The oldest urchin's dress rehearsal for her play is tonight. Then she has three performances, finishing on Sunday. After that, I should have a little more time freed up.
But until then, here's a sage warning in the form of a re-run.
Well, since we've gotten home from camping, the youngest urchin has had her birthday. She is now a four year old. Not sure how that happened. The family party is Saturday. I've been cleaning up from camping - laundry, putting away all the camper/ing stuff, laundry, trimming the lawn, laundry, cleaning the house, laundry, baking and wrapping, laundry. . . You get the picture.
Next week the oldest urchin is in a play. Dress rehearsal Thursday, performances Friday, Saturday and Sunday. So there have been lots of rehearsals so far and then every day next week. So I'm doing a lot of mom-taxiing.
I need to learn how to write with noise in the background. I might be able to get some words on screen if I could stop being so darn distractible. Currently, I've been doing a Dr. Frankenstein on chapter one of Brass In Pocket. We'll see if I like the results.
So do you write with music on in the background? Can you write anywhere? Or are you like me and need a quiet environment to get your thoughts down? Inquiring mind would like to know - mine, that is.
Ok, so I'm going to be guilty of this again. I'm swamped with craziness for the next week, and then Chez Quinn is going mobile the week after that, camping at the beach for a week. But, dear readers, I could not leave you stranded without serving up some specimen of surreal zaniness that is my specialty.
For you long term, hard core Tongue In Cheek readers, this batch of re-runs will hopefully serve as a greatest hits tribute. For the newly initiated, enjoy! But beware this disclaimer. There are sometimes when a barf bag may become necessary at some point.
Got a call from the doctor at 10:15 last night. Blood test results are in, and it's definitely Lyme Disease for the oldest urchin. He believes it was caught early enough that there shouldn't be any lasting, long-term effects. She's been on the antibiotic for almost a week now, and the fever finally broke a few days ago.
I worked this weekend. 1 p.m. til 9 p.m. Friday night, 8 - 4:30 Saturday, Sunday and Monday. I was scoring assessments of the most disabled students in the state. Chained to a computer in one cubicle among many in the cubicle farm, watching children take tests. Many of whom just shouldn't be taking them. I'd like to chain the politicians who drafted and support No Child Left Behind to those uncomfortable chairs and watch hour after hour of severely disabled children grappling with assessments that mean nothing and cost those children much. Let alone the tax payers.
I signed a confidentiality contract, so I can't go into detail, but suffice it to say, many of those tapes can be harrowing.
Ok, so last week it was Nursemaid's Elbow. This week - Lyme Disease.
The oldest urchin, who is six, has had a pretty high fever since Sunday afternoon. I finally got her in to the doctor this morning and his hypothesis is Lyme Disease. As if the little urchin needed anything else this year.
As you may or may not know, to check for Lyme disease blood must be drawn. When she heard that, the eyes got wide and teary, but then she took a deep breath and said, "That's okay, Mommy. I'm an old pro at this."
That's when my eyes got teary.
So she sat on my lap like she usually does for blood work, shocked the nurse by telling her it was a tourniquet that was being stretched around her arm, and then tried valiantly not to move or cry during the procedure.
She was the bravest little toaster that ever was.
So now she's on an antibiotic for the next twenty-one days and the fever has still not gone away. What a way to start her summer vacation.
And the youngest urchin has upped her terrible threes game by a power of at least ten in protest to all the attention the older one is receiving right now.
Ahh, chaos. Lovely, lovely chaos. And I'm still not getting any writing done. I wonder why.
I finally got a new bathing suit last night. Ever since the wardrobe malfunction on the beach last summer, in which I issued a public apology to the inhabitants of that section of Rehoboth Beach, I've needed a new one.
Well, I got one last night.
It was a family affair, so you can imagine the unadulterated joy it was to bathing suit shop - which I hate - with The Man and Urchins in tow. I basically got the one that I could tolerate and called it a night.
So I now own a bathing suit with leopard print. Grey and black toned leopard print. I've never owned a leopard printed anything in my life. (I heard those gasps of shock, but believe it, leopard print ain't my shtick.)
It also has cups of steel. I kid you not. I could knock on these knockers and hear a resounding ~BONG~. I feel like I should be sporting a helmet with horns protruding from each side and wielding a spear as I descend from Valhalla.
If only I could work it like Bugs bunny, then at least I'd know I looked good.
But alas, I fear I wear it like Helga, the opera singing warrior in my old favorite video game Clayfighter.
I originally was trying for some rockabilly style. It has that vintage pinup vibe about it. Here's a picture. It doesn't show the cups that well, but you get the idea.
I may add little gun barrels to the center of each cup just to give a nod to the Austin Powers Fembots. We'll see.
Speaking of vintage pin up girl style, if you haven't checked these guys out, you're no hep cat of mine. I love their designs.
So, any bathing suit disasters you'd care to share with the rest of the class? We're all ears!