Public high schools in Florida have a fine arts credit requirement. When my son was finishing up his freshman year, he was not happy about having to take anything with the word "art" in it.  He begged to take something online so that he could take an extra science class.  Science was what his friends were into. He was so persistent that I actually went into speak to the Principal about allowing him to do this.  Despite that fact that this woman was in charge of 2100 young minds, she really thought about it, looked at his transcript and strongly suggested that he take his fine arts at school and not to take an extra science class. "It will be good for him" and she pretty much took about a huge rubber stamp and marked "Denied" on his request.

   At the time, I did not understand her refusal for more science. STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) is being heavily pushed these days. It seems that every boy is rushing towards this type of major in college.  The thought is that STEM is where the jobs are going to be. Even kids who are not "science kids" like mine, were feeling the pressure to head into this direction.

   My son wearily reported for photography the first day of tenth grade.  During the year, he not only learned about the history of photography and studied the masters, he learned about cameras, taking photos and how to develop black and white film in the school's darkroom. Near the end of the year, he decided to take Advanced Placement (AP) Photography during 11th grade. 

   During his junior year ,while taking this college-level photography class, he started running around with his friends on urban photo safaris. They are starting a photography club at their school.  Some of his photos were chosen by his teacher to be shown at art shows around town and entered into contests. 

   In June, as he was heading off to his old summer camp to be a counselor, he asked if he could bring his camera and help the camp photographer out. The camp said to bring it and maybe he could help once in a while during the summer.

  He's been at camp for a little over two weeks and taking photos every day.  Hundreds of his photos have been posted on the camp's website so far. Right now he is a "war" correspondent  (Color War!)  

Color War Breaks out with Plane dropping Team Assignments!

   I guess getting out of one's comfort zone is usually a good thing. This is motivating me to get out of mine but I'm not sure what I'm up for this summer. Any suggestions? I'm thinking about learning about wine or paddle boarding. I'll probably go with the wine.

     Happy Summer!

My boys are teenagers and embarrassed by the mere existence of parents. They HATE when I blog about them but they are gone for the summer and are not supposed to be anywhere near the internet. They will be mad at me when they get back.

Why you should send your school age children to sleep away camp...

Despite a little hiccup last week involving a kid at the camp infirmary, the first week of having no children in my house has been amazing.

Did we go to Europe? No. Did we re-decorate the house? No. Did we host elaborate dinner or cocktail parties for our glamorous friends? No.

What did we do for an entire week without minors living under our roof ?  Pretty much nothing and it was glorious.

No carpooling. No yelling. No breaking up stupid arguments. No mountains of laundry. I ran the dishwasher once instead of 7 times.  No $300 visits to publix. Sure I miss their little teenaged faces, but I know from past experience, that once they are home for five minutes, it feels like they never left.

The summers when my boys go to camp is a flashback to the early days when my husband and I were newlyweds. Luckily we still like each other as much as we did 20 years ago so it is joyful. I suppose if we were not getting along, or worse, it might be lonely. Fortunately, we are still kicking it as a couple so the month that the kids are not here is fun, fun, fun.

For example, my husband was home early tonight so we walked down the street to a Mexican restaurant and had chips, guac and beer (at 6 p.m. on a Tuesday night! ). If you don't have children living under your roof, this may not seem amazing, but trust me it is. During the school year,  6 p.m. on a Tuesday night is the bewitching hour and bedtime seems days away. 

I am enjoying the silence and respecting the lull (while simultaneously cruising the camp photo website to try to find a glimpse of either kid and then analyze the photo to death). Besides that little mental problem of mine and thousands of sleepaway camp moms, summer is delightful right now. 

News from camp...

Sleep away camp is the best! The best for the kids as they have so much fun. The best for the parents because they get a little break. HOWEVER it is not so fun when someone goes down for the count.

During my son's first week ever at camp four years ago, he broke his arm roller skating. My husband and I were adjusting to being kid free for the first time in ten years by hanging out in Vegas. We got the call from the camp and were horrified to find out they my little smooshie had a broken arm.  They were taking him to the doctor.  Luckily, it was a very minor break and they were able to put a waterproof cast on. After that,  I called the camp director every single day  for the rest of the session and was assured that he was fine.   The smiling photos of him horseback riding and being pulled on a tube by a speedboat were proof.  I figured that he would certainly be sitting on the couch with a broken arm at my house so camp was a great thing. He came back with a smelly orange cast with a million tales of camp life. He could not wait to go back.

Flash forward to  yesterday when my cell phone flashed the dreaded camp phone number. Uh Oh.

"He's fine", the camp nurse blurted out. It seems that my sweetie pie had some type of sinus thing going on. His eyes were red, his nose runny and a bad sinus headache. "We are going to take him down the street to the doctor to see if he needs anti-biotics." The one great thing about getting sick at camp is they take everything seriously. No need to start an epidemic like a few years ago when swine flu hit the camps hard.   "We'll call you when we get back. Let me put him on the phone for a second". 

 This is the other good thing about getting sick at camp, you get a free phone call (like jail). My camp only allows letter and one-way emails. No phone calls. Thank goodness because I don't think I could take a weekly call like this one.

My weepy teenager than told me that he wants to come home. He hates camp and is not having fun.  I wanted to curl up in a ball.  I tried jokes, I tried sweetness. All I heard on the other end was light crying.   He did not feel well and wants his mom. 

Did I mention that this one's nickname is "Johnny Drama"? Did I mention that he fools even me to believing that his is more sick than he really is? Did I mention that he faked a broken leg at age 2 1/2 so well that even the emergency room doctor could not believe that his x-ray showed nothing and it was not until my doctor-in-law told his to kick his hand that we realized that he was perfectly fine. 

The bottom line is that  right now, I have no idea as to whether camp really sucks, if he just feels lousy or something else. Up until the phone call, I saw a bunch of great photos of him with a true smile on his face. He looked fine. I have received no letters, so who knows?


It turns out, they think he is allergic to something. They loaded him up with OTC drugs and eye drops and sent him back to the cabin.  I'm hoping that he feels better soon but it was a hard day for me.