I fell old and crotchety in that "When I was in school the only fund raising we did was for extracurriculars like Girl Scouts and band."

Well, yeah, for band. We ate band fruit (not candy) for months. What sort of fundraising are you opting out of? (Surely not funds to arm the teachers.)

It is great, java!

I have no recollection of what we did after the AP exams. I know I took a lot of long lunches off campus. And then there was the senior skip day I inadvertently organized. I just invited under 10 friends to skip with me to go out to White Sands for the day and the full-moon night. Next thing I knew, about 100+ were pulling into the parking lot at the designated time. Eek!

It was fine. Did you know your eyeball can squish due to gravity such that your brain doesn't compensate? (Lying on my side on a dune, looking at the rising moon-still remember the coolness from the damp sand combatting the still heated air- the moon was decidedly squished vertically.)

Java, please give Karen and Buffy my best. I'm SO bummed not to be in California. I'm SO happy for them.

java, I am so, SO thrilled for B&K that I cannot begin to express it. Please be sure to pass my love and my good wishes along to them this weekend.

What sort of fundraising are you opting out of? (Surely not funds to arm the teachers.)

No, not arming the teachers, thank GOD. Jax is backwater, but luckily, not quite that far gone. It's whatever the hell the PTO is doing to supplement funds for the school. Thing is, we live in an area with fairly high taxes, with a great school system (Top 15% nationally) yet we still had to suffer budget cuts that have cut the in-school elective options and now require early release Wednesdays for the middle school in addition to the elementary school.

I shouldn't bitch much-- the kids are in great schools and they're going to benefit in a few years from going to a brand new high school that just opened this week. There's a lot to be said for that, but still, it chafes my knickers a wee. I'll get over it.

javachick, it was an amazing class. The 'Trivial Pursuit' just added the perfect final touch.

we even had light-up buzzers.

oooooooo, jealous!

"When I was in school the only fund raising we did was for extracurriculars like Girl Scouts and band."

Power to the band and girl scouts fund raisers! I sold more stuff for the two of those things than I care to remember. These days the band at my school seems to favor cookie dough, pizza kits and candles.

(Surely not funds to arm the teachers.)

Like I said..."The Lottery" and rocks, lots of rocks.

We did band fundraisers, selling Little Ceasar's Pizza at lunch. But any sort of PTA fundraiser would have failed, miserably. Too poor a community. My mom still spends oodles on supplies and she's not in a regular classroom anymore. That I make so much more than her, 11 years out for me, over 20+ for her, is just sad. And I could make even more if I were not in academia, and I don't have a Masters like she does.

In elementary/middle school, we had CCD fundraisers for church and band sales for (public) school, in which I remember selling citrus fruit and loads and loads of chocolate bars. In (Catholic) high school, the big fundraiser was the annual raffle ticket sale, which they finally in my sophomore year handed over to a very smart nun who came up with incentives that generated enthusiastic selling from us students. Namely, if you sold $20 over the quota of $40, you were able to wear jeans to the two weeks of classes we took at the guys school (while they shut down ours for the humungous fundraiser in which they turned our school into a series of nightclubs). More than that was other rewards, but just the chance of wearing jeans instead of the plaid skirts in front of the boys got just about everyone to sell those $60 of tickets.

Durbin is introing Obama now. There'll be a short video after, then he'll be on. Say about 5 minutes or so.

I sold a shitload of candy in high school, but I'm pretty sure it was to pay for my varsity jacket and senior class trip.