Writing in the Corner

Friday morning:

DH is at home. Little boy wakes up and wants to play on the computer. The bus leaves in 50 minutes. I try and distract him…”Let’s go watch cartoons. I’ll fix you some french toast sticks.” I get him dressed and give him breakfast, then go shower.

After my shower, I ask DH, “Is Little Boy eating his breakfast?”

“No, he said they were too crunchy. I gave him some cereal. ”

“Is he watching TV?”

“No, he’s playing on the computer.”

Uh oh.

Little boy hadn’t touched his cereal. Little boy had a meltdown. He didn’t want to eat. He wanted to play on the computer. I would not let him. He needed breakfast. The bus would be here in five minutes. He would not eat. He would not go brush his teeth. I went in to the room where he was crouched between a bookcase and the sofa. I picked him up to carry him into the bathroom. I caught my heel on the step going down into my (slightly sunken) family. My arms were full of little boy. I could not catch my balance. I fell. Hard. On my left knee.

I started to scream. “Ow, ow, oh, my knee, my knee, ow, oh, my knee.” Really, really loud. DH came running in from the bedroom. I lay there and screamed for 2-3 minutes. The pain started to subside (endorphins, I guess). I was unable to catch my breath. I thought I was going to throw up. I told DH, “This morning has been just awful, and it’s all your fault. I mean, I know you left your mind reading hat at work, and I didn’t tell you the morning routine, but he simply doesn’t have time to play on the computer.” I got up. I could walk. DH fixed breakfast. I drove little boy to school.

Monday morning:

Sunday night, I had carefully explained to little boy what we had to do in the morning. He woke up smiling and giggling at 6:25, after having a good night’s sleep the night before. He got dressed right away. I fixed him frozen waffles. He watched cartoons while he ate. I showered. He came running in after the first segment of Rug Rats was over: “I have to go now! The bus will be coming!” DH walked him to the bus stop.

Moral of the story: It’s not enough to have routines, and for me to know them. All the people involved have to know them.

We went to open house at little boy’s school. It was informative and brief. Snacks were provided. The only reason for the snacks was to sample the wares for the upcoming (tomorrow) fund raiser. Cookie dough, cheesecakes, and lemon bars. I had a sample of each. They were very good.

Little boy will bring home a folder every day, and we will send it back every morning. It’s called his FISH folder. I suppose I could go look up what FISH stands for, but I’m comfy here at my desk. Today, it contains papers to fill out, and poems about letting go, and play. Oh, and homework. HOMEWORK. Mostly it will be art projects. Tonight, I have homework, too. I have to write down everything I would like Mrs. S. to know about my little boy.

We received a checklist of activities we can volunteer to help with. One of them is cutting things out. I LOVE cutting things out. It’s so relaxing. I can get into a very tranquil place when cutting. I can even do it from home. So I think I will volunteer to do cutting.

When older son was doing the Egg Drop for physics class, we had to encase the egg in an origami box. I also enjoyed doing that. It wasn’t quite as peaceful as cutting, though.

Now everybody can tell what I sound like. No pictures though…

I think it’s cool that blogger has these kind of fun gimmicks.

I forgot to mention when I was talking that the seventh anniversary is cotton or wool (traditional) or desk sets (modern).

Pretty much every Monday, I get a couple of hits from a reader in Carlsbad, NM. And if that’s Lori, then you should comment, friend. I’d love to hear from you.

If it’s not Lori…well, hello, whoever you are.

This is my 2nd try at this post. Lost it when I tried to “post” last time. Grrr…

It has been a very busy couple of days chez nous. Yesterday, a friend from The Folk of the Fringe stopped to visit on his way from Northern California to Northern Florida for graduate school. We had never met in Real Life. The couple of times I have met people in Real Life that I only know from the ‘net, I have always enjoyed it.

I fed him some dinner (nothing notable) and then we went in to the French Quarter to look around. We had some beignets at Cafe du Monde and then walked around a bit. It was night by then, so most of the action was concentrated on Bourbon Street. We did see a couple of statue performers, and quickly browsed at a souvenir shop. We gazed at Bourbon Street, which was quite jumping. Many hundreds of people, probably celebrating the Saints pre-season win over the Jets. I decided (and I guess he agreed) that we would forego wading into the crowd, mostly because I thought I was less likely to get puked on that way. We were there for a couple of hours. Because my DH is a king among men, who remembers what it was like to be an impoverished graduate student, he agreed that my ‘net friend could crash at our place.

Every time I go to the Quarter, I see places that I would love to explore, like the Art Tile gallery and the custom jewelry stores, and the Voodoo Museum. They are all closed at night, though, and DH hates that sort of thing. I need a once-a-month French Quarter shopping buddy, who won’t just want to hang out and drink, and who likes to shop in the daytime!

This morning we got up fairly early, but my houseguest was already gone. Good thing he remembered his bike, which we had put in the garage for safekeeping! We got up early so we could pick up the moving truck. Older Son moved today, to Big State University. We were on our way with most of his earthly possessions (and some of ours which are now his) by 11:45 a.m., and got done unloading before 3:00. We went to a late lunch with Older Son’s roommate and his family. We had a nice visit with them - good people!

After unloading, my son and his roommate had to come back to pick up a car. They didn’t know if they were going to be able to stay in their apartment, because they didn’t have the power switched into their names (sigh). They did have power, though, so they drove back this evening.

It’s going to be strange not having him here. An adult fills a lot of space, and there’s a lot of empty space where that particular adult used to be. I’m happy for him to be starting on such a fine adventure. But I’m going to miss him.

I did not get the job I interviewed for earlier in the week. That is probably a good thing…the money was lousy, and wouldn’t have stopped the downward financial spiral, but would only slow it down. I still have a ball in the air for a technical job that would pay much better. Not great hours, but I can live with not great hours for great money.