a reasonable project

From The Everywhere Girl Diaries – a work of fiction

Last week of June, year one

Dear Diary,

So, Ally and I have been working on a project.  Since both of our summer jobs fell through at the last minute, we are trying to convince our parents that it is the perfect opportunity for us to go backpacking through Europe.  We are not suggesting anything extreme, only that we go for two or three weeks.  That seems reasonable enough.  Airfares are low right now and we are sure that we can depend on the kindness of strangers to keep our expenses to a minimum.  I was surprised that my father’s face could turn that color.

Ally told her parents that backpacking through Europe is what a person does when they graduate.  They got her on a technicality, pointing out that these types of adventures normally take place after graduation from college, not high school.  At that point said person is older, more mature, and said person’s parents cannot be held responsible for her actions.  (Ally doesn’t turn 18 until the end of July.) Our project is not going well.

We’re more or less at a standoff.  We’re ordering pizza tonight and will hole up in my room under the guise of watching The Big Chill.  We’ll really be reevaluating our approach and perhaps our goal.  We are thinking we might be able to negotiate down to at least a road trip (although that presents its own challenges since neither of us has a car).

In the meantime, I went to the bank today.  I heart US Bank.  Firstly because I’ve had an account with them since I was five days old and secondly because they have branches everywhere and I won’t have to hassle with changing banks when I go away to school.