The next 30 days will be ugly

I returned home from vacation to a barrage of emails. I'd hoped for art requests, but they were mostly emails about Cub Scout business. I wasn't amused. I enjoy doing Cub Scouts with my son, but Scouts is not a once-in-awhile kind of thing. At least not with our pack. It's a way of life, daily.

In January, in addition to our weekly den meetings, we have an activity planned almost every weekend. A campout at the Lexington. Pinewood Derby. A leadership Pow-wow. A University of Texas Basketball game. All this takes planning and coordination and time. I don't have much time. I have sketches due soon. And I'd like to write and read, too. Grrr.

In addition, a major banquet is planned in February. Blue and Gold. This is when the boys "cross-over" and earn their next rank. It was originally decided that the boys would earn their rank in May, giving them time to earn their advancements at leisure. But now a request has been made that all the boys earn rank by the banquet. That will mean working on advancements daily for the next month!

Thankfully, The Best Kid in the World doesn't care about cramming every single day for the next month. He wants to enjoy the experience of Scouting without the pressure of meeting a deadline. When I asked him, he said, "It's Cub Scouts. I want to have fun and not be rushed."

Burden removed.

Now the problem is, appears the other Scouts want to earn their advancement in time to cross over. And even though The Best Kid in the World says he'd prefer to wait, his face will hang low on the night of the banquet when the other boys get their faces painted and earn their Wolf badges. Which means that in addition to completing sketches for my next book in one month, and interviewing 8 children's book creators for 28 Days Later, and squeezing in at least two small-hitting freelance projects, and visiting three schools, and knocking out at least one picture book manuscript, and his beginning basketball, and all the other Cub Scout stuff, I will have to figure out a way to work in four Cub Scout advancements. Daily. Even on the days I work at the paper.

Excuse me while I crawl under a rock.