the pieces of my life

This was the plan for tonight: Adam comes home early to put Pie to bed. I take Doodles to his first Track and Field class. We come home, Doodles goes to bed, Adam makes me a martini. I serve the lovely shrimp ceviche for our dinner, followed by some lovely chocolate chip cookies baked this afternoon.

This is what happened: Doodles eagerly gets his homework done early and dinner eaten, only to get a call that Track and Field has been canceled because of inclement weather. I look out the weather. No inclement weather.  Adam comes home late and tries to solve my computer woes while I watch Wizards of Waverly Place with my children who love the show, but are too scared to watch it alone. I read to Pie, as Adam runs to the Apple Store to try and get my failed hard drive, on the Mac I’m starting to loathe, replaced. Doodles comes looking for me, because he’s reading a biography of Harry Houdini, and there’s a scary part in it where Houdini talks to the dead. So he’s hopping up and down, turning on lights, until finally he decides to re-read, for the third time in four days, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, to put better thoughts in his head. Adam then calls from the Apple Store telling me they don’t have my hard drive in, but he can try another store or have them send me a new computer, but I’m going to lose all the data on my computer, including the fabulous pictures I’ve recently taken of my kids–and I’ve taken a lot (I do have all my writing backed up on disc, so I’m not too worried about that) and all that lovely paperwork I had generated for the school volunteer things I’ve been doing.

And my martini? Sitting unmade.  Olives in fridge. Vermouth and gin in the pantry. Glass, lonely and clean, pristine in the cabinet.

Last time I make plans.

I went to Starbucks this morning. So I made myself a cup of coffee. To bring with me. Because Starbucks isn’t serving coffee. Duh.

It’s teacher appreciation week. And, somehow, I ended up co-chairing it with Beetle. I seem to recall the previous chair saying things like, “Oh it’s practically nothing.” “You seem like a hero for very little work.” “It’s soooo easy!” I’ve decided last year’s chair is my new nemesis.

(Please take a moment to here to channel Dr. Doofenshmirtz:

“I used to sit alone doing evil all day,
But now I think that someone’s gonna get in my way, yeah,
The someone in my life that doesn’t want me to exist,
My neme, neme, oooo… my neme, neme, neme
And I feel fine cause I’ve got a nemesis.”

Okay, all done with Heinz.)

Teacher appreciation week requires two travel boxes of coffee in the teachers’ lounge every morning. Except, as you may know, we have no water. Nor does Lexington. Nor Boston. Nor Brookline. Nor… Well, you get the idea. And apparently all the Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts (please note, I still detest DD, but when you’re desperate, you’re desperate. And the majority of Bostonians seem to prefer it, anyway. Which just goes to show you what kind of taste Bostonians have) have their coffee machines wired to get the water straight from the plumbing. So they can’t make coffee. So I made my own coffee to go down to Starbucks in a desperate attempt to find caffeine for our teachers (see! we appreciate you!). Starbucks was selling only bottled drinks, pastries, and Via. So I bought a bunch of instant coffee, figuring teachers could microwave water for the requisite one minute of boiling. But lo and behold another parent found that Cambridge does indeed have coffee. The day is saved!

Meanwhile, our house is a mess, as I refuse to try and wash dishes using boiled water as it’s a pain in the ass. Dishes are just scattered about the counters and tables. I have run the dishwasher once on the sanitize cycle, but I’d prefer to just embrace the mess and avoid that. It’s a good excuse to not cook.

But that’s okay because there’s apparently still tea available. At least that’s what I think I understand. All I know is that a voicemail came today inviting me to a post-Tea Party summit where I can learn how to take back our country this November and I can learn how to organize for a free America. Free from E. coli and boiled water? That sounds nice. I had to boil water to keep in my tea kettle, as my tea kettle shuts off when it reaches a boil and I generally want my tea now so I don’t have the patience to make it on the stove top. I hope they boil their water for at least a full minute before steeping the tea. Although, perhaps this call was for my Republican husband? In which case, I suppose, he’s busy and I won’t mind if the rest of them get E. coli.

Water water, every where
nor any drop to drink.

L’chaim!

Dropping Pie at preschool today, I fully expected a completely meltdown. She bawled for an hour on the flight home last night because she wanted the Nana. Her first words upon waking this morning were, “I want Nana!” But it’s when you most expect anything from children that it least happens and vice-versa, isn’t it? She gave me a smooch and ran off to her classroom. I, on the other hand, am ready to crawl back into bed and not come back out till the tulips do. Readjustment after the Miami Beach trip is always hardest on me.

Spa day at the Standard. More martinis and cafe con leches than I could count. Movies–first run!–in a theater, on a big screen. Boat rides. New Year’s party. Breakfast outside on Ocean Drive. Ice cream. Shorts. Walking to dinners out. Swimming for the kids. Family. Friends. I so don’t want to be back in Arlington.

However, there are a few pluses. I will say that I do enjoy an excuse for hot chocolate and we have that in spades. I whipped up another batch of homemade marshmallows this morning. Boy do I love me them homemade marshmallows. They melt so much better in a cup of hot chocolate. And our friends up here are amazing. Our plane got in a few minutes late and out the window we were greeted by a world of white. We rushed out, got luggage, and the car. We went straight from the airport to drop Doodles and Adam’s off at a cub scout meeting. Pie and I went home to shovel… only Beetle and her husband had already shoveled us out! Can you ask for better friends than that? While Pie was mildly disappointed, I was quite thrilled.

And now it’s time for some new year’s reflections, I suppose, but that will have to wait for a later post, as one of my resolutions is to get back into the swing of writing, and since I’m off soon to get Pie for gymnastics, I better get a few pages written.

Welcome back to real life!