As I wrote stories this week about ferries, fires and car crashes, I kept pushing down an anxious feeling in my stomach and trying to block out a nagging voice in the back of my head that asked repeatedly, “Where the hell can I find one centimetre graph paper?”
If you know, please tell me. I’m on the hunt for the elusive paper as it’s the last thing on my kids’ back to school supply lists.
I’m usually a city shopper when back to school time comes around, but this year I decided to do my shopping on the Coast. Partly because we already had back to school clothes in hand and partly because it costs my family of four almost $100 to hop the ferry and head to Walmart so we can save $30 and do the one-stop-shop thing.
This time I set out, with highlighted school supply lists in hand, and got ready for a long day of searching stores on the Sunshine Coast.
I was soon pleasantly surprised! I managed to find everything (except for that damn graph paper) at two stores – Source for Sports and One-O-One Office Supplies. The stores are about as far from each other as one end of Walmart is to the other and I didn’t have to move my car, so I guess I could still consider it one-stop shopping.
The price was right, too. I got both of the kids all their supplies for under $100. That’s a win in my book.
But, of course, I’m not finished back to school shopping yet. Not until I find that one centimetre graph paper (if it exists). I went to a total of six stores between Sechelt and Gibsons looking for the correctly sized graph paper, with no luck. There’s half centimetre and two centimetre, but no one seems to stock the size requested by School District No. 46.
I know I’m not alone in my seemingly fruitless search. I have polled some of my friends and they’re having the same trouble.
I’m pretty close to making my own graph paper online, printing it, hole punching it and then selling it off to the highest bidder.
But before I go to the effort, I’m going to wait to ask my kids’ teachers if it’s just some cruel typo or if perhaps half centimetre paper will do just fine.
My kids are blissfully unaware of my graph paper troubles, and they should be. They’ve got just a few days left of summer holidays before the late nights, sleep-ins and excessive Slurpee consumption ends, and I want them to enjoy every last minute.
School starts on Tuesday, and we’ll be ready.
