Thursday, March 31, 2011

If There’s a World Record for Texting…

Maintaining the Jack theme of recent posts, I thought I’d just share with you that the number of texts in and outgoing for him is typically in the range of, hold onto your hats, 32,000+ a month.  Wowzers, I know. 

The kid eats big; the kid texts big. 

My typical total is maybe 100 a month and that’s just ‘cause Ross and I throw things back and forth every once in awhile, and sometimes I get extra messages because he thinks he’s sending to someone else. 

“Clothes are supposed to hide the body, not flaunt it. Lol”  And I’m like, whaaat?  Where did that come from?

“Oh, sorry, that was supposed to go to Jessica.” 

I also rack up a few a month between Jack and I, like:

“Come home now.  Supper’s ready.” 

His reply:  “k” 

Or yesterday's:  “I’m locked out of the house.”

Me:  “Ooops.  Be right there.”

So, this month, Jack’s texting total came in at 19,000-something.  Wow, that seemed like such a dramatic decrease.  I was wondering if he’d decided he’s been a little too focused on the phone and decided himself to cut back.  How mature of him, I was thinking. 

As parents, we hadn’t told him he needed to, since, despite the huge number of texts, he maintains straight A’s and does well with all his extracurricular stuff, not to mention his social activities and attending to his constant medical needs, all the while keeping up with his wood-hauling and trash-burning and other miscellaneous jobs around here.  If he can keep up with everything else in life and still manages to text that much, then so be it.

Then it occurred to me….his camping trip where he was without texting ability for over two weekend days.  I think that explains it.  

He also told me once that he thinks it just makes sense to get the most out of our unlimited texting plan.   I’m thinking he probably does get our money’s worth.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Breakfast for a Teenager Who’s Not Yet Even a Teenager

Jack and his friend figured up the amount of calories in Jack’s breakfast on Saturday.  I was astounded.

1500

Isn’t that what some people make their whole day’s intake?!

This is what you get to have for about 1500 calories. 

omelette2apple bacon eggs   egg toast cereal2milk food_clipart_banana yogurt oj    

Two egg omelet with cheese and stuff, an apple, two pieces of bacon, a fried egg, toast with peanut butter, cereal with milk, a glass of milk, a banana, yogurt, and orange juice.

Wow, all that.cook

And a cook at your service.

And there’s three more gonna-be-teens coming up right behind him.  Cook may hafta get a second job just to feed this crew.

Monday, March 28, 2011

MusicMonday—Tim Reynolds Dream

tim reynoldsI woke up this morning remembering a dream I had just had.  I was at some place, like a outdoor eating place maybe, and in walked this guy you see here, Tim Reynolds,  with a lady I assumed was his wife and they sat right next to me.  It hardly looked like Tim Reynolds since he had Troy Palomalu hair,troy p hair you know how crazy dreams can be, but I was excited to meet him and began to chat.  I right away asked him why he thought he wasn’t more well known for his musical ability and apparently he thought he was pretty famous, so our conversation got real awkward real fast.  A non-significant dream for sure, but it gave me a quick MusicMonday idea.   

This and this will fill you in on Tim Reynolds.  I didn’t know he lived in St. Louis for some time in his younger days.  I just knew he has played guitar with Dave Matthews for years and I thought maybe he was underrated.  My mistake. 

This is him and Dave Matthews playing an acoustic Crush from 2003, I think.  If you don’t have time to listen to the whole thing, you can skip the first thirty seconds of Dave talking and also could click on at about 7:00 to just catch the tail end, but I like listening to it all.  And this particular one video probably doesn’t even capture the best of Tim’s incredible guitar skills, but too little Gills-A-GoGo time today to search for more.  Gotta get to planning more for our romantic New Mexico getaway.  Hey, in fact, Tim lived in what will be our first stop, Santa Fe.  

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Boy Scout Camping

Gary and Jack went camping last weekend in Giant City State Park.  They had a great time and the weather was nice, as opposed to today where here it is cold and snowy again. 

I think this is the winter that just won’t quit. 

This was taken at the Lodge.  Jack’s the one towards the right, with the red cup on his belt loop.

IMG_1697 IMG_1725 IMG_1727 IMG_1728 

Here’s Jack.

Um, he’s over 5’8 now in case you haven’t seen him lately.  And he has a moustache.  Sam is so jeal’.

IMG_1737

There are just amazing rock formations in this area of Southern Illinois.  Anytime I have been there, this always crosses my mind...

<internal screaming>“What if there’s an earthquake?!!”

IMG_1748

This here is called Devil’s Standtable and this is what Gary jumped to from that rock on the right.  Not on this trip, but back in the early 90’s when he was there with the parents, and maybe a sister or two? 

It totally looks like something he would do.

The thing is, see the blue figures/dots at the bottom of that picture above?  Those are people standing below. 

That’s a 100 foot drop if you don’t make it from one rock to the other. 

IMG_1749

IMG_1753

Looks fairly innocuous from this view but it isn’t. 

No one was allowed to do the jump on this trip.

Yeah, I don’t think Gary will be allowed to that ever again.  Signed, his wife

This is the cooking set up.  Let me tell you, these guys eat well on the camp outs.  Gary’s there tending the pot of potatoes.IMG_1756

Here they are the next morning, before departure.IMG_1764 IMG_1771 

IMG_1771

 

 

 

 

 

If you happen to notice, Jack’s jeans on this day were a little little.

Apparently, he packed some that he’d definitely outgrown. 

Still, a fine looking scout, if I do say so myself.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Sam--Again

mar 11 011

I wish I

had two dogs

sow I coud play

with both uv my dogs.

 

Then the flip side said this:mar 11 012 

I wish that i

had a mushstash.

Monday, March 21, 2011

MusicMonday—FatBoy Slim Fever

Grant’s still totally into his Just Dance 2 game for the Wii.  One of his favorites to dance to is Rockafeller Skank by FatBoy Slim.  He dances to this all the time and even Sam is doing the dance these days and singing the song.  It has a total of 10 words, we counted.  The kids got out of the van this morning so they could practice it while waiting at the bus stop. 

This is what the game version looks like.  Grant is surprisingly smooth on even the tough steps, like at 3:00.  I can’t do it.

I think I surprised him when I told him we actually have the FatBoy Slim TheGreatest Hits-Why Try Harder cd and we could download it so he could have it on his mp3. 

I clearly remember back in 2006, as I cooked and folded laundry all day every day in my kitchen on Walton, I would have the little black tv on my counter on.  I kept hearing a certain song on a Target Christmas commercial. 

It's a wonderful night
You’ve gotta take it from me
It’s a wonderful night

Come on break it on down

It got so into my head that I kept singing the short part I knew over and over for weeks.  Then Christmas Day, Gary surprised me with the cd. I could finally learn the whole song, Wonderful Night.  I’ll tell you, it’s not a bit Christmas-y and even has some raunchy lyrics outside of the edited version, but I guess the Target marketing whizzes knew what they were doing since it still hasn’t left my head after these years and I think of it as a fun song for Christmas.  

It turned out that I actually liked the entire FatBoy Slim album.   I hadn’t dug it out, though, for many years although Wonderful Night has been on my running music playlist since I started running.  I especially liked the ‘we’ll have you on the run just like a puma’ part. 

So now Grant is enjoying the album.  The kids took speakers out to the porch yesterday so they could listen and dance to it outside, the beautiful sunny day it was finally. 

Here’s a video from FatBoy Slim that I just introduced to the kids this weekend.  It was such a big deal in 2001 when it first came out, with Christopher Walken looking so cool.  And now, the fact it’s Christopher Walken has no meaning at all to these kids, but they still had fun with it. 

I think Grant may have some new moves. 

Sorry, don’t know what’s up with the embedding issue.  Nothing I’m doing is working better, so you’ll just click on the Watch on YouTube link, ‘k?  It’s worth watching, I promise.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

More from Sam at School

I swear this kid brings home something funny everyday.

feb 11 004

On his list of 100 words, take a close look on numbers 1, 2, and 3.

1)  Sam

2) Uel

3) Gill

 

And then this day, his last name? 

march 11 013

I’ve been calling him that now.

Hey, Sam Gim, get in here and get your durn corndog!

This one, however, definitely takes the cake. Maybe equally funny as the classics from three weeks ago, I must say.  He brought this piece home last Friday after they apparently took down their artistic and very reverent February tributes honoring our past Presidents.

march 11 018

I asked for clarification just what his arm/hand was doing and I am sorry to say, Sam confirmed;  it is what you think it is. 

My sincere apologies to you, President Nosepicker Washington.

Not sure what’s up with the eyes and the poor broken nose, but gotta say, George, your cotton ball hair looks just fab!

Monday, March 14, 2011

MusicMonday—Modern Music

 

I enjoy music from all periods, but realized the other day, it’s really possible to get stuck in the tunes of your youth and think that’s all that makes up “good music.”  I think when that happens, you shut yourself off to cool new sounds that might be speaking to you if you only listened. 

Here’s something new.  Radiohead’s Lotus Flower from the newly released The King of Limbs album sounds to me like what I thought the future would sound like, from the perspective of a kid in the early 1970’s.  Except I thought the space-age future would happen around 2000. 

In reality, 2000 was when I was still working as a school psychologist, cruising suburbia with newborn and toddler boys in total-pain-in-the-a$$es strap-‘em-in car seats in our green Plymouth mini van with manual doors and locks.  We were still wearing jeans, eating the same stuff, cooking the same way, heating our house just as when I was a kid.  I guess now, 2000 wasn’t that futuristic after all.   Where were the individual little Spacely Sprocket pods for us to buzz around in, our robots in the home, and spandex-tight StarTrek clothes? 

Hmmm.  So here’s to movement and the concept of opening up to new music and what “future” sounds are to me.  I really enjoy this song.  Even if the music isn’t your cup o’ tea, you can at least watch it for the dance moves.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Happy Daylight Savings Day

 

DSC07617--jumbo_clock

Gary:  I’ve got to get limbered up before I go change the big clock.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

I Think I’m A Step Ahead in Home Decor

 

 2011-02-10_14.22.17

I saw this in a store the other day and thought, what??!  Why, when you can have the real thing?

 

sept 10 068

Friday, March 11, 2011

Pioneer Woman Returns

I had an exciting 42nd birthday two years ago when I met Ree, my fave blogger. Click this to read all about the last time that I saw her.  Saw her in person, that is.  Since that time, she’s been on Today, The View, Good Morning America, Thanksgiving Throwdown with Bobby Flay, just to name a few, and has been seen in Forbes, Ladies Home Journal, and Southern Living and lots of other magazines. 

My friend Kel and I are still huge fans, so I couldn’t miss it when Pioneer Woman returned to St. Louis for a signing of her latest book, Black Heels to Tractor Wheels.  All I had to do was message Kel and ask “Are you in?”  Of course, we were.

PW’s starting to get kinda famous!  There’s even going to be a movie made by Columbia Pictures based on this book, her true life love story about meeting and marrying her cowboy husband. 

BTW, yeah, I’m friends with him, too.  He’s on my cell phone, geesh. 

mm

I heard it’s Reese Witherspoon that will play her role.  Wonder who for him? 

I guess her life reminds me a bit of my own: living on a farm, having four punks, existing much of the time in the kitchen or laundry room, being married to the man of her dreams.  We have so much in common.  Except she is very witty, funny, far more productive,  redheaded, a former ballerina, and home schools.  And she has a fancy camera and can cook fancy, too.  And even though she is all this and a stick of butter, I just find her so likeable and I am happy, happy for all her success.

It’s not like she planned any of this.  She was a mom isolated at home in the country with little babies and then she discovered this wonderful Internet as a creative outlet for posting things about her everyday life. Little by little, her readership grew.

This time coming to St. Louis, she was at the St. Louis County Library right across from Plaza Frontenac. Kel and I enjoyed another chat fest together as we drove over, stood in line, sat awhile, watched another PW Q and A session with our view obstructed not my a major pillar this time but by a major large woman’s head, stood in line some more, and chatted again with this handsome dude.

2011-02-26_20.20.11

He said he liked visiting St. Louis again.  He might have actually said it was his favorite of the places he went on their book tour.  He said that, to Kelly and me!  Because we are St. Louis.  I’m sure that’s what he meant.  

Anyway, Kel again wanted no part of any picture taking, silly girl, but I was all in!

Me and Ree 2011

Another happy smile, just like in 2009.  If you notice, I’m wearing the shirt she gave me last time. 

Time for a Little Confession: 

I had to tuck it in because I have worn three little holes in it, right at the belly.  Classy. 

And I wore brand new shoes again.  I’ve got a pattern going here.

So anywho, here’s my favorite favorite blog if you want to click and check her out:

ThePioneerWoman.com

Warning: she is hilarious and so entertaining!  And even after all these years, I still check in on her every day that I can get to the computer.  And get this… she gets 13 million hits a month on her blog.  Yes, I said 13 million.  I think I might get 10, as in one more past nine, and that’s just because you guys, my wonderful family, endure me.  I don’t even know how to find out such things like how many blog hits.

So what a great thrill to see my now celeb friend again and as I stepped away from her there at the table, reluctantly, because I would have liked to have chatted all night, she thanked me!   She is so cool. 

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Random Shots from My Cell Phone Camera

 

  • Us at the skating rink one Sunday.

(whisper voice: This shows Jack sitting by his friend that’s a girl.)

  2011-02-13_16.23.11

 2011-02-13_16.48.26 See, Ross, how he can melt a mom’s heart? 

At least some of the time? 

2011-02-13_16.49.51

This would show my attempt to make a movie of Sam doing his hilarious run-skate thing.  Guess I don’t really know how to switch between still shots and movie camera yet because this is all I got even though I held my camera up in the air for  two minutes. 

  • T-shirt at Target I had to show Gary. 

I was right; he totally cracked up.2011-02-13_17.26.04

  • Sam at the restaurant with my non-mate shoes.

Enough on that already, thank you.

2011-02-28_19.10.59 2011-02-28_19.11.30

  • From the exciting Friday night I got reacquainted with a real life cowboy.

2011-02-26_20.20.11  More on that coming up. 

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Public Humiliation—Round Three

I hadn’t even thought of making this into a blog post, but once Gary heard what I did, he said I had to.  Whatev.  It does seem to fit the recent pattern and can I tell you, coming up with a title has never been so easy.

Last night was Caroline’s music program at school.  She was supposed to be there at 6:45, with it starting at 7 p.m.  At 6:30, we were still at home, wolfing down our supper.  It had already been a long day for me. 

Hurriedly, we got all the kids into the van and pulled in at the school right on time.  It was absolutely pouring rain so since I was already behind the wheel and was the only one in a real coat, one good for rain, I dropped the family off at the door and went on to park the van.  Primo parking was limited as always and I ended up finding a spot fairly far from the school, but never fear, Ms. Prepared had an umbrella in the passenger’s side door and with my foresight to be wearing an actual rain coat, I was feeling pretty good about myself. 

I realized I needed the ladies’ room as soon as I got into the building and, boy, was that convenient since it is located in the main area of the whole school, right between the lobby where you walk in and the gym, which is where I was headed for Caroline’s program. 

I walked right in, on a mission to go as quickly as I could so that I could promptly get out to rejoin the family, already sitting and waiting for me in the gym.  I looked forward to getting to settle in to watch what I knew would be a fab 2nd grade performance. 

As I was going, I remember remarking to myself about the condition of the toilet seat itself.  Normally, I would’ve changed stalls, but here I was in a big hurry so I just used it, we’ll say, strategically.  I had to wonder just what kinda acting up must have happened earlier in the day for some little school girl to leave that particular area of the toilet so pee covered.  It would be physically unlikely for a girl to pull that off unless she was like standing on the seat itself.  Goofy kids.

[Eww, tmi and gross, I know, but trust me, it is relevant.]

So I warshed my hands well and headed over to the towel dispenser.  In walked someone else and I instinctively smiled and said hi.  It was a cute little shorty about Sam’s size and Sam’s gender.  Honestly, it didn’t sink in as anything unusual since it’s nothing  for us moms to see little boys in ladies’ rooms all the time.  You don’t just send a little kid into a public bathroom alone so we do this boy-in-the-girls’-bathroom thing ourselves at restaurants and stores and no big deal. 

As I was standing there casually rolling out paper toweling, it wasn’t until I realized I was looking at a row of like eight glaring white urinals that it sunk in. 

I think I gasped out loud and I know I briskly walked forward to the door with the length of paper towel trailing from my dripping hands, not spending even a second to actually dry my hands.  Out I walked and, quick glance over my shoulder, yep, sure enough there was this outside the door. 

 

bathroom pic

[Except I’m thinking now it did not actually have the word MEN,  just the figures.  Surely it was just the figures.] 

And by walking out, I mean out into the main area of the school where hundreds of people were gathered to go into the gym.  I nonchalantly, and yeah, maybe I was sweating profusely and had a beet red face, made my way, weaving through the mass of people to finally get inside the gym doors, just keeping the head low so no one would recognize me as the perv that had been in the little boy bathroom.  With a little boy. 

Once in the gym, I looked up and did a quick scan of the bleachers.  Hmm, no family.  There was all kinds of open seating in this corner right by the door where I was standing.  Why wouldn’t my family be there?  Make it nice and easy on me, please. 

No, I had to stand there on this gym floor for what felt like ten whole minutes.  I might as well have been wearing bright red lipstick and a dumb 50’s costume while doing the chicken dance solo, but don’t stop there.  Now add to that a big neon label across my forehead, Boys’ Bathroom Weirdo. 

And forget the extreme urge to just duck, no, I had to lift my head up high and clear to actually be able to scan the crowd in the bleachers to spot my family that right then felt like the only place, the only people I could run to and maybe comfortably fit in. 

There is something about me and this dern new school.  Whose lame-o idea to move anyway?! 

I didn’t see them as I gazed across the faces of all the people filling row after row of bleachers, so I swallowed hard and started walking, walking the length of the entire gym, facing the crowd so I wouldn’t miss the sight of my loving husband, my handsome boys that would be smiling to welcome me as I would at last find my saved seat right with them.

So I walked, and I walked, still scanning, and yes, I truly am not exaggerating at all, finally in the farthest, highest up corner possible, there they sat.  I climbed the steps to get up to them, climbing, climbing and with each step still just wanting to sink down into the floor and disappear.  Finally, I reached them.  They were smiling at me, but at the same time I noticed it was more like sorta evil-chuckling.  It wasn’t a sweet smile like “Mom, so glad you’re finally in out of the hard, cold rain and the awful sea of people pointing at you and now you get to sit with us and just know we love you so much no matter what in life you pull.”  No, I clearly recognized it as smug smirks from all four of them and I had to wonder what was up.  Just then Grant couldn’t contain it any longer and laid it right out, “Mom, you know why we sat here?!” 

No.  Do tell.  Please.

“Because Dad said it would embarrass you if you had to walk clear across the gym in front of everybody.”

And at that point he didn’t even know just how doubly funny his prank actually was.

[I love that my stories can make you laugh, but let’s hope that ends the stories of Pub Humil. I can’t take much more.]

Monday, March 7, 2011

MusicMonday—Adele

I had first heard Adele a couple of years ago when the nineteen year old from London was being discovered in the US and her song Chasing Pavements was all over VH1.   The song just didn’t really click with me and I wasn’t that interested, I guess.

I think if I had heard this song from that same album, I would have noticed her. 

But then last week, I heard Rolling in the Deep by Adele on the radio and BOOM, big explosion for me as I loved her sound, her voice, and the song itself.  Since then, I’ve bought some other of her songs; she did a remake of The Cure’s Lovesong and I absolutely love it!

She sounds so strong and sings beautifully whether live or on the record and that’s such a sign to me of real talent. 

Hey, if you liked that and want to hear it again, here’s her live debut of the song when she was on Ellen. 

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Public Humiliation--Continues

Yeah, I’m on a streak here.

Last Sunday night we had a terrible storm at maybe eleven o’clock-midnight, so terrible that we didn’t even wake up during it.  Really, I honestly don’t even know how we didn’t, considering it took down our neighbors’ trees and they even heard the sirens from in town.  All I can think is that we’d worked so hard Sunday afternoon into the evening on this farm, harvesting wood you know, that we were all worn completely out.  Plus, we didn’t even have an inkling that anything was coming our way, so after our supper and showers, blissfully unaware we slept. 

I did wake up around three to find we had no power.

Next morning as the kids got up, still no power.  Even three of the four kids’ schools had no power but school was not called off as they planned to bring in generators.  Gary got a shower at the YMCA before he headed off to work.  I was working in one of the kids’ school library that day, and that went along without a hitch since they were the ones with power. 

That evening, came home, and still no power for us.  We’d heard from the power company’s website that it’d be Tuesday, another day!, before ours was restored. 

Without electricity, we have no water.  We also have no blower to circulate our heat from the wood furnace in the basement with no electricity.  I can cook on my gas stove but clean up without running hot water is a whopping pain.  I decided, hey, let’s go out.  That gets us out of the dark house and will occupy most of our evening.  Gary ran the generator awhile to let the fridge run and save our food before we headed out.

We went out to a family pizza place and everyone ate well.  Gary and Jack left to go to their Scout meeting, so I stayed with the rest of the crew and just milked it for as many minutes as I could, letting the kids hang out in the game room before we had to head back into the dark, cold house.  After awhile, the kids were starting to get squirrelly.  Sam got my shoes and put them on, over his own tennis shoes, and was traipsing around the floor. 

We weren’t really disturbing anyone, I promise.  It’s a big, spread out kind of place. 

He got to giggling and that got Caroline giggling and I look down at his feet to see that the shoes he had on were not a pair.

My shoes, that I had worn all day, did not match.  Yes, they were both brown and both slip-ons but there was at least an inch height difference in the heels and one is a wedge and the other, a wooden block-type heel and one has trim and the other not.  One is a rounded toe and the other is squared off.

I didn’t have the excuse of having to get dressed in the dark.  It was mid-day before I headed out. 

How did I do that without noticing? 

feb 11 007 feb 11 009

Don’t answer that.

Friday, March 4, 2011

Public Humiliation

I seem to be flying high in this category lately.

The younger kids’ school had a Sock Hop last Friday night.  Sam wanted to skip, but Caroline was pretty revved about going. 

My neighbor friend had mentioned she had a poodle skirt that I could borrow. 

I figured I’d skip the friend-to-friend humiliation and just decline even without seeing it, knowing that her waist is probably like 48 inches less than mine. 

I left it at “Thanks, but that’s ok.  I have something.”

Big lie.  The night rolled around and after a jam-packed day and then cooking supper, I just left the kitchen mess because the Sock Hop was starting in minutes.  I still didn’t know what I would wear.  Caroline was excited about the dance part, but not so much the outfit part, surprisingly.  She said she just wanted to wear her regular clothes. 

“Well, fine but you’re gonna stand out, being the only one not dressed up for the dance.”

I quickly put on a pair of black pants and rolled them up in cuffs, put on white bobby socks, and the closest thing I had to 50’s style shoes, some black patent loafers.  I wore a white cotton button down shirt and grabbed a scarf, having to decide if should I go with pink one or black and white polka dots, and added some bright red/hot pink beads to dress it up.  Then what could I do with this hair of mine?  The only thing I knew considering it’s not ponytailable, I teased it up all big and bouffant and hair sprayed it to death.  Added some bright red lipstick we had left from Halloween and there was the look. 

“Caroline, are you sure that’s what you want to wear?  Well, fine but you’re gonna stand out being the only one not dressed up for the dance.”

We pulled into the full parking lot and finally found an open spot.  We were late.  Another car pulled in and I noticed that mom.  Didn’t look like they were late because she’d done anything to dress up for the dance.  Hmph. 

We walk in and I see no one, minus a few kids, that wore anything special to the dance.  

Right away, Caroline spotted a friend and ran off so I sat on the bleachers hoping to just blend in.  Me with my huge hair and big red lips. 

I sat quietly until Caroline sought me out for a dance.  The chicken dance was on.  So yes, the love of a mother won over and I went out onto the dance floor done up like this

  feb 11 001 - Copy (2)

or maybe it was actually more like this,

 feb 11 002

or at least that’s how goofy I felt I looked. 

I did the chicken dance with her, for all of like 30 seconds until she bolted off with friends and left me there alone to dance solo, doing the chicken dance. 

I retreated back to the bleachers and emailed Gary at home from my phone about how I felt so out of place with this costume and no one else was wearing one and he emailed back:  Heehee.

I thought about going into the ladies room and trying to undo my hair and get the lipstick off but that would have required me to walk past everyone else to get there and that would have made me seem, I thought, even more humiliatored* (my own new word), to look like I was trying to undo the damage that’d already been done. 

Another parent that I know popped over and said, “Oh, you look… cute.” 

Another acquaintance/friend of mine said, “Oh.”

I couldn’t say anything back. My mouth was full, munching on some words….“Well, fine but you’re gonna stand out being the only one dressed up for the dance.”

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Important Announcement

The boy formerly known as cantankerous curmudgeon has now been replaced with happy boy: king of dance. 

All we did was innocently borrow Just Dance 2 for the Wii from a neighbor and the grumpy kid has turned completely around.  Even his teacher mentioned to me that she sees such a difference.  He dances for hours at a time, sweating like you can’t imagine, and racking up points to put Fred Astaire to shame.  He loves it.  He out-dances us all and here I think I am something with my Zumba moves. 

We had to return the borrowed game after a couple of days.  I told Gary I thought maybe we should get our own copy since it seemed to be something Grant really enjoyed and his mood was so improved.  I admit I was not surprised when Gary seemed to scoff at the idea of spending the $40+.

However, I will tell you that that very evening after work and a quick stop into the WMart, he walked in with Just Dance 2.

Guess you can’t put a price on your kid’s happiness.  And the mom’s sanity.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Guilt of Whopper Proportions

Yesterday a 30ish lady in an old, old rusted-out pickup truck flagged me as I was getting ready to pull out of our neighborhood here in the country onto the main road.  She had come from the opposite direction, looking a bit frazzled, in fact, almost panicked.  She hurriedly explained someone had told her about a back road she could take to get to her job, but now she wasn’t sure where she was at all, and she was afraid she was going to be late to work.  She said she needed the road that would take her right into town, right by Schnucks, the grocery store.  

I noticed she wore a uniform. 

Her badge said Burger King.  

Oh, no problem!  I confidently smiled, nodded yes up and down, and reassured her I could get her right there.  It was easy, considering she only had to turn onto one more road and then she’d be on the exact road she wanted, a straight shot. 

I told her to stay on this main road until she saw Staunton Road and take a right onto that.  Then she’d go a short distance until the stop sign where she would make a left.  Then she’d be on a direct path to Schnucks.  Can’t miss it. 

Wondering to self:  Why didn’t she say Burger King was her destination?  Burger King is in front of Schnucks.  Oh well.  Whatev.  I knew exactly where she was talking about.

I drove off, pleased that I had helped another girl in need even though it took a minute away from my picking up Jack from after-school band practice.  As I drove on a mile or two, I looked back in the rearview and there was no sign of her, no pickup truck in sight.  Oh no, she should have been right behind me.  What if I confused her and she thought she was supposed to go back the direction she’d come from?  I realized I hadn’t used any east or west in my directions.  I assumed she’d know to follow me as I pulled out and that was a dumb assumption.  I felt bad that I hadn’t been more specific with her or that I hadn’t offered “Follow me” to get her to the right intersection she needed.  Duh, Diane!

Guilt, guilt, and feeling bad set in until I glanced back again, and way far back there, I spotted the pickup truck behind me.  Oh good, she did understand.  But, man, her truck must really be doggy if she has to go that slow.  Maybe it’s on its last leg but yet she’s just trying so hard to get to work.  Whew, I thought, am glad I was there to help her out. 

It was nice to again feel the good vibes, kinda like pride actually, that I’d made a little difference to someone that definitely looked like she’d been hit by some hard times but was trying her best.  I relaxed down into my van seat with a sigh, feeling comforted and relieved that I had her on the right track….until I passed the Staunton Road sign -- the Staunton Road that turns to the south.  She needed the Staunton Road another half mile down that turns to the north.  Dang you, crazy Staunton Road.  I totally envisioned her seeing that Staunton Road to the south first, saying “Oh, that’s it! That’s my road!  That helpful girl in the van was so right; this is easy!!” and then turning south on a road that takes her even further from her job.  Then she’d make the left at the next road precisely as I had told her, which would put her, finally after many miles, out in the next town. 

Where they don’t even have a Schnucks. 

So again, extreme guilt set it and I had to quickly weigh “Do I turn around and go try to track her down with my van loaded with kids as I make my other kid stand outside the school thinking no one loves him anymore, or just continue on my course?” I opted for that and have lived with the guilt of steering that lady wrong now for the past 18 hours. 

Thanks for letting me unload.  I think now maybe I can let it go, but I bet it’s just gonna feel like a big punch in the stomach when I see a Help Wanted sign in the Burger King window.