Not so fast

September is here, a new school year is beginning and I wish I could hit the pause (or sleep) button.

This is Sassy on her first day at St. Kate's. Technically it was the first day of orientation - one of three - but when you're a college freshman I suppose this is good enough for your mother taking a first-day-of-school photo. She looks smart, doesn't she?! For many of you, this is the first look at the new "red" hair (it looks violet or fuschia to me). She met a girl from Sacramento in her The Reflective Woman class (sounds so "worldly") and they bonded over having tattoos in honor of beloved grandfathers who passed away.

This is Chunky's first day of 7th grade. As an "upper" classman, they have different uniforms than K-6. Instead of yellow shirts and navy pants, they have blue shirts with logo and khaki pants.

With logo emphasis is intentional. We have two options for purchasing approved uniform apparel - the store that's been in business since the '50s (both hubby and my mothers got their uniforms there as did we) or the national retailer. The "traditional" store is our preference ... it's local and has a sense of history/tradition ... even though it's further away than the national one. When we arrived on Friday at the traditional store to purchase uniforms for today (remember, the blog name is better late than never), we were told they didn't have shirts with logos. I figured it must not be a requirement and others would likely be without the logo shirts. So I bought 6 to get through at least the first half of the school year. Chunky and I talked about it this morning and I sent an email to the principal. This was her reply -

Traditional store does not carry our logo. The banded polo shirt with the logo is sold at National store. I am sorry Traditional store did not tell you this.

How is it the Traditional store's responsibility to tell me to go to another business? I was not a happy camper thinking I had to run around returning 5 shirts and buying new ones before tomorrow. I was afraid of this, but cautiously only washed one shirt for today and saved all the others in the bag just in case. I checked the laundry room ... no bag. I checked Chunky's room (which I try to avoid at all costs) ... no bag. I waited for him to come home to hear how his day was and demand the bag before running errands ... shirt rigmarole, meds and groceries. He began with a story about the bus driver "taunting" him (his word!) by picking someone up a block south of him, turning down the street across from where he was and then coming back to pick him up, only to drive down our street after he'd walked a block and a half to the official stop. Needless to say I'm faxing in a "request for bus stop change" tomorrow so he can get picked up at the end of the driveway. I then asked him for the bag. Uh, I threw it away. With the shirts?! No, I took out the shirts. I forgot you might have to return them. I was livid ... they're $20 a shirt! I told him it was coming out of his allowance. Hello?! We talked about it this morning! I am considering being passive aggressive and not getting new shirts. I paid for that negative energy ... ran errands only to find the pharmacy lost the prescription refill Chunky needed for tomorrow (called in 5 days ago) and the grocery store filled with crazy people ... me included I guess. I should have gone back to bed after sending them off to school.