Day 94

The Girls Scouts are going to drive me crazy.

Check that– I am driving me crazy; the girl scouts are just providing this week’s vehicle.

I have spent the last two hours trying to find a second hand GS vest for my oldest child.  Given that the Girl Scouts have been around for ONE HUNDRED YEARS,  I really thought finding a second hand vest was going to be no problem.  I’m surprised I even started this early.

What I didn’t consider was each troop has a unique number.  The vest also needs a patch with the Council ID  (It’s really not worth explaining what that is) and all used vests have about a gazillion other patches ALREADY SEWN on them that will need to be removed.

If I even can.

I’m not sure.

I haven’ t actually tried yet. 

Ahhhhgggg

(That’s a glimpse at my internal dialogue)

As you can imagine, this seemingly simple acquisition has many moving parts.

This is even more annoying in that we have spent the last two years filling up a brown vest with patches and other brownie bling.  Actually, I haven’t even gotten all the patches sewn on from last year yet and now that vest is obsolete because she has moved up to the Junior level.   Not a thing on that vest can be reused, not even the troop number because it is printed in brown, which is so last year.

It is still early in the year, but after about three months of this, I am starting to see a pattern. So far, the major things like electronics, clothes and home furnishings really are not that difficult to live without or just live with what you have (of course, nothing major has broken, cross your fingers).    It is the little things that seem to be the most difficult.  The items that 95 days ago, I wouldn’t have even given a second thought to picking up at Target.    The  barbeque skewers, hair bands, lost swimming goggles and depleted sock supply are the things seem to cause the most daily frustration.

And, of course, there are the things that the kids NEED like thumb drives and Girl Scout Uniforms.  Which really, do they need?  According to the Girl Scout Council’s website– they do.   Which leads me to ask the next question, probably one more suited to different blog. What about girls whose families can’t actually afford to drop $50 on a “Brownie Starter Kit and sash”?  Are they excluded from scouts?

So, I finally bought a vest online and decided my temporary solution is to call her an “exchange scout” from Troop 1710 in Northeast Georgia. She’s going to have to start practicing her southern accent.