From the get-go this semester will be incredibly busy for me. But here's the secret - I'm so excited. I haven't been this excited about the start of school for a long time. I feel like that little girl who played outside on an August evening but was happy to come inside as twilight set in, "because it's a school night." Before taking my bath, I sat in the middle of the fish pond. Yes, we had a fish pond in our house. There were no fish in it, just a statue of a naked boy. It was the 1960's when the house was built, and I think it was supposed to be elegant, but in a household of nine and a dog it just became the place we threw all our stuff - backpacks, leashes, balls, etc. Anyway, each August it got cleared out so we could put all the school supplies there, and I sat in the middle of all those notebooks, folders, and pencils and fingered them, decided which colors I liked best, and soaked in the promise of these office supplies - the new knowledge and new experiences of a new year.
I've gotten to the point, now in the *mumble-mumble* grade (one of the niephews once asked me what grade I was in; I declined to comment), where buying new school supplies seems silly. Nonetheless, I bought some of those new Sharpie pens and a new pack of purple G-2's, because it just seems sad to start a new year the same old pens. I also took some time on Friday to put together a new "lunch box" for myself.
Was there anything cooler, anything else that made you feel more like one of the "big kids" than picking out your first lunch box? It was a huge right of passage. It meant you were going to school *all* day and you, in fact, would need to eat your lunch there. My lunch box was pink with My Little Ponies on it. I later found the exact same lunch box at a Goodwill, in mint condition. As cool as it is, I couldn't quite imagine myself carrying it into EPB on a daily basis and placing it in the fridge in the grad lounge. But since I want to start brown bagging it more, I felt it was time for something cooler than a plastic Fareway sack.
What I really wanted was a bento box, but I was also feeling cheap about this whole venture. Then I stopped in the N.L.'s dollar store on Friday, and I found a larger plastic container that would nicely hold some of the smaller plastic containers I usually pack the parts of my lunch in. I probably could have left it at that, but I decided the cute factor wasn't quite there yet. Plus what about my silverware? Or my napkins? Or my water bottle? So that night I whipped up a little fabric bag to put in all in. Now, if I was smart, I would have lined said bag with a waterproof material, but I figure it's all cotton and washable, and again, I didn't want to exert too much time or money into this project. But still, it's cute, no?
So now I'm ready for the hectic new year, cute "lunch box" and all. A certain someone in our house, however, is not ready for school to begin. Sully was not a fan of being left alone while I was at new teacher orientation last week. In fact on the second morning, as both Ben and I ran around the house getting ready, we spotted Sully sulking in the living room. He had his Kong tucked under his chin, and when we came into the room, he looked at us like, "Dude, if you're going to leave, fine, but you are *not* leaving until you fill this thing up with peanut butter. Got it?"
I guess we all need our start-of-the-school-year treats, don't we?
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