Vacation Time

I'm about to make my annual pilgrimage to the middle of America's Heartland. That's right, Bourbon, Missouri- about an hour out from St. Louis. A group of friends from around teh country get together there every summer. We go camping, canoeing, horsebackriding, play cards, play iPods and guitars, and of course, drink.

More importantly though, it's a time to cut loose from the grip of responsibility to jobs, kids, cell phones/pagers, and computers. Sixty of my favorite people in tents, cabins, and RVs for 3 nights 4 days. Hot weather, grilled food, laughter and hugs.

My car is washed, and needs an oil change. I've got my tent, borrowed a sleeping bag, made arrangements for the guinea pigs to be fed while I'm gone. I'll drive it this time, rather than flying. I plan to stop overnight Wednesday in IL, before going on to St. Louis Thursday morning.

I grew up in St. Louis. In North County. I left at 15 when we moved to Florida for my dad's job. I've never been back to the old neighborhood, or my old elementary school. I'm interested in seeing what changes have taken place in the decades since, and what memories come back to me. Perhaps some healing of memories as well. Things that have haunted me from my past can be reduced in size and importance. This is the reason I'm driving this time- well, aside from the fact that I hate packing camping gear and taking it through the airport.

I want no... need this time to get away. School's finally over for me for the year, and recently I've been hearing some things that perturb me. Things I really can't do anything about, but that just irk me, or make me mad.

For instance, I was talking with a parent about how some of the neighborhood families opt to go to a private school, or a more "upper class" elementary school. In her words (and her kids go to my school and love it) these other parents choose to do so because "[my school] is known for having kids from the projects." Yeah, we do have a high proportion of black students. I'd say 2/3rds. What burns me most about this though is that kids are KIDS. How can you say you don't want your child going there, when you don't even know what the school is like from the inside? When you don't see children of all colors and ethnic backgrounds (white, black, hispanic, Indian, Somalian, Ethiopian) all playing together and getting along and learning from each other. How dare you propagate your prejudices on your child when they could have the experience of learning open mindedness? It must be nice to live in your bubble and never have to interact with people in the real world.

The other thing bothering me is when parents want to rant to me about people I work for, or political situations they see at the school between administration and PTA and faculty. Dammit, I WORK THERE. I am not your best friend, I will not nod sympathetically and agree with everything you say. I can't. And some of the very things you rail against, I can actually see a reason for why so and so did this, or kept that hushhush. But that's not what you want. You want to put superlative intellectual spin on what you say and have me applaud your keen insight and wit and say "yes, you're absolutely right". A combination of "I just want to rant" with a "I'm so unique and have a great viewpoint on this so I know you'll agree". Normally I try to avoid these situations and conversations. I just didn't this time. Grrrr.

Is it time to pack the car yet?