Soapbox

Ciao, Cara mia

So I’ve got this kid…
…and tomorrow morning, bright and early, she leaves on yet another school trip abroad- this time to Italy and Greece. Ok, first of all, the only trips people in my school went on (you know- "back in the day") was to Washington DC for 2 whirlwind days. Ted and I put off our 20th anniversary trip to Scotland indefinitely so we could pay for college…and apparently, for her trip to Italy and Greece. Well, you want your kids to have things you never did, right?

The child, to her credit, has earned half the money for the trip herself this time. That’s a LOT of lawns mowed, children babysat and dogs walked. Let me clarify that: she earned half of the cost of the ticket. The cost of the trip keeps mounting!
First there are the clothes. I would not have expected her to need that many new clothes, since she has a closet bursting with perfectly respectable clothes, but such is NOT the case. We recently were informed that the kids are not allowed to wear jeans at all except on the planes. It seems they don’t want them to look "too American".
Now this makes no sense to me, since I expect half of Europe to be in jeans, and I don’t think American-ness is a thing you can disguise in a chattering group of 50 kids, all commenting that the Vatican is, like, really awesome, you know? But there you have it: only skirts or "slacks" for girls. Katie is NOT the slacks type, and skirts are cooler anyway, so I suggested that she let me make her a few knit skirts- something that won’t get terribly wrinkled. I have a whole store of fabrics and patterns to choose from, but no- she is not the knit skirt type either, she informed me.
So we went shopping.

Katie now has several nice cotton skirts that will be so wrinkled that she will look like she just crawled out of bed in them by the time she gets off the bus in the morning, but she says she doesn’t care. Oh, but she decided she needed slacks too, after all.
So we went shopping.

One hundred and thirty dollars later she had a pair of linen slacks (augh! wrinkles!)…and new underwear, because you don’t want the customs guys pulling open your suitcase and finding your favorite superman panties with the waitsbands all wanky, now do you? And "better" shampoo, and a top to go with one of the new skirts, and a universal adaptor so she can take her hair straightener along. Yes, she’s content to be one giant wrinkle, but God forbid her hair curl!! Oh, and a new pair of pajamas, because the old ones are a bit ratty. Who would ever see her in her ratty PJ’s besides her roommates, who’s pajamas are probably ratty too? Best not to go there. New PJ’s went in the cart.

Now I know you’re probably wondering, "Who’s the parent here?" but if you knew Katie you’d know, when it comes to me buying her stuff- SHE is. She smiles and gets all excited and tells me all the reasons why she needs to have what she doesn’t really need at all and I just laugh and buy it for her most of the time. Good thing we usually shop at Target where I can afford to have no spine. Hey- she’s my only girl, and my baby. I like to make her smile and call me "the mom of moms".
So I shrugged and thought "It’s only money" but really- it was only part of the money. Two days ago we were back to Target to the tune of $107 because she realized she needed another pair of slacks and some trial size bottles for her carry-on luggage, and…honestly, I don’t remember what else- I just pulled out the debit card.

I was hoping that in exchange for my largess I would at least get to help her pack- you know, have some bonding time and share in the excitement. Yesterday I was informed that her boyfriend Jason is coming over today to help her pack, because after all, Mom, we’re going to be apart for 10 WHOLE days, and we only saw each other 3 of the last 4 days, and… Wow. A 16 year old guitar-playing boy is more interesting than her mother. Who could have seen that coming?
But lest you think that I have no further role to play in all this other than getting her to the bus on time (they’re taking a charter to the Cincinnatti airport for reasons known only to the tour company) I did get to do all her laundry last night which, despite my reminders, she forgot and left in a pile on the floor of her room until the last minute. And this morning when I was at the grocery store she called my cell phone to tell me that she needed a travel sized bottle of contact lens solution, and some travel packs of tissues, oh, and a little bottle of ibuprofen and some of that Airborne stuff because she feels like she’s getting a cold.
I have just put my debit card in my pocket instead of putting it back in my wallet. I am pretty darn sure that I’ll need it again before tomorrow morning!

Ciao baby girl!