while juxtaposing the first 4 items on the list with the last 3. Go ahead and peruse the list again yourself.


No, really. Go ahead. I'll wait.






k. See what I mean?


Essentially my son is bringing everything while the chick brings 2 spoons and a cup.


I'm frustrated now because he didn't think this through, and this means my having to send him in with not one, but TWO large, heavy good mixing bowls... not one, but FIVE separate dry measuring cups, each with its own permanently affixed label to mitigate the urchins' "little to no recall [of whose items are whose] when it comes to which cooking utensils they took out of their bags less than an hour before," individually labeled measuring spoons (again - FIVE of them), and .. oh... a fork.


She's bringing 2 spoons and a cup.


I kept shaking my head, not really believing he hadn't noticed this disparity.


"Bud," I asked, "did you not LOOK at the list? Do you think it makes sense how you divided it?"


"um, nope," he answered. "I just knew there were 7 things on a list."


I smacked myself in the forehead and managed to calm myself down while tediously labeling 13 items.


Then... as we pulled up to school this morning for him and his brother to hop out, he whined: "how am I going to carry all of this stuff in?" - the stuff being his heavy backpack, an extra large binder and folder, his lunchbox, AND 2 large mixing bowls, 5 dry measuring cups, 5 measuring spoons and a fork.


I couldn't restrain the feelings which were lying dormant.


"Well gee, I dunno, buddy! Maybe you should have looked at the list before you decided to bring most of it!"


There was no way I was parking the car (I would be lynched for stopping where I was in the drop-off line and walking all the way to the middle school with him and back) and walking him in on a morning when I had no make-up (not a big deal, really, that one), my hair in a ponytail (again - part of my regular look), my pink, green and blue pajama bottoms, my non-matching hot pink slipper socks puffed into my heelless sneakers, my long-sleeved non-matching maroon Bay State marathon Tshirt (my favorite item of clothing now since I qualifed for the Boston marathon there... I never take it off), and here's the best: a hot pink (but different shade of hot pink than my slipper socks) scarf hanging around my neck. Wait. For you to really get it (split infinitive, I know) I'd better take a picture....



See? He was on his own schlepping all of that stuff in to school.



argh.


19 comments:

  1. just don't where that in the car on wednesday.

    love your sister in law

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  2. I have no idea if you realize how many sick people you are going to get here from Googling '2 spoons, one cup.'

    Like me.

    If you need this explained to you, I'm certainly not doing it.

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  3. I think you and I may have the same loungewear designer. (And similarly-minded 13 year olds...)

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  4. Ah! My favorite uniform for dropping kids off at school. Bra optional.

    Hope you get all your stuff back!

    And I'll be waiting for the "2 spoons, 1 cup" explanation, too.

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  5. OMG Your blog is great, and adding it to my bloglines.

    I ran Nike Full, and 4 Halves this year. I'm currently training for LA!!! Thanks for your comments.

    LOVE McFLY!

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  6. i thought i took those clothes out of your dresser while you weren't looking...did you go and find more?? my mcfly tried to take my porcelain measuring spoons that i picked up in LONDON... which i quickly snatched out of his hand as though he was a criminal... of course i only knew about the entire thing at 10 pm last night, par for the course.

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  7. This was especially funny because I could totally see my son doing the same thing!
    I sometimes wonder if girls are different...like, do they think things through?!?

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  8. This is how young boys learn to pay attention. Knowing those details would have improved his laziness quotient. Pay more attention = carry less crap.

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  9. Um...that's dressing up for me.

    Why in the world do they have to provide their own dishes anyway? (When me daughter left for college a roommate told her she was responsible for the MICROWAVE. (Later on I did find out they are pretty darn cheap at Walmart. They don't actually work, but they're cheap.)

    Sounds like a sweet boy, and mama, to me. :)

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  10. You just described how every 13 year old boy would have handled it! His partner was a G.I.R.L!! Come on now, Mom! He has already figured out how to be the provider. heeheehee

    How did you label a FORK?

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  11. Yeah. Nice look. ;-)

    As for the baking utensils, maybe you should told him he would be labeling them. He might have come up with a better plan.

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  12. That is entirely too funny! And you're outfit? Love it! I'm wearing PJ bottoms that are red, white, and pink striped. Hubby calls them my "candy cane pants". And my long sleeved t-shirt says "I've got the big one" on back. 100% class. Now, I'm off to run errands!

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  13. Come on, you mean you haven't learned that about guys yet? We don't read things in much detail.

    Well, except your blog, of course. Love that!

    Anyway, I'm with him. Four items on the list are four items on the list.

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  14. another reason for me to adopt a robot.

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  15. Maybe he was just being a gentleman. His partner for this project was a girl :-) So he offered to bring the big bulky items. I think pajama bottoms are back in style. I have been seeing lots of women wear those to the grocery store recently!

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  16. my suggestion - drop the class. seriously. we all know it will be his wife making quick breads in 20 yrs when he's married.

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