Thursday, March 27, 2008

Dispatches from the schoolyard

I just reserved a date for Ben's birthday party at that garish Charles E. Rodent arcade place. It'll be a joint party with one of his friends who also has an April birthday. Yes, the site is loud and horrible to behold with one's eyes, but it entails so little effort on the part of the parent, my dominant lazy gene appreciates the Rat.

The other kid's mom was telling me today about a party her kid was invited to a couple years ago. The venue was Chicago's Navy Pier, and they were going to see Spider-Man 3 and eat at McDonald's and whatnot. And...the hostess informed the invited guests that she'd be needing $55 in advance from each kid ($75 per adult if they wished to accompany their kid). Can you imagine? Planning an expensive party and billing the guests up front? I'm not sure if anyone actually went to the unfortunate boy's birthday party.

This week's school newsletter mentions a child named Treasurer. Is that not the most awesome name ever for a kindergartner? I hope Treasurer doesn't turn out to be a sloppy money manager or an embezzler. (I also hope it wasn't a typo for Treasure, because that's not nearly as funny as a six-year-old Treasurer.)

One of Ben's classmates is named Windy. His parents came to Chicago from the other side of the world and named their son after the Windy City. True story.

5 comments:

Krupskaya said...

A friend of mine, a teacher, had a kid in his class named Nemesis.

Narya said...

Oooh, krupskaya, that's the best one yet!

The Absent Minded Housewife said...

When I gave birth to the last one the OB nurse asked what we were going to name him. I told her "Ryan" and she replied, "How will you spell it?"

I told her "The usual way...How many ways can you spell Ryan?" She said, "You'd be surprised".

So when I was looking at the hospital's baby book for the week of Ryan's birth, I laughed because the day before baby boy Rhyunn was born.

Baby boy "Maverick" was also born that week. I laughed and laughed about this until I learned that baby belonged to my neighbor just down the street. I knew we were due at the same time, but we'd never talked about baby names. Oh lordy, I'm glad we didn't.

E. said...

Treasurer. Oh please let that not be a typo. Too awesome. Though Nemesis is pretty damn good, too.

I had a friend in second grade who wanted to grow up and have a baby girl so she could name her Saliva. I told her it meant "spit," but she said she just thought it sounded pretty. Wonder if she ever made good on that one.

bitchphd said...

Ah, Charles E. Rodent. Have fun!!