Yippee Skippee
Today The Child and I are going on one of our all-time favorite outings: it's time to buy school supplies.
I loved buying school supplies when I was a kid, I love buying them now. We will take the teacher's list to Office Depot and probably spend a good hour choosing just the right book covers and coordinating composition books. (We're trying a color coded system this year as The Child is organizationally challenged). We will linger over packets of markers and crayons, give thoughtful consideration to which folder looks to have the necessary staying power to receive the designation of "homework folder". While she is selecting packets of post-it notes I will admire the variety of notebook tabs and consider revamping my own notebook system. What is it about office supplies?
I worked for many years as an office manager. At the top of my game I was managing a staff of four and an overhead budget of $1.5 million. I learned to delegate and negotiate but I never, ever delegated the task of ordering supplies. I loved everything about it: forming the lists, perusing catologs, unpacking the deliveries. I reveled in the fact that the office "pantry" was never without a fine selection of writing pens, legal pads and notebooks.
It is one of the sorrows of my life that running a home requires far fewer office supplies. You need tape and glue, a box of paper for the printer and pens. The Child needs art supplies. But that' s pretty much it. Shopping for school supplies is the only way to satisfy my jones for supply purchases so it is a very big deal.
When we bring home the booty The Child will proceed to neatly write her name on everything. Then she'll spend a good half hour loading everything into her backpack so that it all fits just so. If I know her, once she's done she'll probably hoist the pack onto her back and leave the house just so she can come back in and say something like, "Hi, Mom, I'm home. Man, I have a ton of homework today!" Today homework is a game, not a mind-numbing chore.
There's so much promise in new school supplies. For now, back-to-school is about hope: new friends, singing in the choir, improving skills, falling in love with a new author. Maybe this is the year that the secret of some subject will be unlocked in a new way, igniting a passion that will serve for the rest of her life. The neat new assignment book with the puppy on the cover (or daisy or unicorn) is unmarked. The traumas and stresses of tests, reports and math homework are yet to come. For now we celebrate the sharp points of unbitten pencils and the creamy surface of fresh composition books. The joys and woes of the year are shrouded in mystery and maybe. There are still two weeks of vacation ahead and the biggest challenge The Child faces will be not cracking open that nifty new box of colored pencils.
I loved buying school supplies when I was a kid, I love buying them now. We will take the teacher's list to Office Depot and probably spend a good hour choosing just the right book covers and coordinating composition books. (We're trying a color coded system this year as The Child is organizationally challenged). We will linger over packets of markers and crayons, give thoughtful consideration to which folder looks to have the necessary staying power to receive the designation of "homework folder". While she is selecting packets of post-it notes I will admire the variety of notebook tabs and consider revamping my own notebook system. What is it about office supplies?
I worked for many years as an office manager. At the top of my game I was managing a staff of four and an overhead budget of $1.5 million. I learned to delegate and negotiate but I never, ever delegated the task of ordering supplies. I loved everything about it: forming the lists, perusing catologs, unpacking the deliveries. I reveled in the fact that the office "pantry" was never without a fine selection of writing pens, legal pads and notebooks.
It is one of the sorrows of my life that running a home requires far fewer office supplies. You need tape and glue, a box of paper for the printer and pens. The Child needs art supplies. But that' s pretty much it. Shopping for school supplies is the only way to satisfy my jones for supply purchases so it is a very big deal.
When we bring home the booty The Child will proceed to neatly write her name on everything. Then she'll spend a good half hour loading everything into her backpack so that it all fits just so. If I know her, once she's done she'll probably hoist the pack onto her back and leave the house just so she can come back in and say something like, "Hi, Mom, I'm home. Man, I have a ton of homework today!" Today homework is a game, not a mind-numbing chore.
There's so much promise in new school supplies. For now, back-to-school is about hope: new friends, singing in the choir, improving skills, falling in love with a new author. Maybe this is the year that the secret of some subject will be unlocked in a new way, igniting a passion that will serve for the rest of her life. The neat new assignment book with the puppy on the cover (or daisy or unicorn) is unmarked. The traumas and stresses of tests, reports and math homework are yet to come. For now we celebrate the sharp points of unbitten pencils and the creamy surface of fresh composition books. The joys and woes of the year are shrouded in mystery and maybe. There are still two weeks of vacation ahead and the biggest challenge The Child faces will be not cracking open that nifty new box of colored pencils.
cobbled together by Moi at 7:22 AM
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