Back to school...supplies

Aaaah, it's that time of year again. The time when we pull out the supply lists that were sent home by the kids' teachers and hit the stores. School doesn't start here 'til Sept. 5th but I was determined to not wait until the last minute to do our school supply shopping, again.

SO I head off to the store with the kids in tow. They are actually really eager and excited about this particular shopping trip as they carefully choose what color notebook to get and so on. They are also quite enthusiastic about choosing items NOT on the list but we stick to the list, with the exception of some extra post-it notes for me. (I LOVE post-it notes and consider them a mild indulgence now and then).

Anyway, you're probably wondering where this story is going. Warning: it's not going anywhere, really. I'm about to just start ranting and raving so you can stop here if you want.

Here's my complaint: WHY is it impossible to find these things on the back to school lists? Do the teachers all get together and try to figure out how to make it really hard? I know they're overworked and underpaid...are they trying to make me miserable out of revenge?

As you can guess, I couldn't find everything on the list. In fact, I could only find about HALF of the things on the list. Mind you, I was at Wal-Mart, not Macy's. I don't expect to be able to find these things at Macy's or Nordstrom's, but I do think I should be able to find more than half at Wal-Mart!
So today I made the grand mistake of going to a different Wal-Mart to get the rest of the list. I mainly chose this Wal-Mart because a) it is the closest one to my home and b) it is in a predominantly Orthodox Jew area and thus, this Wal-Mart is practically deserted on Saturdays.
SO, I'm walking up and down the school supply aisles tracking down the remaining items on my list. This time I am prepared with a complete itemized and categorized list so there will be NO confusion as I am shopping. HA.

Peter's list requires TEN jumbo sized glue sticks. First of all, there was only ONE at Wal-Mart. Secondly, it was $1.88. I'm supposed to buy TEN? That's like twenty bucks worth of glue sticks! NO flippin' way am I spending that much money on glue sticks. I select 20 regular size glue sticks for $4 and move on. His teacher will just have to DEAL with it.

Caleb's list calls for 2 Vis'a'vis wet erase fine point marking pens, any color except yellow. This is now the 2nd store that I can't find these pens. I don't even know what they are! What's a WET erase pen? I know what DRY erase markers are but those are listed further on down his list. Finally I googled it when I got home...they are transparency writing pens (pictured above). Of course. (?) Duh. Like anyone can actually know that.

Sam's list included an 8 pocket folder. I looked and looked to no avail. How the heck can a folder have eight pockets? I finally called Steph who explained it to me...it's one of those accordion style file folder things that closes across the front. AHA! I think to myself; I CAN do this (with a little help from Steph). I find the darned things only to find that they have SEVEN pockets. What does this mean? Am I supposed to buy two of them so he can have an eighth pocket? Is this teacher trying to kill me? I stagger around until I find some more folders. Can it be? Do they have eight pockets? My heart pounds in anticipation as I examine the folders. NO! Alas, they have thirteen pockets! By now I am sniffing the rubber cement and dry erase markers and so I figure thirteen pockets is better than seven and throw it into the cart.

I still haven't found the wet erase markers or even, GET THIS, notebook paper but I won't bore you with the rest of the details. In fact, I won't tell you about the THIRD store where I finally found the erasable black ballpoint pens. I also won't tell you about how Steph is actually having to mail me 5 black and one red marble-front composition books from Oklahoma! If anyone happens to have 2 Vis'a'vis wet erase fine point pens (not yellow!) that they want to send me, I'll gladly pay you Tuesday.