Bad Timing

We made it back home. The trip was fairly easy, if you don't mind a sleepy 2-year-old screaming for her bed the last 50 miles or so.

I went out for a couple of hours this afternoon with my daughter Anna to argue over clothing choices. When we got back, we found Larry halfway through ripping up my kitchen floor. Apparently it slipped his mind that I had promised to hold a Pampered Chef fund raiser in our house 2 days from now (and I had told him this morning). A Pampered Chef fund raiser - you know, the kind where someone comes over and cooks a meal in your kitchen, a kitchen presumably not cluttered with chunks of torn-up linoleum and particle board. A kitchen, let's say, that has a floor. This is a problem, and I am not sure how to solve it, other than making Larry stay up all night until he finishes whatever project he has in mind.

It's not as if there were no other projects to work on in this house, you know.

I bought Anna 2 outfits that aren't too slutty. That was the best I could do. I wanted to get her 3 outfits, but there weren't any more items in the juniors department that would be deemed acceptable from my middle-aged, conservative, "shouldn't that only be seen by your husband?" perspective. I thought I was being generous in labeling the 2 outfits we got "barely decent." And Anna showed remarkable restraint by not calling me a "stupid old lady," as she has done in the past at this particular clothing establishment. Progress, folks; we're making progress.

I have to go to bed early - my morning walking companion has threatened to drag me bodily out of bed if I don't meet her outside tomorrow at 6:30 AM (I've been slacking off, I admit). I think she means well, but it sure doesn't feel like it.

Underachieving Thoughts

I don't have enough to do, so I spend my spare time googling people I knew in college - see what they're up to. It turns out that they are all way more successful in their chosen careers than I am. (Actually, now that I think of it, I don't have a career.) One is leading some amazing sustainable agriculture program at a well-known state university, another runs his own law firm with his wife as partner (good thing he didn't marry me, huh?), yet another is a dean at an Ivy League university. It strikes me that they didn't waste the money they invested in their education the way I have. It also strikes me that they're not bored enough to sit around googling people they used to know but will never speak to again. Why? Because they have things going on, money to make, important people to get back to.

As for me, well, the kids are in bed, everyone's been diapered, wiped, and brushed for the evening, and my teenage daughter (aka "the Slave") is getting the dirty dishes into the dishwasher so that I can go in there and do the final kitchen scrubdown. I might try knitting a hat after that.

I suppose the world does need underachievers, but I'm not sure for what. Maybe to do all the grunt work, like diapering and teeth-brushing and kitchen cleaning...

Someone tried to kill me this morning, by the way. I dragged myself out of bed at 6:15 to go walking with my neighbor Cindy and found her waiting for me outside with her visiting sister-in-law. Who turned out to be the fastest walker in the Western Hemisphere. I knew I was in trouble when she commented that she doesn't usually get such a late start. I was practically jogging to keep up with her, and my neighbor wasn't doing much better. My only comfort was knowing that, if I did suffer an exercise-induced heart attack, I'd probably be saved. Not by Cindy, mind you - she was too out of breath to administer CPR at that point. But by the sister-in-law, who happened to be a doctor.

Did I mention that this chick was 20 years older than me? It was embarrassing.

90 degrees today, and again tomorrow......autumn, we hardly knew ye.