Pencils and Notebooks and Glue—Oh My!

At 5pm on the first day of school, I was out buying school supplies using ten different lists that C&T brought home. When I made it to the register, I balanced three piles of crap on the counter and said, “I’ve got one word for you.” The checkout girl (in pigtails!) smiled and raised her eyebrows, waiting.

“Condoms,” I said.

She laughed, but I was sort of serious. For one thing, I hate shopping, especially for necessities. For another thing, those three piles marked the second round of supplies I’ve bought this year for C&T. As first-year middle schoolers, they need everything, which makes supply shopping a little overwhelming—particularly when you’re buying for two and they kind of have the same schedules except not.

The first round of supply shopping from the “generic” list required a trip to the school and two office supply stores: agendas; gym clothes; combination locks—two each plus an extra for Clyde (for band); calculators; #2 pencils; colored pencils; red, blue and black pens; erasers (two each but they came in packages of three); two glue sticks each (except my choice was a package of two with a large, useless bottle of liquid glue or a package of one million); pencil caddies; a protractor and a compass. (In the end, I bought three compasses, since Clyde lost the first one somewhere in his room . . . so not worth the search!) (Read Full Story…)