Retail Therapy

What I'm supposed to be doing this summer:

1. Working, again, for a church-based Louisiana Department of Education Tutorial program. I still have to cook for the kids some days (37 of them), but I can't lie--y'all know I like the grocery shopping and meal prep. I just wish some parents would come volunteer to help fix plates and serve lunch (my cousin J still does). And, as many of our parents are poor, they haven't been able to begin making the food donations we asked for, so we've been buying stuff to feed them. I'm not exactly swimming in money, but my parents, as usual, donate as well, as does my cousin who runs the program and one grandmother who has two children in the program. Plus, some of our parents were waiting for Friday (payday) or food stamps (the program began at the beginning of June, before many received the monthly allotments), so I expect donations will go way up this week. I feel like the state should find a way to help us feed these babies, but oh well, my community will make it. One week down and three to go, but, I'm working with my sister (who really is a good teacher), so yay!
2. Prepping for two new classes, one of which I have never taught and the other I haven't taught in nine years or so. TWO NEW PREPS! And I think I'll have two new classes in the spring as well (one of which might be about the 1960s, so, again, yay, but grr!)
3. Catering my first ever wedding reception. More about that because I need input. I am too excited.
4. Moving five people out-of-state. Who the hell can pay for the U-Haul gas?
5. Redoing some interviews and interviewing some more women from scratch for my dissertat- erm, manuscript.
6. Cleaning out my office from this one year visiting position.

Having begun approximately one of those things, I figured I deserved a break :-). We went out of town this weekend and one of the places we stopped was San Marcos, TX, my second visit to some mouthwatering outlet malls. I found the girls some shoes at The Children's Place and some summer outfits for my son there, some shirts from the Converse store (my kid loves Chuck Taylors and I like that they come in so many colors), and a couple of things at Journey's Kidz.

No, I did not go to the Lane Bryant Outlet. I did ponder what to get Alex for her long overdue graduation gift. She has a newly developed fondness for rainbow merchandise that proclaims her lesbianicious-ness, so I looked at these:

But couldn’t get Coti or her to answer the phone in time enough to tell me her size.

And then I went to the Coach and Dooney & Bourke outlets. I will not lie. I am a purse freak—I love me some Coach bags and my sister has two bad ass D & Bs. So, the two things I won’t have buyer’s remorse over:

My new black one.

What my sister and I decided to get Alex.

Now I'm back to work on my list... soon as I catch up on my blog reading :-)