Thursday, September 07, 2006

Looking forward to my day off...

I know this may come as a depressing shock, but with the advent of my quest for the title of master, my blogging time capacities have diminished as of late.

However, with the return of scholarly servitude comes the juvenile excitement of once again looking forward to pursuits of higher meaning... new clothes, new school supplies, new friends, new topics of learning.

My favorite part was always the school supplies. Much, much could be said about my passion for all pens colored, for all stationery flowered, for all erasers and rulers and protractors and .05 m pencils and magical pencil cases that hold twenty writing utensils at a time. It must be a genetic thing, as Asians are known for their stationery/bookstore prowess. I went to Target a few weeks ago in eager anticipation of the back-to-school stockup. Did I really need ten one-subject notebooks? Of course not, but did the shrink-wrapped package for $2.75 sell me? That it did.

I have to say though, that the ultimate apex of school coolness was my trusty Mead Trapper Keeper, sixth grade. Oh yeah. I had reached the top.

So, friends, what was (or is) your favorite part of going back to school???

9 comments:

Unprofessional Chef said...

I'm not sure if this was the case in everyone's school, but in high school they would send us our schedule of which teachers and classes we would have about 2 weeks before the start of the semester. Getting that and musing over the coming 4 months was always the best part about back to school.

Anonymous said...

Jen: This quote from a certain movie sums it up (I think you know which one I'm talking about :) )"Don't you love New York in the fall? It makes me wanna buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address."

Anonymous said...

This kid in my Chinese class has a trapper keeper and it made me realize how much I missed mine from 4th grade.
I must say that back to school supplies aren't my favorite thing. Since my birthday is at the beginning of the school year my mom would always get me back-to-school supplies and clothes for my gifts. However, all my other siblings got them anyway, so I always felt kind of jipped. I will say this though, there's nothing like a new box of 64 Crayola crayons.

Asian Keng said...

I was in the same Spanish class with the same hot dude from seventh grade through senior year. It was fate.

JimR-- You are so cute. Almost as cute as your wife. For your sake I'll say that movie line is *obviously* from Black Hawk Down. And we've almost finished the bucket of caramel corn! Thanks again!!

Handsome Rob--To relive the childhood experience, I bought a box of 64 crayons my freshman year of college. Eight years later, I still have it. No joke. It's wrapped in duct tape but it's sitting on the bottom shelf of my bookcase. You can come out to DC and see it sometime...

And where is my public apology?!

Anonymous said...

Don't Asians like to roll with the Hello Kitty stuff? Like, those frog-type pens and pencils and notepads? Or, whatever? I forget the name of that frog character, but he was quite popular, if you will. Will you (Tippin)?

Michael said...

Well Master, I like learning new stuff but not sure I want to go back to school.

Madam Meg said...

You still have the magical pencil case? That was the most fascinating thing ever.
Anyway, now that I suddenly have about a dozen kids, my favorite part of back-to-school time is that THEY GO BACK TO SCHOOL. Ahhh, peace and quiet at last... at least until the baby wakes up.

Dani said...

I have two favorites from B2S days. 1 -the back pack and 2 - the lunch box. The journey from Oliver and Company in 1st to maturity and coolness w/ pre-ordered initials from LLbean in HS was precious. And the Lunchboxes-Thumbelina, Smurfs, Superman, Probably a Barbie something or other(though i hated Barbie, my mother often insisted i did SOMETHING girlie-so the lunch box won over actually playing w/ the girls at recess). Then came the paper lunch bags! Known for smushing and crumbling all things tasty.

Asian Keng said...

Megs! I put that reference to the magic pencil case just for you. I pulled it out last week and marveled that it was a) still in existence and b) carried just as many pencils as before. Truly, Mary Poppins could do no better.

D-- Lunchboxes were the coolest. And LLBean! I only gave up my LLBean bag (from the 8th grade) on my mission when it grew an exorbitant amount of mold in Taiwan. It was a sad parting...

CJ-- My blog is fueled on the inspirations and wits of others. Thank you for contributing. Apoplectic always makes me think of popping purple veins... and I'm no pedant.