nixtress's Diaryland Diary

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Mild rants and peachy upswings

I signed on to chair Santa Shop this year. I'm rapidly coming to the realization that there need to be Lemon Laws for charitable actions.
See, I'm a PTO member (shaddup, I know. Soccer-mom extraordinaire, eh?) and at our last meeting, the president was lamenting how she would be unable to completely focus on Santa Shop (a week-long event where-in children bring in money and exchange it for cheapo gifts to take home and torture their parents, etc with) this year due to, well...being president instead of vice-prez.
No one offered to help. She continued, saying that if someone didn't step in to assist, we just wouldn't have it this year. Still, not a soul stepped up.
Finally, she sighs and says that since no one is able or willing to help, that it'll be cancelled, and with it, all the proceeds we use from it to fund school trips, etc.
At that, one of the other moms begins muttering and I decided I'd just do it. The only other committee I'm committed to is the one that audits the books twice a year so I figured...what the heck, right?
Ha. Ha HA!
In her description of what it would entail, said president left out that I would need to be glued to my cell because representatives would be calling 24/7, that I better have nothing else that week I needed to do because I would be cemented to the stage area where we put this on and unable to leave unless I was dying and being transported by squad, didn't mention that every psycho parent who decides to get pissy will be receiving my HOME PHONE and will then call me an average of 15 bazillion times BEFORE Santa Shop even happens...and did I mention that the psycho parent who's calling the most is Can'tEatAndCan'tPoopLady?
Yep. Lovely.
In all honesty, it's just shaping up to be a bit more than she described. I figured close to Go Time I'd have to do some cramming and would deal with some stress but not a month in advance.
Some of it is her fault---she's held off giving me the paperwork involved until the last minute and now I'm rushing, trying to get it all revised in time to make it to the printers. I have a meeting at the school tomorrow to sit down with the sales rep for the company that supplies us with the cheapo items we sell---why, I haven't a clue. During our 45 minute conversation (that consisted of him rambling, me saying "uh huh" about a hundred times) he keeps mentioning that since I'm new to it all, maybe he should drop in. I'm thinking...drop in to my HOUSE?
That was his intent. Not overly comfy with that, I set it up for the school instead.
All in all, if I survive past the second week of December with my sanity intact (or as intact as it gets), it'll be a Christmas miracle.
***
Bran goes to his dad's this weekend. I always hate that. The rules over there are just wopperjawed as hell. They don't make sure he takes his meds, they don't make him shower, his clothing comes back unwashed and ON HIM, his stepmother is a beast and about a third of the time, they fight until he ends up coming home early because she asks my ex to get rid of him. My ex has morphed into a spineless bastard who cannot seem to stand up to her (at one point, she gave him a choice between Brandon and her and the two children she has with my ex and he opted to kick Bran out) so there's no backup from his corner.
I encourage Bran to hold his temper and typically, he does very well. She's the one who can't act as the grownup and just deal with the situation. It's tragic because it's affecting Bran's relationship with his father in a big way.
The only saving grace to this weekend is that Brandon has talked with his granddad and he intends to take Bran out to celebrate his awesome report card, so I know that the weekend won't be a complete loss for him and he's looking forward to seeing his grandfather.
***
On a positive note, while we've had some snow spitting a bit, none of it has stuck. I'm SO not ready for snow yet.
We made it to the library tonight and everyone is flush with reading material again. That's always a happy thing, for me and for them. Books are for me like chocolate is to a cocoa nut. It's interesting to me to see how their interests move, change, and expand. Trev's on a sci-fi kick as well as finding everything he can behind-the-scenes moviemaking stuff (Star Wars, in particular). Ryan is favoring manga, anime, and choose-yer-own-adventure. Brandon's as eclectic as I am and reads all sorts of everything. He's begun venturing into the adult stacks now as the teen section is very limited in our little burg.
It's going to be interesting to see where he veers.
***
I hear my bed calling.
Happy Humpday.
N.

10:11 p.m. - 2007-11-07

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