Week one of camp

Thankfully the volunteer camp the kids attended last week was a hit. Or not so much a “hit” as “tolerable”. Their only complaint, once the week was through, was that there was limited seating and no inside area with AC so they were hot. Both kids gave the camp a 5-6. So not in love with it, but didn’t hate it, either. It helped there were lots of older kids - I see plenty of parents don’t know what the hell to do with their young teenagers in the summer. Would I do it again? Probably, if only because I appreciated the mission of the camp - every day doing volunteering of some kind, whether building habitats at a local river bed or making toys for shelter pets - and it was shockingly cheap. I wasn’t crazy about having to make lunches every day or hustle out of bed early to get them to camp at 9 (and having to miss all my usual exercise classes that start at 9). But yes, I would consider having them go to this camp again. Who knows where we’ll all be a year from now, but I would keep it on my list of possible activities.

Next week we just have two days to kill before we leave on the cruise. So I’m in a bit of a holding pattern, not wanting to start any big projects or cook or buy food at the moment. I am planning on bringing my computer on the cruise, though - something I never do on vacations - just because most of the customer service stuff I’m required to do has to be done on a computer and I don’t want it all piling up. I’ll feel better if I can just complete a few minor tasks each day like I do when I’m home. 

It’s only weeks now until my event. Right now it still feels easy - I’m just plugging away at spreadsheets and group emails and customer service and small detailed decisions - it’s hard to picture how overwhelming it’s about to get. It’s easy to get fooled into thinking it’ll just stay like this.

Speaking of being fooled by things appearing a certain way, a friend of mine last night who works at a small floral shop told me she can see the writing on the wall of what’s about to happen in this country; their supplies are drying up, either from tariffs or lack of available labor, and her husband, who works at a plant nursery, says the same. Everything is running out. After heeding the call to “stock up” a month ago and yet seeing my grocery shelves still fully stocked every week, I had started to get skeptical that that tariff scare actually caused anything bad to happen (at least at the basic retail level - obviously small business owners feel it differently), but perhaps the worst is still ahead of us. Right now I feel like, at least in LA, the conversation has shifted from economic concerns to the ongoing terrorization of Latinos by masked ICE agents. That’s our main concern at the moment. The fear is palpable. I’m just so glad schools are closed for a couple of months so kids don’t have to go to school scared and there don’t have to be any more LAUSD-ICE showdowns. 

And the H just texted me that we just bombed Iran. Jesus Christ.

No Kings

Thankfully yesterday went off without a hitch. The No Kings march in downtown LA was the most people I’ve ever seen there (a far cry from the sad little 100 person protests I was going to back in February), and, until later in the day when some police violence broke out, completely peaceful. A few friends joined in at the last minute, so we had a nice afternoon of camaraderie and unity. It was great. And I also very much enjoyed the contrast of our massive protests around the world vs the sad, disorganized little military parade in DC. It was everything I could have hoped. For those of us feeling so powerless since November, it was just what we needed. 

We’ve completed our first “transition week” between school and camp - and it went just fine. Lots of preparation as far as lunch options (I don’t know why lunch is always such a black hole for me), good weather so we could use the pool, and still keeping up my exercise routines made the week go by fast. Bobby officially started Invisalign Thursday, so this is our lives for the next two years. He says he’s already wishing he’d gotten braces instead. I warned him all the tooth brushing was a pain in the ass. You do get used to it, though (I had Invisalign probably 20 years ago). I will admit, Bobby’s teeth are really crooked, way more than mine were at his age, so it really is best that we do this now. I just hope he stays vigilant and it all works out. The real test will come next week when he’ll be away from home all day.

Speaking of next week, tomorrow they start at the volunteer camp. This morning he asked me for more details, and when I explained what he’d be doing all day (building habitats, making disaster preparedness bags, etc) he asked, “are you sending us to a labor camp?” I said it’s a volunteer camp where you do things to help people and that you can’t just do things that are fun 100% of the time. He said he wants to just do things that are fun 100% of the time. So apparently he shares Viv from Spinal Tap’s life philosophy: “have a good time all the time. That’s my philosophy, Marty”.

I am definitely a bit worried about how next week is going to go. It’s that old parenting thing of how much do you allow your child’s complaining to influence what they do (as with our violin disaster). If they come home Monday and say they hated it and don’t want to go back, what the hell do I do with that…? I mean, I can always tell them they have to try it one more day, but it’s not going to be like the camps they’re used to where they just play all day. And Bobby, at 13, has to be a helper. Thankfully this camp is only a week. And odds are it’ll be fine even if they don’t love it. But I do have anxiety about it. I also have to make them lunches every morning, which does not thrill me. Oh well, it’s only a week.

In the meantime, my event looms just 2 1/2 months away, and I’ve had to start planning in earnest. Flights are being bought, rooms reserved, schedules arranged. I’m starting to relax a bit as far as financial fears. Things could still all suddenly go south at any point - especially if we end up in a war, or martial law is declared across LA, or whatever fucked up authoritarian thing starts happening. But as of this moment I have not seen a flood of refunds, and my numbers are keeping par with last year. I still need 300-400 people to make my mark, but past years have shown I always get those numbers in the last two months. So I’ve started to realize maybe, just maybe, we’ll be ok. 

Last day of school

Here they are, before and after! First day of school last August:

Vs. last day of school today:

It’s hilarious to me that Bobby is wearing a Devo shirt in both pictures. Ha!

You can also see the nerves in Bobby in that first picture. Boy, was that anxiety-producing, starting junior high! But thankfully it all worked out - he even ended up liking it better than 6th grade, because he had more friends there. Unless something dramatic happens, we shouldn’t have a giant transition like this again until college, after two years of upheaval in a row. Next year will be the same as this - Theo at the elementary, Bobby at the jr high; then Theo will move over to the jr high while Bobby stays at the same school for high school. I’m looking forward to only dealing with familiar environments going forward.

Something is afoot at Theo’s current school, though. His principal has been “on leave”, missing the last weeks of school, and I got a notice from the after school clubs coordinator that since the PTA vote was invalidated (huh?) there may be no clubs next year. There’s a community meeting about all this tomorrow night that I’m going to try to go to. It doesn’t really affect us, but I’d like to know what mishigas Theo is walking into next year. He still doesn’t want to go back to Mount Washington. Dammit. Also, their embattled principal is stepping down. There’s trouble in LAUSD elementaries, apparently. I’m glad Theo only has one more year. 

We went for our traditional Baskin Robbins treat after school, and now we sit around in days-old underwear with unbrushed teeth for days until their first camp starts on Monday. As usual, I switched off my weekly alarm with glee today. I am very much looking forward to not getting up at 7 for a while. It’s damned well uncivilized. 

In the meantime, Los Angeles became a major flashpoint in the battle against authoritarianism over the weekend while we were blissfully out in the hot desert. It was surreal and guilt-inducing to be so far away while just a couple of miles south of us in downtown LA violent protests broke out over ICE raids. The National guard was called in (against the governor’s wishes, which is illegal), then Marines deployed from, ironically, the exact desert city we were in (Twentynine Palms). Everyone outside of LA thinks we’re all living in chaos, but of course we’re not - it’s just the area around the detention center downtown and a stretch of the 101 freeway. So I want to emphasize that all this calling in of troops is stupid and unnecessary and just Drump trying to swing his (tiny) dick around, while also acknowledging that the people of LA, myself included, are furious about these bullshit deportations and just want our Latino friends and neighbors left alone and we really don’t give a shit if they’re here legally or not. So what’s happening here is very heavy - it’s been very difficult to focus on the gravity of the kids finishing another year of school and the work ahead of me regarding my event at this point; I just want to be in the streets with my fist in the air. I’ll get that chance this Saturday at the long-planned No Kings march, and, honestly, it’s probably going to be the most danger I’ve ever been in at a protest. I don’t know what to expect, but I’m ready for anything. My entire youth spent studying and obsessing on the horrors of the holocaust will simply not allow me to stand by while people are being rounded up and sent who-knows-where. It’s so true that whatever you wish people had done in 1930s Germany, you should be doing now. I have faith in our city, though. We’re huge, we’re diverse, and we’re not taking anyone’s shit. Viva La Raza!

Single digits

Theo had one big school project, a state float that he’ll submit for a little parade on Friday, left this year. Determined not to be stuck throwing it together at the last minute like I did with his Olmec diorama in the fall, I plotted it out, shopped, and spent probably $100 on art supplies. I had him do all the research, find photos of the necessary elements, and cut them out, but then I did the construction of the thing, which I made out of a shoe box and plunked on top of an 80s Barbie car I had bought them when they were little (both boys seem to think it was my childhood toy. It wasn’t). I bought a hot glue gun for the project, and I’m wondering where this thing has been all my life. What a marvelous invention! I’m going to have some fun with this. 

So I reserved all day Saturday for the creating of this thing (at least he got Louisiana which is super easy), and put finishing touches on today. It was a ton of work. But I feel pretty good about his level of involvement, considering. Tonight I made Rice Krispie treats for his class pot luck tomorrow. I’ve only made these a couple of times in my life, and I can see why - what a sticky, impossible mess making these things is! Ugh. But it’s all done now. Do I get a medal?

Every day Theo comes home with disappointing information about his teacher - she’s basically just showing them videos now, and he keeps bringing home all the textbooks and assignments of things they “never got around to”. Although I don’t really know the real story of what happened in that classroom, it makes me kind of pissed. They haven’t done any spelling tests for weeks, they’re not reading, and Theo hasn’t had any math homework in ages. 

All of this brought me to a thought - what, exactly, the fuck is the point of his staying at this school for 6th grade? There’s some kind of problem there - I keep getting calls about a “community meeting” to address issues at the school (what issues…?), and then today there was some hubbub about the principal being absent for the remaining week of school and the vice principal taking over. What? Theo’s been strung along being wait listed for the gifted program for three years now. He could really be at any school. So the thought occurred to me - why not have him back at Mount Washington?

I got all in my head thinking about this - figuring it shouldn’t be hard for him to get back into our designated school when all elementaries are struggling to keep 6th graders, and how the only issue would be pick up timing since they’d no longer both be walking to a library. However, I asked if he’d be interested in going back to his old school, and he said a definitive no. He likes his new friends and doesn’t want to be shifted around again. I asked wouldn’t he like to be with his old friends, but he still said no. So, that’s that. He’s old enough to make his own decisions about things like this, especially when there’s no clear advantage or disadvantage to either (neither school can get him in a gifted program). I have to keep reminding myself it’s only 5th grade - it’s not like much that happens this year really matters. Next year could be a whole different story. So getting to have the Mount Washington 6th grade experience was really my dream, not his. Sigh. 

In the meantime, we’re in single digits for remaining school days. After Wednesday, it’s all half days until their final day Tuesday. Then all of our lives change. I’m not convinced any of the plans I carefully constructed for the summer will actually be a hit. The new one week summer camp, the one where they do volunteer work every day, could be something they end up not liking and not wanting to go to. I may end up hating the cruise we’re doing at the end of the month. They both might be over the woke sleepaway camp. And Bobby is likely to not take to being a CIT at their parks & rec camp. I can see him being sullen and bored and not helping out at all; at the orientation meeting last week, many of the parents were up in arms about the presence of cell phones at camp, and although the camp can’t officially bar the use of phones, they can discourage them. So I’m just not going to let Bobby take his at all. I can picture him sitting in a corner watching TikTok all day with crowds of seven-year-olds leaning over his shoulder trying to see, too, and the parents losing their shit and getting him, and thereby me, in trouble. So, no goddam cell phones at camp. If he’s going to just sit on a screen all day I might as well have kept him home. So yeah, there’s a chance the kids won’t enjoy anything I have them doing all summer. Join the club, kiddos! Between every weekend ruined by my Knott’s gigs, the stress of my event, and the fall of democracy, the next three months ain’t gonna be a picnic for me, either.