On Thursday night Cam's middle school play, " Bugsy Malone" opened. I had requested to work days at "un-named retailer" so that I could volunteer for the evening play. This is the type of thing that I love. It's a lot more fun to volunteer and be a part of activities than just to buy a ticket and be a bystander. So, I volunteered to work the bake sale and ended up the popcorn machine expert (think Sky Mall popcorn machine). And it gave me an opportunity to meet other parents, which is something I desperately want to do.
Ok, now I can share some crazy parent stories.
On Friday night when I got there the After School Program Coordinator told me that my partner for the bake sale had called in sick with a fever of 102 F so I would have to work the booth myself until the student volunteers arrived. Ten minutes later a woman was at the bake sale table setting out cookies and cutting bunt cake into slices. She said she had not been feeling well earlier, but wanted to stop by to at least get things organized. WHAT? She called saying she was too sick to work, but somehow she mustered enough energy to come to the show and put her germy hands on all of the cookies and slice cake with her bare hands. That was so wrong.
Another parent is a pastry chef and baked several types of cookies. Yes, they were delicious, but she made special signs to go next to her cookies ($1.50 each) whereas all the other home baked and store bought items were $1.00 each. Hey, these are middle school kids, they don't have discriminating pallets. The $1.00 cookies flew off the table and I was left to reduce the cost of the gourmet cookies after the show trying to get rid of them.
And then there are the helpers who are in denial of the "clean-up". They show up on time and work the bake sale and/or ticket booth, but then after the show they are in a rush to go, leaving what could have been a 10 minute clean-up with a full crew to a 30 minute clean-up for the few hearty souls that stayed behind to finish the job.
No parents volunteered to sponsor the after party, so two days before the show the director sent out a plea for the parents to pull a party together using the school's ballet studio as the party place. So we scrambled to get the party pulled together with one parent donating balloons, the pastry chef volunteering a sheet cake, a variety of parents donating everything from Christmas lights (for mood) to chips and dip, and the usual crew volunteering time and clean-up. It was actually a lot of fun. Being that it was an after party for a school musical you can imagine the party: dancing, musical chairs, and recapping songs from the show. I think the kids all had fun and I got a lot out of it as well.
And of course after three days hanging out with other parents I got the scoop on who is still married, who is divorced and why, what kids and/or parents had meltdown when the high school admissions list were posted, and what families to steer clear of. New York is a huge city broken down into small towns.
Bit by bit, life in New York City is beginning to feel normal. .
Hey, Sadie just choreographed and co-directed a middle school production of Bugsy Malone, Jr. Guess gangsters are in the air.
ReplyDeleteI guess parents are the same everywhere. I always wish I were one of those people who rush in after these start and out before it's over without a second thought of guilt but I'm not. And those of who aren't can be picked from a crowd by the volunteer roundup crew! I hope you didn't tell them your catering experience because you'll be doomed! Or- maybe they'll hire you to coordinate these party things...
ReplyDeleteMary