Another Idiot Tax payment

I was sick last weekend--maybe flu; who knows?--and I wanted something sweet to eat. I spied our container of cinnamon graham crackers from TJ's, but knew they were stale.

So I loaded up our toaster oven with them, and set them to toast. Next thing I knew, I was looking across at the toaster oven that had a lovely little fire going in it. Not huge, but not small. I unplugged it and left it closed, but it just had too much fuel, and kept burning. I opened it and tried to blow out the flames; no dice.

The 'handles' on the sides of the oven were way too hot to pick up, so I finally grabbed a dishtowel and used it as two potholders (taking care not to drape it over the top of the oven.) Took it outside to the back (concrete) porch and stared at it dumbly. Finally went and got the kitchen fire extinguisher. Pulled the tab, looked at it again, and realized there was a small piece left after pulling the tab (perhaps it needs replacing earlier), pulled that out, and then opened the door and let fly.

Did you know that stuff is a powder? I think I got a lungful. Great.

But it put out the fire instantly. I mean, like magic.

(and it JUST NOW occurs to me that I could have then used my spray bottle to put the fire out, now that it was outside and on a draining surface. Sheesh. As I said, Idiot Tax.)

But the fire had burned long enough to totally warp the door, so buh-bye toaster oven.

And now, welcome new toaster oven. One that actually DINGS (I still can't believe this is optional on any toaster oven!) when the toast is done.

Full weekend

Much wildness last weekend. Very, very busy but we really enjoyed it.

Friday
We had been all set to go to the Starlight Movie in the Park, and then I found out that our Faithful Families group from church (parents with kids on the younger side, as in, not in Youth Group) were planning to go. (Not sure how I missed that before.) So I RSVPd to bring a side salad and dessert. Then I was chatting with a friend who has done lots of care for G through the church, and she was going to have a crazy end-of-week preparing for out-of-town houseguests. So I offered to take her son to the movie. Very enthused.

Then the evening approaches and we get home in time to let the dog out and pack up quickly, and there's a message on my answering machine, shifting the event to our church instead. It had been a chilly, breezy day, and was getting chillier and breezier. I thought it was a great idea, but had forgotten about the transition thing that G sometimes gets caught in: he was bereft. Insisted we had to go to the outdoor one (they do do fun activities for the kids before the events), didn't care that it was all set up to go to the church, sad sad sad.

Fortunately, he adjusted quickly enough, we picked up N and made our way to the church. The nice thing was that since we were setting our own timetable, we could (and did) start the movie at 7 instead of the 8:15PM that the outdoor movie has to stick to (and it's barely dark enough to see the movie at that time), so it worked out better especially for the younger kids. There was plenty of pizza, and my side salad (thanks to Papa Murphy's) and cookies (thanks to frozen cookie dough!) were well accepted.

A friend from my Single Mothers by Choice group had also responded to my broadcast of the movie, and was able to join us with her son. Next time, I'll make an effort to get her into the pot luck loop so they don't have to bring their own food.

After the movie, we went back to our house and G and N played Wii for about an hour, until N asked to go home, about 10PM.

Saturday
We were well on our way to having a lazy Saturday, when I noticed an Evite from a friend in the South Bay. She had inadvertantly left me off of the original invitation to a BBQ at their house, and the party was that day. I had pretty much decided we couldn't go, but mentioned it to G in case he was interested, as I like this friend and knew several other hockey players on the invite list. G was enthusiastic, and the invitation was open-house style, and also encouraged folks to bring something for the potluck that they hadn't tried before. I went through my saved recipes and found one for a pasta salad that (a) I hadn't tried before, and (b) I had most of the ingredients (and could sub the ones I didn't have). It called for multicolor rotini and I had regular and whole-wheat, so used those (but slightly undercooked the WW ones, darnit); it called for bacon and I remembered that I'd bought some red-pepper-and-corn Aldell's at Costco recently (smoky enough); and it called for chopped scallions, for which I subbed chopped sweet white onion, sauteed in butter. I also added sliced black olives, because, well, yum. It worked out well in the end. It was a recipe from "Death By Chocolate," as I recall, a book-club book that was OK but whose recipes sounded great.

The party was fun, and it was great to see my friends. G did really well with Val, but not well with a younger child who was a bit overzealous but still 4ish. He honestly doesn't seem to have a concept that younger kids will act their age, and tends to call them "babies" and say other nasty things. I call him on it, but am still baffled as to why he tends to go there. He can be a kind person elsewhere; why so unkind to a certain few? We ended up leaving after yet another unkind eruption, but it was time to leave anyway. Urgh.

Sunday
I really wanted to go to church, so I managed to get us both up and dressed and to church only a little late. I finished the shawl I'd been working on while at the beach, and took it to church, weaving the ends in while in the service. I got lots of warm fuzzies from my knitting friends over it. It really is lovely. Sadly, G thinks it's neat, too, but wants to play with it all the time, which makes me nuts, as his play starts off gentle and quickly accelerates to rough. Which makes me nuts, as I've been working on it since 2006 and the yarn alone cost about $60. Agh. It was a pretty challenging weekend behavior-wise, so much so that I kept looking for possible links. His behavior lately has been SO great. Was it candy/sugar? I think I'll eliminate candy and sugar next time his behavior peaks in an ugly way.

After church, we went home and futzed around until there was barely time to go to the Alameda Art & Wine Faire for just an hour before a friend's surprise birthday party. We actually both enjoyed it, after I pointed out to G that there would be things he'd want to see that I wouldn't, so he needed to stop dragging me away from things I was looking at. We ended up buying nearly nothing (G, four flavored honey sticks; me, scented salt crystals for the car and home), except for a local bookstore I'd seen but not visited. We'll be going back there for sure! We ended up selecting 4 VHS videos for under $2 each from their sidewalk display, including MIB and ID4, as we are both fans of Will Smith. (The other two were "I've Heard the Mermaids Singing," which I'd just been thinking about, and "Flubber.")

G looked at the climbing wall, but decided against spending $5 of his allowance on it ($5, folks, really? That seems really spendy). We made it back to the pickup corner just moments before a wheeled Trolley car showed up to take us back to Grand St. We made it to the birthday party just a few minutes late (close enough to the allotted time as to be on time; they'd left a 45-minute window)--and then found out the birthday girl had been told! Her father is in poor health and they had to make sure she would actually be in town for her own party. It was a full party, with several friends from church but many more whom I hadn't met; quite a varied group! G grazed for a bit, then claimed one of the chairs on the front porch and read his book to the end while I chatted happily inside. We left three times, returning for forgotten items... but it was a good day.

Then I showed M.I.B. to G and scared the pants off him, poor thing, till he finally asked me to stop the movie. Then crawled into my bed at midnight, from nightmares, and couldn't fall asleep until I put my arm around him, poor lamb. He can be so brave about movies that I never really know which ones will scare him. (Now I do.)

Well, overall it was a good weekend.

Beach vacation: one week later

Monday

I am not sure what we did, but probably, it was the first day we went to Marsh's Free Museum. I know we didn't go to the library yet, as it wasn't open until the next day. Mom didn't go with us to the "museum," as she'd rather do pretty much anything than go. G looked around at the shells for a long time, trying to decide what to buy with his money (which was more like banked money, as I never did pay him his allowance in cash, which afforded me the ability, this vacation, to refuse to buy him various things I deemed unsuitable). He settled on a small menagerie of shells, which were packed carefully into a cotton-lined box, and were given with a generous helping of their free shells (small shells glued onto cards, given with every purchase), as G asked, "Do you still give those free shells?" That's my boy.

We noticed that the bag had all the "exhibits" listed on it, so made sure to make the rounds of the "museum" to see the two-headed calf, the eight-legged lamb, and various other stuffed entities in various conditions. Then I opted to buy 3/4 of a pound of salt water taffy, whose flavors we tried in vain to remember during the ensuing days. I did remember which ones were cranberry, and ironically (given that the Peninsula is a huge producer of cranberries, largely for Ocean Spray), they were the least flavorful!

Tuesday

I think this was the day I insisted on unwrapping Mom's new printer, as I'd wanted to make a copy of a page from a book I'd found at the library. She'd gotten the same AOI I'd gotten from her, my dad and stepmom, and my sister, but had never set it up. We cleared out her old HP and cleared even more room for the AOI--it needing a place where the cover could be lifted in order to place items to be copied on the platen. Amusingly enough, she taught me that you can actually put a stack of paper in a lower drawer of the printer from which to print--I had not yet noticed it in mine! I guess I should go back to reading manuals cover to cover.

We had made it to the library that day--they had a summer reading program, so G signed up for his fourth (so far) and got a bag of materials, which included a bookmark, suggested reading list, and a form on which to fill out his books. He read several that visit in the library, and we got out the fourth Lemony Snicket book, he being perilously close to finishing the third, which we'd brought along from our library. (He has already, as of this writing, finished the fourth as well.) I managed to find a copy of Alice Starmore's Fair Isle Knitting, which I carefully and breathlessly brought up to the librarian's desk, nearly insisting they keep it as a reference book and never, ever lend it out. (It is worth $100-300 on eBay, and I hear copies get stolen all the time for this value alone.)

Earlier that day, Mom's spinning group met at the house. It was so fun having a houseful of spinners, chatting and making yarn, of all sorts of levels and experiences, including another Jennie, who had just bought her wheel the day before!

Wednesday

We returned to the library at 10 the next morning for a "Wacky Art" project (rubbings of various interesting items, including several coins glued to one of the cards), followed by a magic show in a side room. G sat in front and was a little obnoxious (shouting "That's not funny!" at times), ugh, but other kids were doing similar things... the magician increased the pace and really got the kids interested, and even asked G to help him with a very funny and avowedly disgusting card trick (the card ended up folded up in the magician's mouth--he offered the card to G and G happily declined).

Thursday

This was Mom's birthday! I stayed up late the night before, finishing the tea cozy I'd started last fall and that my sister had encouraged me to give to Mom for her birthday. My mom's teapot, unlike the usual ones, has an arching bamboo handle over the top and I was sure glad I'd made the steeks accidentally high. I cut them down and sewed them open, and attached the buttons I'd bought Wednesday at the local yarn store in order to secure the flaps to each other. She was very pleased with it, the nightlight we'd found for her at the local has-everything store, Jack's Country Store, within her specifications: not LED nor fluorescent (not bright enough), not automatic (didn't want it to go off at dawn), and with an on-off switch. Bingo! I had also remembered some Sharpie pens (always a hit with Mom) and a steno notebook (ditto). I did realize later that I'd totally forgotten the English toffee I'd gotten for her at Disneyland, and the penuche fudge I'd gotten in Monterey. I did get some replacement fudge later in Long Beach at a candy store.

I asked her what she wanted us to do on her birthday, and we ended up newspapering and then mulching her entire side walkway, not a small feat, especially as the mulch had been dumped next to her driveway a year ago, and the trees had put out copious roots to soak up the nutrients in the piles. G also took the loppers (!) and cleared out tons of elderberry and blackberry that was hanging over her driveway. I cut up the blackberry so it could fit in her trashcan (she doesn't have greens pickup and doesn't want this stuff in her compost pile, and I don't blame her). The walkway looks great. G also insisted on showing me his "secret path," on the Bay side of Mom's house, which was indeed secret looking, but what I hadn't guessed was how steep it would be: we both ended up crawling up and down it, unable to walk it. Afterward, I showed him how to pick huckleberries, and we picked some ripe raspberries from Mom's raspberry canes (and both decided we didn't really care that much for berries with so many seeds, although they do taste wonderful, which is more than one can say for the ample bushes of salmonberries, which are a lovely peachy yellow but taste, honestly, like nothing at all. Good in a pinch, like if you were braving the wilds, we always say).

That evening, we went to an inn in Seaview where folks gather on Thursday nights at 5 to spin. There was an "art walk" in a nearby city, but I really wanted to spin with the spinning folks again (having packed an extra suitcase with nothing but my spinning wheel and a bunch of padding). We did manage to leave the house in time to visit the heritage museum in nearby Ilwaco, where they had a really fun train exhibit that included tracks running through the cities as they used to exist (including one that doesn't exist at all any more), which would start for a quarter. There was also a Lewis and Clark exhibit (of course; this is L&C country) that included simulated (or real!) elk poop, plus a map of the Graveyard of the Pacific, the mouth of the Columbia, where many ships have been lost, due to its many and shifting sand bars.

From the inn, we went back to Ilwaco to dinner at a lovely restaurant owned by people Mom knew (of course!) and really had a delicious meal. (I happened to notice a mom & boy who were dining there, and spotted them at a cafe near Mom's house 2 days later; small country out there!) I had the duck salad (pretty amazing), followed by the halibut, which was even more terrific. They were able to make some tasty buttered, cheesy noodles for G, and added some corn and green beans by my insistance. Mom had the salad also and the salmon. It really was a great dinner, and great to finally be here to celebrate her birthday with her, which I haven't been able to do in years.

Friday

No idea what we did Friday.

Saturday

We went to the Ilwaco market on Saturday, mostly wondering what it would be like. Mom decided to bring her wonderful fox-red Lab, Jesse. We all thought he might've done better with a long walk ahead of time--there were tons of dogs also there, on leash but still somewhat-to-quite aggressive. We walked all the way to one end, stopping at a wildlife booth where a man did very well to keep kids and adults alike fascinated by his talk of the various skulls he had brought along. I found out that G knows the terms omnivore, herbivore, and carnivore already. I was proud of him for what he contributed, but dismayed when he kept calling the interactive talk "boring" and wanting to leave--even after he'd happily participated. I know the distraction was partly the candy booth we'd passed. We walked down to the other end and I bought a beautiful pair of mother-of-pearl earrings that I just couldn't leave behind. Then we went into a bookstore and I bought G a Star Trek novel for $1 (I like!) but didn't find anything for me except a set of refills for my portable notebook. Then I held Jesse while Mom browsed. (I did point out the "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" book on the front table. Pretty funny.)

Sunday

There was another Market on Sunday, this time in Astoria, but the weather was much worse--pretty cold and drizzly--and by the time we got there, we were all out of sorts due to hunger. In retrospect, I wish we'd sat down at the near end and just gotten lunch, as the choices were much more varied, including Greek, Indian, and other interesting food. As it was, we got some hot dogs at a booth at the far end and walked back to the front to use the tables. G had said he wanted some scrambled eggs (one booth proclaimed "farm fresh eggs" but they were, as I'd feared, just selling raw eggs in the shell), so I asked at a stall that had an "Astoria omelette." The man said Yes, it was an omelette, and proceeded to ignore me for several minutes, enough so that I walked away. "Aren't you interested in the omelette?" he called after me. Uh, no, not if you're rude, buddy. Sheesh.

I can't remember buying anything but food, except for half a loaf of wheat bread the gal had been cutting samples off of. She offered it to me for less than half price, and since G and I had really enjoyed the samples, I readily accepted.

What was funny was that we hadn't realized how many booths in Astoria would be the same vendors we'd seen the previous day. Maybe half of them were new--too bad!

Vacation, post 1

It's already Friday, and I'd hoped to journal at least every day while we were here. So here goes...

Saturday

I had set up a ride to the airport from our local limo service, who unfortunately overslept. No matter, as I'd left plenty of time, really, to get there. She arrived 5 mins after my phone call and was adjusting her hijab as she hurried across the street to get the luggage. I'd just remembered to pull G's booster out for the trip and most things were ready to be loaded. G was fascinated by her hijab and kept asking if she was a nun or related to nuns. I said to the gal, "I guess my son has never seen a hijab before!" She seemed a little abashed and muttered that she didn't even have it tied on right, not that either of us would ever know. When we got to the airport, I finally asked her if she was from Iran. I'd gotten the impression, somehow, that the people at the company were from the Middle East. Totally wrong: she said she was from India. I wish I'd asked her in the car, because I'd read a book about conflicting religions in northern India and the creation of Pakistan, and then I wondered if her family had emigrated for religious reasons. Such a tumultuous time.

Check-in was fine but security is always a bit tumultuous with a kid--G started talking about how/why people want to bring things on planes to blow them up, so we had the "never say 'bomb' or 'blow up' in the security line" talk. Then he sat right down in the pathway to put his shoes back on, both of us having worn lace-up shoes, natch. They put my backpack full of all sorts of things, including my small, metal double-pointed knitting needles, through quickly, but examined my shoes in the x-ray for a bit. Sheesh.

The flight was fine and touched down in Portland at least 10 minutes early, which didn't really help us, as I'd told my friend we were getting in at 2 instead of noon, so we weren't expected for a while. We visited a few of the shops on the concourse, enjoyed the sculptures of fish and bridges and the inlaid design of the Columbia from source to sea, and finally wandered through security to get to a place for lunch... whereupon G discovered he was missing his small brown leather bota bag, a prized possession found new at a Salvation Army store for one dollar.

Grief continued through lunch, checking with the outer Powell's books who confirmed that the concourse Powell's didn't find it, and finally wandering down to Baggage Claim to file a claim, being told that they'd swept the plane and hadn't found it, despite my insisting that as it was hung by its thin red cord on the inner arm rest, it would be easily overlooked. We haven't heard, so it is presumably lost, and G has largely recovered now.

The grief did continue all the way until we were in our rental car, when the rental agent said he thought REI sold them and that it could be easily replaced. (I did manage to find one, a bit larger, at Fred Meyer the next day, but by then G wasn't interested in buying a new one.) A friend called me then, hoping to meet up at a yarn store, but having found that the one I'd emailed her about was closed that day. Unfortunate, as I hadn't marked down the one that I had found was open that day. She Googled as I waited, and we found the Naked Sheep together. I set off with my tattered Portland map, and arrived about an hour later than I'd hoped. My friend Duffy was there and greeted me with a huge hug, and showed off her enormous Queen Anne's Lace shawl, which was truly amazing. My Googling friend (from our own Island City, transported to the City of Roses with her husband's work) was also there, and we had a really nice visit, culminating with buying a skein of yarn for a square for a love blanket for the recently widowed spouse of a mutual friend and two others in colors I could not leave there. This got me 3 entries to a raffle they were having (which I assume I didn't win, as I haven't gotten a phone call!), which was kind. I gave one to G, which he liked.

After the visit, I got a message from my host friend that we were not to hurry; that our trip down to the Willamette shores was not for hours, so she helped me figure out how to get to Powell's City of Books, which is something I always like to visit when in Portland. G and I spent a blissful hour and a half there, collecting a number of interesting finds and unwillingly leaving several others.

We finally arrived at my friend's house largely by feel (I think this street looks right), and were greeted so warmly--what a gift! Their dog, who is normally not terribly friendly to others, was initially stand-offish, but later became my fast friend, even casually climbing into my lap in one of the outdoor Adirondack chairs, so slowly as if I wouldn't notice (it's a Lab; I noticed). It's nice to get my dog-fix when I'm away from our sweet Lucy.

Our group packed a somewhat impromptu picnic and headed down for the river, parking not far away (but having been warned by Mimi that we still would not get out right away, as the crush after the fireworks is significant). We settled onto some blankets and chairs and the fireworks finally began. Amazing and seemingly endless, the last cinders dropped into the river, still clearly burning, much later.

Sunday

I cooked breakfast for at least 10 the next morning, friends of Mimi's triplets having stayed over in various and nearly random places in the house. I made French toast and bacon and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Mimi lets me cook for her and always completely appreciates it, so it works out well. We scurried out of there after 11 to try to meet Mom at the airport at 12, and actually made good time but were cutting it close when she called to say she'd hit a lot of traffic and would be about 15 mins late. It worked out fine.

More later!

Sometimes fun is hard work

My body is so tired from tonight's game (4-1 win, yeah!) that it's almost as tired as it was last week when I played 2 Red games in a row (two wins, yeah yeah!).

I do like the fun games. I did call someone a nasty name, but Mal totally deserved it for swooshing in and grabbing the puck. Besides, she tried to spook me by rapping her stick on the ice behind me--WTF? I knew it was her and thought she was just being a goof. She said she wasn't close to me but was trying to make it seem like she was, hah.

Tonight was another installment of "If you go for it, even if she's faster or more skilled, you will sometimes win the puck anyway, so try!" It's a tough lesson, really, as I'm playing against women who are talented from the get-go, plus my teammates from Green division who are, suddenly or not, getting so good/fast/strong!

I did try to throw Jami off by yelling out "Squirrel!" (see below) at opportune moments, but her promise of falling on her ass laughing did not come to pass. Beeyotch.

In any case, I did lots of right things: pinching in, taking shots from the blue line, covering the pass, and trying to change direction behind the net (this last one, an utter failure--there she was, still on my tail!--but I shall keep trying). The game felt good and if I had any big oopses, I've completely forgotten them by now, and it's still not yet Wine O'clock over here.

We've had a full weekend:

Friday
Friday night, we did Coupon Night: we went to Borders with G's filled-out Summer Reading Program list of 8 books read. G spend lots of time (big surprise) trying to decide which book to get for $4.99 (50% or more off list price). Instead of stick around and be mad, I rearranged the knitting books (they are always horribly out of order) instead. He finally decided on a compilation of Star Wars 1-3 novelizations. I encouraged him to choose this because they're written by Patricia Wrede, she of "Dealing With Dragons" et al. fame. She is a terrific, creative writer, so these stories are sure to be excellent.

Then we headed to the cash register, G having convinced me to offer my extra 40% off coupon for the other item he wanted to get, and Indiana Jones-themed novel. I'm proud to say that he did buy both of these items with his own money. I was going to use the coupon to get a set of Moleskine notebooks with the graph-paper backgrounds, but they did have a sort of Moleskine knock-off in the discount section for $3.99, and the cashier couldn't think of any way in which they differed except that the knockoff perhaps had stiffer covers (which seems like a plus to me).

From there, we ventured to Beverly's for me to use my 40% off coupon on a snail refill for the cardmaking I do, stopping at See's for 2 bordeau candies (oh yumminess) for the freezer, for which we got two free samples as well, yay.

Then we headed back to Park Street, for a free coffee for me from Peet's (in return for my having sent a complaint about a super long wait during a street fair--I was surprised that they weren't overstaffed on a day like that), and a free ice cream for G at Tucker's, one of his prizes for reading several hours' worth, from our local library.

Saturday
On a day that would have been lovely to sleep in, we ventured to Berkeley for an Ecclesiastical Council, one of the more unusual ones, but still interesting and highly worthwhile, for a friend of mine from the Bay Association board. I had never seen him so nervous, but this was a required and serious part of our Association's evaluating him for fitness for ordination (he passed).

As we left Berkeley, I realized we were passing Berkeley Bowl and just had to stop in for some bulk-bin purchases and some lovely fruit. Yum.

When we finally got home, we had about an hour to laze around before heading out to see my ex, Nancy, playing drums in a music thing up in the Laurel District of Oakland. I was so glad we went! Her friend, whom she's raved about before, really is amazing and charming and talented. I had to laugh at the women around me, though, focusing their cameras in on Nancy, and kidded her afterward that she was the eye candy. She loves ego strokes and did appreciate it--but also had showed her immense talent during the set. Great stuff!

From there, we headed back to Alameda to be late for a birthday party for a sweet baby from church, for whom I made a baby blanket a few months ago, much appreciated by her parents (truly knitworthy people). We dropped right into enjoying the outdoor party, and I got a good long time to chat with my friend A, whom I haven't seen in a while and haven't had a chat with for months now. I made a new resolve to head out to Benicia to visit, and soon.

A needed to visit a restroom before heading back home, and asked if she could use ours. I hurriedly scrubbed the toilet moments before she arrived, and seeing our place with a visitor's eyes, made a new resolve to catch up on housekeeping things I've let go by the wayside. This week, I'm going to get our vacuum hose fixed, so I can vacuum again. I'm also going to call about getting the dishwasher fixed. But I did get the mountain of dishes washed and the stove clean, and all the counters wiped down, and boy does it feel good. I love the FlyLady's "walk around your house like you're a realtor" idea. I want our house to be comfortable, uncluttered, and clean enough to have people over at the drop of a hat.

That evening, we went to the movie "Up" and met my friend Jami there, who protested but did not win the argument that we were treating her (with prepaid vouchers through the Entertainment book, natch). LOVED it. G was just fine with the sad part I'd been warned about, and the scary dogs. So much fun.

Sunday
Sunday morning is a prime time to sleep in and take it easy--which I did until about 9:10, having realized we were both on the Slow Track that day and that we hadn't even eaten breakfast! We got fed and out the door in time for church and the Sunday-School-teacher gratitude day, which was very nice. I taught that day, too, speaking about the scene where Jesus calms the waters. I just had G and two others and it was a thoughtful, worthwhile, fun class. I like those classes.

After church, we headed home to relax a bit (and finish the dishes--me, and clean G's room more--him), and I made G write a thank-you to my mom for funding the pricey special camp he goes to for 3 weeks in the summer. It helped SO much last year for his social skills, and I'm carpooling with 2 (maybe 3) other families this time, so it'll be so much easier! The only tricky part will be transferring his booster seat around. Compared to last year, when I had no carpool for one week and felt like I spent the week driving, it'll be a breeze!

Then I took G for a long playdate with his friend R who is only here during summers, and went to hockey, and you know how that ended up. Night!

OK, OK, I'm a bad mom, I get it

I don't know how many Bad Mom dreams I can take.

In this one, we were at Disneyland...ish. My sister was there, too, but not her kids (?). G and I went to take a tram to a different part of the park (there were several, of all sorts of colors, depending on where you wanted to go). He got on one and I somehow didn't get in the seat, and ended up hanging onto the back until the next station. I was really relatively calm about this--looked down at the seat and realized that if I tried to climb over while it was moving, I'd more likely fall, and hanging on wasn't tiring for some reason, so I just did that. We made it to the station uneventfully and no one yelled at me for riding it unsafely.

From that station, we were going to get on the Red line and G ended up on a car by himself. He looked back as it left and I shouted, "Stay on that one. It'll bring you back."

And then I leaned on something and switched a switch. It seemed important, so I told a Cast Member, who didn't seem very impressed. Not sure what he did.

And then I left. I told him I'd be there, and I went somewhere else! It was a hotel-lobby-like area, and there was a table of small preprinted sheets of paper with gold seals and different line colors on it, including Red. They had something to do with return trips, and people casually set them down on that table until they needed them, and then picked them back up and used them. It seemed like there was an Honor System about not taking one if it wasn't yours.

I don't know what I did next, but I did finally return to the other Red station, and he was there with a Cast Member, and crying and furious, understandably so. I hadn't, this time, written my cell number on the inside of his arm, and I also hadn't grabbed anyone at the Red station and said, "Hey, my kid just left on the Red train by himself, he's blond and about 4' high; can someone grab him and send him back here?" Why didn't I do that?

Ugh. I woke up moaning.

I can't hear you

Last weekend was my church's Conference's Annual Meeting. I got a call last week asking if I would be a "scribe" for a meeting that was to be held there. I agreed, and gladly. I love being part of the process and what happens in the smaller meetings is interesting and enlightening.

It wasn't until the meeting actually started, in a section of the large meeting hall, that I realized what a challenge it would be. I don't mind typing fast, or paraphrasing, or even interacting in a meeting. I do have problems hearing.

This meeting really underlined my continuing hearing problems. Everyone who spoke quietly was nearly silent for me. SO frustrating, as I was supposed to be writing down not only the thoughts expressed but also the names of the speakers and their churches.

I had a similar experience in a later discussion group for which I wasn't a scribe. A woman at the end of our kidney-bean shaped group was speaking and I considered asking her (and everyone who would speak) to speak up, but was caught between embarrassment and an urge not to interrupt. I cupped my hand around my good better ear and listened as well as I could. (I also, I realized years ago, use lipreading extensively in low hearing situations.)

Not hearing makes me feel frustrated but also a bit panicked. I hate missing out. I hate seeming different, too (with the hand up around the ear, or asking, "I'm sorry?" or "What?" over and over). sigh

It's time to face the devil, as a friend says. I'm going to visit the Costco audiologist this month and see what s/he says about which aids would work for me. And bulk up my "cafeteria" pre-tax medical costs plan for next year, when I'll buy a hearing aid or two.

As my friend Mike says, Growing old is not for wimps.