It Seems Capitalism is Alive and Well

Don’t you worry.  Obama’s not going to bring socialism to this country.  Here’s your example of how capitalism is alive and kicking (as it turns out, my ass):

Saturday I took the kids to a birthday party at a local indoor playground.  Only Edison was invited, but Manfrengensen was out of town, so I took the other two and paid for them to play.  The girl behind the counter asked what exactly I wanted to pay for, and after a bit of back and forth, we determined that I would be paying for the soft playground as well as the “ball blaster” area, kind of a ball pit on steroids.

So the girl asked how old the kids were, and I told her five and three.  She said I would have to go into the ball blaster area with the three-year-old, so I said fine, and she said, “It’s four dollars for you.”  Seriously?  Like I was dying to go into that germ-infested plexiglass bubble? Like it was going to be some kind of fun for me to be in there with a bunch of pre-pubescent kids hopped up on cake and junk food, shooting foam balls at each other with air-powered canons?  Was she for real?  As it turned out, she was, and I had to pay.  I mean, The Princess was bound to follow her brothers in there, so I shelled out the four bucks.

But then, when I tried to go in there with her, another girl stopped me at the hanging plastic curtains.  “You need to take off your shoes,” she said with about as much enthusiasm as anyone who had to spend eight hours in that kind of environment could be expected to muster. As I began to remove my relatively-new, black suede Mary Janes (and oh, did I mention that it started to rain torrentially while we were at the party?), she said again in her zombie-esque tone, “No, you need to have socks to go in there.” When I told her I didn’t have socks, she said that I could pay $1.50 for them at the front. This time she pointed to the front desk area, lifting her arm slowly and not much unlike the un-dead would.

And I’m sorry, but F- that. This place wasn’t getting another dime out of me, not because I was cheap, but out of just plain principle. I’m all for capitalism. I’m not a Communist, or a Socialist, or any kind of -ist that I am aware of, but come on. I didn’t even want to go in that freak-for-all ball pit! So I ended up just watching The Princess from the other side of the hanging plastic curtains. I even helped out by kicking the balls back into the pit for the staff. Technically, they owed me money.

Clooney wants to have his upcoming birthday there, but I am almost willing to pay double whatever that price would be to have it someplace else. See?  There’s the beauty of capitalism!  Supply me a place that’s fun without being stressful and you can Demand whatever price you want.

Other than that, I guess it was a fun party. The Princess got lost in the commotion a few times, but she was always returned safe and sound, albeit with tears running down her cheeks. And overall, the three of them were really good kids all day. I felt like a good mom, and I have to take that kind of feeling whenever I can.

My Son, Future President?

Apparently not.  As part of their unit on the recent election, Edison’s class had to write a paragraph answering the question: Would you want to run for President someday?  Why or Why not?  He wrote:

 No, I wouldn’t like to run for President someday.  It looks like a really hard job.  I would have to travel because I would need to campaign, and I’m not really a traveler! I would have to wait until January 20th for inauguration, and I’m not really that patient! No thanks for President!

Listening to Oasis this morning….Today was gonna be the day…