The First Step

Today was DD's kindergarten orientation. We went and sat in the school gym with all the other kindergarten kids and moms/dads, and then the kids went down to the kindy rooms to play with the teachers for a bit while the principal talked at us. (Not a typo, by the way.) An hour went by, the kids came back upstairs, there was a glorious reunion for those who'd been led out through curtains of tears a little while earlier, and then a whole bunch of us went to a local pizza joint for lunch.

There are going to be 50 kids in the kindergarten this year. Forty of those are siblings of older students in the school. About 20 are siblings of kids in my son's class. Lots and lots of familiar faces. And because we've all done this drill before, there was just about no sadness from the parents, even when the principal gave her annual speech about how this is the first step our kids will take towards marriage and not needing us anymore. Bring it on, sistah.

Here's the thing about sending one's kid to private school in an area that doesn't generally lack for cashflow: there's a lotta bling floating about. For a confirmed Target kind of girl like me, that translates to a whole lotta intimidation. Me and my Levis and my Life is Good T-shirts tend to hang out near the back of the crowd, while the Gucci and Chanel-clad put-together moms who really do dress like this just for carpool thankyouverymuch congregate toward the front.

They're nice people. Really and truly, they are. They just look very, very nice. Like TV news anchors. All the time.

DH was away this weekend, and DD and I did a leetle shopping. Nothing terribly fancy--Kohls took care of most of it and a lucky yard sale find sealed the deal (hello springy Coach bag for $12! NOBODY TELL!). But I filled a bag with some trendy tops--those trapeze kinda things with the fancy stitching and all--and a pair of oversized sunglasses that everybody seems to be wearing.

So today, I showed up at the kindy orientation wearing my stylish new duds. The sunglasses stayed home thanks to day 2 of a monsoon (first person to yell drought this summer gets smacked), but the top and the bag made their debut, with some brown boot-cut pants I already had and some boots.

It wasn't huge. But it was enough to give me the confidence to plop down in the middle of everyone and smile and say hello, and then to socialize through the crowd at lunch. I met some new people who were super sweet and who I can now approach at carpool in my T-shirts and faded denim without feeling so much like a troll talking to the queen. A small investment, I think, all things considered.

DS is going to kindergarten. But we both learned today.