Egging Me On

Our house got egged. I hate living in a neighborhood. It actually happened the other night, but I didn't realize what I had heard until a few days later when I went to open the window, and there's egg crusted to the bottom of it (I couldn't see it before because the sheers blocked my getting a clear view of the window). I was sitting on the couch, at about midnight, and heard a really loud bang on the side of the house, outside the dining room windows, near where our air conditioner is. It scared the shedoobie out of me, so much so that I actually froze on the couch and waited to see what was going to happen next. I had heard voices outside earlier, on the sidewalk, but didn't think too much of it. There was no other noise, and I didn't hear any more voices, so after a few minutes I wrote it off as a nut falling off the tree and hitting the a/c in the window, and moved on, albeit a little uneasily. Now, I can see that there's yolk splattered on the window, egg white dried in the sill, and an eggshell on the ground. Nice. Our house is on a corner, so it's an easy target. I'm also wondering if it was maybe some kids who knew the kids who lived here before us, before their parents split up and had to sell the house, like maybe blaming us for their friends moving or something. Hell, maybe it was those kids, themselves. Anyway, argh. I'm hoping that Halloween isn't going to be an eggfest at our house. I'll be waiting with the hose sprayer, I think, just in case. It's not like this isn't a nice neighborhood, but of course there are teenagers in all neighborhoods, so... argh. At least it was eggs and not rocks, I suppose.

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This afternoon, I have to go up to the school and do the annual walk-a-thon with the kids. Basically, the kids are supposed to get people to sponsor them with a certain amount of money, and then complete the walk (I think it's a mile for older kids, half a mile for the K kids). Of course, there are the standard ridiculous prizes for kids who raise the most, like a bike and a boombox (that I believe are donated), which basically just translates into the rich kids at the school getting prizes they don't need. Families with multiple siblings never win these things, because the monies are split between several kids so *those* kids can each get the lesser '$1-$10 raised' prizes so it's not one kid getting a goodie bag and the others not getting one, and kids with very small families (like mine when I was growing up), who have no one to ask for sponsors, are screwed too. I have a real problem with the whole prize thing, as you can tell. I think it's ridiculous to always have to have a prize, and it rewards the kids for.... what? Having parents that can get their friends to write checks? or that can write a huge check themselves? It's not like the elementary school kids are doing any of the fundraising themselves, because they're not allowed to go door-to-door, even if their parents would let them. So, the kids are getting rewarded for just showing up, which is what *all* the kids do, regardless of how much they raised. Plus, almost no one I know actually goes out and asks people for money - we all just write a check for whatever amount we can and suck it up. Everyone I know has kids doing fundraisers at this time of year, so if we all ask each other for money, it's the same thing as all of us just writing a check for our own kid, anyway. It'll be the same at Christmas with the catalogues. At least then, though, there will be an actual Thing they can purchase, rather than just asking for donations, which is what a walk-a-thon basically requires.

OK, that's the end of the tirade for today. Tune in tomorrow for more b*tching and moaning!