Sistah Pat

Gimme a break.  I received a mailer from WKU yesterday about Student Care Packages.  Really kind of made me mad but tugged on the guilt mechanism anyway.  They’re aiming for 100% parent participation, they say.  Don’t let YOUR child be the only one who’s left out.

They want us to sign up to have “Care Packages” sent to the kids in the dorm at regular intervals.  There’s a Welcome Package that has some cereal bars, Pop Tarts, Popcorn and granola bars.  Of course, each package will include a “handsigned note from me expressing my love and support for my child”.

Then we have the “Out of the Blue” package that shows up sometime during the first semester.  It has Cheez-Its, M&Ms, Oreo cookies and MORE!

Don’t forget the “Trick or Treater”, Valentine Surprise, Move-In Mug, and the “Finals Event”.  All for the low, low price of $125.00.  OR, packages can be ordered separately for just $42.00 each.

Are you kidding me?  Of course it’s exorbitant but I got irritated with the way the thing was written.  Comments like, “We’re aiming for 100% participation by parents!  Don’t be the only one to hold up the show! and “We asked one resident hall staffer if students really get excited about the Care Packages, his response was ‘Definitely, but the worst part is telling a student they didn’t get a package.  They’re so sad!’”

The mailer finishes up by stating “They may seem like boxes of snacks, but to students, getting a Care Package is a big deal.  Unfortunately, it’s an even BIGGER deal if they don’t get one.  Nobody likes to feel left out.  They really do notice.”

Gimme a break.  It’s an outrageous price and they justify it by saying all the proceeds are used to fund activites for the students in the dorm.  So why do I feel like I have to do this?  grumble, grumble….Because I don’t want my Steven to feel left out.  What if most of the students really do get them and he’s one of the few who doesn’t?

Gotta think about that one.  One of the main benefits I’m hoping Steven will get out of going off to school is to become more social.

Went out to the pool yesterday afternoon aiming for 85 laps but then I thought that I really should do 90 just so I could say I’m working on getting better.  Then, when I got to 90, I decided that it was time to go for a nice round number like 100.  So I did.  I don’t think I’m going to add anymore laps.  It’s getting pretty boring and takes almost an hour.

Now I’m going to check out the garden.  I got my first ripe tomato yesterday, picked it, turned it over and saw a damn worm burrowed down in it.  I hate to use pesticides.  Still, we have plenty of green tomatoes and I’m sure they’ll start coming in soon.  For dinner, I picked corn on the cob, made zucchini bread for the family and made myself a salad using some of the zuchhini, yellow squash and a handful of pearl tomatoes.  Yeah, pearl tomatoes, we planted a couple of really unusual plants that produce tons of teeny little tomatoes about the size of a large pea.  Thought it would be fun but it’s kind of annoying picking enough of them to do anything with.

My, my…don’t I sound like an old scrooge today?