Last summer, TeenHer went to sleep away camp for the first time. Not only was she at sleep away camp for the first time ever, she was in Minnesota, several hours and 2 long plane flights away from us. I wasn’t scared though because we have a friend who lives in Wisconsin which is like, right next door, who volunteered to do homesick-duty of need be. I shouldn’t have even worried about that, because TeenHer is so perfectly adaptable that when she called me from the airport less than 5 minutes after meeting some of the counselors for the first time, she shooed me off the phone within 30 seconds. “MOM! I gotta go!” (giggling in the background) “Really! I’m FINE! BYE!”
Sigh.
She was able to go to this awesome camp with a bunch of rich kids from private schools in Manhattan because she wrote the most awesome scholarship request. We kicked down for the plane ticket with the help of the lovely Aunt Erin, but we just couldn’t put together tuition for this place. Those Secular Humanists! Always trying to make a buck. To be fair, tuition wasn’t crazy. But tuition plus a plane ticket to Minneapolis was out of reach, so they let her in based on her aforementioned essay.
I was afraid that essay wouldn’t carry her 2 years in a row, and it looks as if I was right. I got word back that since they usually give scholarships to kids who’ve never been to camp quest before, TeenHer won’t be eligible this year-she’ll be on the second tier. Which means IF they have money left over after awarding scholarships to new campers, they might, instead of hiring some hookers and ordering from the liquor delivery place, let her come back to camp. If by the middle of June we can still afford a plane ticket to Minneapolis.
Our Plan B is Peace Camp. We can drive her to Peace Camp, and we can sort of afford the tuition. Plus Peace Camp is more fun to say than Secular Humanist Camp, isn’t it?
OOPS! Here I am again, bitching about money. It’s that 144 thousand dollars a day thing. I can’t get it out of my head. Every time I think “nah, I won’t order an employee meal from work, I have Michelina’s at home that was on sale for a dollar…” and Every time I wonder how pissed our kids are going to be when they get older and realize the tipping point was the birth of that third kid, that’s when things really started to go south and they stopped getting allowance because the stupid baby needed stupid diapers, or didn’t get to go to sleep away camp with their friends because that stupid BABY had to get stupid shoes…I think about how much interest 144 THOUSAND DOLLARS earns in a day.
When the revolution comes, that guy’s house is my very first stop, provided we can afford to gas up the van for the trip.
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