So, then a week went by
Oops.
Sorry, this will be one of those ridiculously long catch-up posts, starting with last Thurs, 26 Feb.
Thurs: I had a different physical therapist asst because the PTA who usually partners my PT was out sick. I actually really liked the lady I was given; she was friendly and did very different exercises, so it was nice to have something different to work on.
The day was kind of jumbled; after PT I had a brief period at home, and then it was off to pick up MiniPlu at 11:30am. They had a half day for their parent-teacher conferences. I had scheduled her a much-needed haircut for 1pm, totally forgetting (when I made the appointment) that I would normally be in the elementary library in the afternoon, so I wasn't able to do that at all. While she was getting her hair cut, I realized it had been ages since my last trim. I tried to schedule an appointment, but our stylist pointed out that she had the slot after MiniPlu free, so I just went right after her.
Afterwards, we stopped by Kohl's to get MiniPlu some new bras; she's just at the very VERY early part of development, but all her current bras either a) didn't have any padding or had tiny removable pads that didn't lie right under some of her tops and b) were, regardless, sports-bra style, without any hooks. She's now the proud owner of two 30A bras (although, honestly, I'd call them AA bras - there were some As that had actual curvage and these really don't yet). Still it's the first "real" bras for her, so she was happy (although they're snugger around the ribs than she's used to - they actually fit just fine, but she's having to get used to how a proper bra actually feels). Picked up Two after that, and then it was the usual homework and dinner prep and double gymnastics in the evening.
Fri: Will took the day off, because we not only were meeting with a AAA travel agent at 10am, but he had a haircut mid-afternoon, and felt that there was no point trying to get actual work done with all the back-and-forthing he'd end up doing. I've been trying for ages to get things nailed down for Europe, but feeling kind of boggled by all the various options and not sure really what was doing to be feasible or whatever.
Unfortunately, the guy we got was essentially useless. He told us straight out, when I quoted the airfare I'd been seeing on Travelocity (and related) that we should go ahead and do that on our own because it was a good $600/person cheaper than he could get. He had even more trouble finding quad rooms at non-exorbitant rates (ie thousands of dollars/night) than we were having (and can SOMEONE tell me why Europe makes it so hard to travel for parties larger than two?), wasn't able to get any more train info than we could (nothing past two months in advance), and, basically, didn't have any information I either already knew or could get myself. The only thing he did add was to suggest a Seine cruise + Eiffel tower package, to help bypass the line, which sounded kind of nice, and to point out various reasonable geographic locations to stay in Paris (not hotel-specific) because I'm TOTALLY at a loss there. Otherwise, the biggest thing I took away from the appointment was, "I can do this better myself, after all." Which is a shame, because when we went to Europe in 2011, our agent was much more helpful. We did still book our London hotel on our own, because of a special Internet rate, but the rest she was helpful with. I don't know if our itinerary is more complicated, or if he's just not that talented or what.
It did prompt me and Will to do some hotel and car-rental booking on our own, for things that offered free cancellation in the event that AAA Dude managed to find something we liked better. However, he called today to say he needed more time because he was still having trouble finding suitable things, so, honestly, I think we should just go ahead and do the rest, including the flights. Sheesh.
After the appointment, Will dropped me off at TKD, which wasn't too far away. I was there early enough to get in a reasonable warmup for once, rather than arriving just in time to change and start class. Only one other person came, a guy three belts ahead of me. He's still two away from black, but he's good, and had gave me some useful pointers for sparring. At one point we clashed (we hit each other at the same time in an unplanned way), resulting in my cracking his big toenail. After he'd bandaged that up, he pointed out that I had a bleeding gash down the inside of my left ankle that I hadn't even noticed, so I was blotting that for the rest of the class (we initially couldn't find the First Aid kit). Between the two of us, I'd gotten some blood on my uniform; when I was showing it to Will afterwards, we had the following exchange:
Will: *goggling a little* "What were you KICKING?"
Me: Billy [Lastname]. *g*
As I later retold it: I split his toenail, he gouged my ankle - we called it even. ;) (I also woke up to a spectacularly purple bruise on my left knee - still there, in fact.)
The rest of the day was taken with various misc stuff, picking up kids, packing for NJ, etc. And mourning Leonard Nimoy. I'm not a huge Trekkie, but there was something just so arresting about his character. Star Trek IV is still my favorite, and I do love, "Double dumb ass on you!" as well as the (relatively) recent car commercial starring Nimoy and Zachary Quinto. LLAP, Mr. Nimoy.
Weekend: We planned to spend the entire weekend in NJ with Will's family, as our youngest niece had recently turned 8 and she was having her peer bday party at some gym place on Sunday evening. Unfortunately, the weather fulfilled its forecast, with snow starting Sunday around noon. It was the ice, which was scheduled to arrive later in the afternoon, which had us really worried, however, so as soon as Will finished his workout, ate and cleaned up, we packed up and headed home. It was a slow, sometimes tense trip; what would normally take us 1:40 took us nearly a full hour longer at 2:35p. When we were nearly back, I suggested Will might want some calming tea after the ordeal. He replied, "I was thinking of something a bit stronger." :P But at least we made it home safely. Unfortunately, Melanie's party could only be rescheduled for this Fri afternoon, which means our kids can no longer attend - the only way we could get there in time would be to pull them out of school at, say, 2pm, and it just feels too ridiculous to do that. They're very disappointed - this gym apparently had a zipline MiniPlu was dying to try, and trampolines and who knows what else. Such is life.
Monday: We had a two-hour delay Monday morning, presumably so the buses could scrape off the small amount of ice we got on top of the 3" of snow (which had largely stopped by 7pm). This presented a problem, as I had PT at 10am, right when I needed to be taking MiniPlu to school, and also interfering with my ability to get Two to school at 10:30a for safety patrol. Also, Nala was scheduled to get her stitches out at 9am - the morning was already crowded because it meant that the minute I got the dog back home, I had to turn around and go back out to PT. Thankfully, I got another middle-school mom to pick up MiniPlu at our house (although I offered to drop her off) and I took Two over to another safety-patrol kid's house on my way to therapy. (Nala is now cone free - although she was illegally cone free over the weekend, as well, because we accidentally left the cone in PA when we went to NJ. Thank goodness she never showed much interest in the stitches.) Once PT was over, I shoveled the sidewalk - Will did the driveway but didn't have time for the rest. The sucky part of having a large-ish corner property: all the sidewalk that goes with it. :P
I was asked to sub for PREP that evening - the 7th grade class that MiniPlu *isn't* in. Aside from them all staring blankly at me whenever I tried to get discussion going, it went ok. When MiniPlu warned me that kids were often sneaking looks at their cell phones during her class, I made all the kids in my class put their phones up on the blackboard rail (where I had written their names in little slots) until class was over. Pity it didn't make them actually participate in class at all, but at least they couldn't be secretly texting each other.
Tues: started normally enough. I ran, did a small amount of my shoulder PT but didn't get to finish. Worked the school library in the morning, ate, walked the dog, wasted an hour on the internet and took a short nap in the afternoon. (My devotion to getting more sleep is still working through an enormous sleep deficit, it would seem.) It had started lightly snowing around 1pm but - wonder of wonders - nobody called for early dismissal. It was a little slippery although not horrible when I went to pick up MiniPlu from school.
There is a 4-way stop not far from my house. I was heading south, and a guy in a green SUV to my right was heading east. It was my turn, I'm pretty sure, but Green SUV went at the same time I did. I leaned on the horn and slammed on the brakes, but the snow meant I couldn't fully stop in time and, as far as I could tell, he didn't try to stop at all. His car hit mine across the front. I finished crossing the intersection and pulled over to pull myself together for a minute before I got out. Looked around the corner in the direction the other car had been going ... and he was gone. Went back to look at my car, and was pleasantly surprised to find that while my front bumper was clearly scraped up, and cracked in spots, there was no visible further damage - no broken headlights, no dents in the frame, nada. But I was royally pissed that he'd left the scene of the accident! If I hadn't slammed on the brakes, he would have seriously T-boned me.
But since the car was driveable and no one was hurt, I continued on my way, picking up both kids, and relating what had happened to Will. I wasn't sure there was a point in talking to police.
"Do you know what model it was?"
"No."
"Did you get the license plate?"
"No."
"Sorry, lady, we can't help you."
But one of Will's coworkers' husband used to work closely with the police and said it was good for me to file a report anyway. If anything, it at least makes the other guy look guilty for leaving the scene of the accident. I wasn't sure how long this would take, dinnertime was approaching, and Will was stuck in crawling sleet-related traffic (took him an hour+ for what was normally a 15-min commute) so I decided to wait until I'd fed the kids (and myself) and Will was either home or nearly so before I headed to the police station. Now, THAT was a slippery trip, with a good inch of sleet all over the place, but I made it.
And then it all turned out kind of funny. I was gently teasing the cop who was taking notes on my case for having absolutely atrocious handwriting. "I hope you can read your notes, because I can't." One of his coworkers turned around and said, "Are you making fun of his handwriting? Oh, good, I'm glad someone else is!" because apparently it's a running joke that he has illegible writing. So, we're all kind of laughing about that, and I mentioned how my daughter had been in her middle-school play recently, and how, in leaving her a note (they have paper bags of candy where, for a small amount of money, you can leave some candy and a nice note for the actor/crew members of your choice - they get the bags at the cast party), Will had written so badly, all MiniPlu could read was, "Dear MiniPlu .... Love, Dad." He had to translate the rest for her.
The cop who'd been helping me looked up and says, "What role did your daughter have?" So I told him they did Willy Wonka and she was an Ooompa Loompa. He nodded and said, "Mine was a Golden Ticket Girl." When I looked at him, he then added his daughter's name. Well, it turns out that girl is one of MiniPlu's friends! She was the understudy for Veruca Salt, as well (MiniPlu felt she would have done a better job, in fact). But, yeah, so, suddenly we have this bonding moment because our kids know each other and we're both familiar with the play they were in. It was just funny.
Anyway, he took my statement, looked at my car (as stated: bumper scraped up, cracked in spots and the cop also noted it was pushed slightly out of alignment but the frame is probably ok) and that was it. But at least it was a positive experience overall, even if nothing really comes of it. On the other hand, if they pull over a green SUV with a scratched up driver's side, for some other infraction, they'll know it's probably the guy who left my accident scene. :P
And now I get to report it to insurance, get the car fixed, and feel like absolute shite for getting another car banged up even though this one wasn't my fault at all.
Wed: Because of last night's sleet, I wasn't remotely surprised when the call came at 5am for another two-hour delay. I was, however, absolutely FURIOUS when it was changed to a full-on cancellation at 7am. Just as with the previous time they pulled this "we're changing our minds" crap, there was NO REAL REASON FOR IT. Yes, the neighborhood streets were still slushy if they hadn't been plowed yet. But the main roads were FINE. I know we have a large district with varied terrain (hilly and flat) and neighborhoods, both rich and poor, but I can't imagine anyone's streets being any worse than my unplowed (at the time) neighborhood. You know what I had to do when I needed to go to the store? I DROVE SLOWLY. Shock and amazement - that's all it took for me to travel safely. We picked up our kids in the snow yesterday. Why couldn't they have school today when it was forecast to be above freezing and, at worst, have light rain throughout the day? So getting to school might've been kind of sloppy for some folks. WE LIVE IN PA. GET USED TO IT. The rest of the day was completely ordinary. We lost Easter Monday for this?? OMG, I'm so angry - and even more so as we're forecast to get another couple of inches of snow TONIGHT (same damn system - it just won't go away) so God only knows what that will mean for school tomorrow. All I know is, any more snow days from here on out are going to be tacked on to the end of the school year, and I plan to leave for Scotland on my chosen date, school or no school.
Color me disgruntled in the extreme.
So, yeah, my day kind of went to the dogs, although I did manage to get in the most crucial things: laundry, grocery (Baskin Robbins pints are now available at my grocery store, including my very favorite flavor!!), picking up someone's late chocolate order for the fundraiser I'm running at school, TKD at noon, gas in the car, shoveling, walking the dog, supervising homework, making dinner. Not much time to sit around, and I didn't get to the public library like I normally would have, but ... it had to do. And, OMG, the shoveling. First off, the instructor did a lot of core work at TKD at noon, which is good because I need that. But still - a lot of core work, some leg work. I had been hoping that the weather would be mild enough to melt the sidewalks and I wouldn't have to shovel, but by the time TKD ended, I had to admit this wasn't happening. Unfortunately, by then the slush had half-melted and half-frozen to the sidewalk, making it INCREDIBLY heavy, and requiring foot leverage against the shovel in order to pry the slop loose from the pavement. It took FOREVER to clear and my back was killing me by the end. Between TKD and that, I am likely going to be in serious pain tomorrow.
While I was shoveling that endless sidewalk, I kept telling myself, "By this time next month, there will be flowers. They might just be croci, but THERE WILL BE FLOWERS."
So, uh, yeah, that's been my week. Sorry for the tl;dr post. Oh, one bright spot - I was asked to stand up for my Boston friend who's getting married summer 2016. She gave me a choice, in case I'd rather stay with my family for the event (or they'd rather not sacrifice me for the commitment) but I said I would be honored to, and Will pointed out (correctly) that he's spent WAY more time in garages with his friends than I've spent doing anything with my friends, and that Jen and I have been friends for over 20 years. So, I'm excited about that. :D
And now it's time for bed. I've been good about getting there on time since making the switch in my Lenten commitment, but since it's almost guaranteed that school will not start on time tomorrow (if at all) I felt I could get away with cheating a bit tonight.
Sorry, this will be one of those ridiculously long catch-up posts, starting with last Thurs, 26 Feb.
Thurs: I had a different physical therapist asst because the PTA who usually partners my PT was out sick. I actually really liked the lady I was given; she was friendly and did very different exercises, so it was nice to have something different to work on.
The day was kind of jumbled; after PT I had a brief period at home, and then it was off to pick up MiniPlu at 11:30am. They had a half day for their parent-teacher conferences. I had scheduled her a much-needed haircut for 1pm, totally forgetting (when I made the appointment) that I would normally be in the elementary library in the afternoon, so I wasn't able to do that at all. While she was getting her hair cut, I realized it had been ages since my last trim. I tried to schedule an appointment, but our stylist pointed out that she had the slot after MiniPlu free, so I just went right after her.
Afterwards, we stopped by Kohl's to get MiniPlu some new bras; she's just at the very VERY early part of development, but all her current bras either a) didn't have any padding or had tiny removable pads that didn't lie right under some of her tops and b) were, regardless, sports-bra style, without any hooks. She's now the proud owner of two 30A bras (although, honestly, I'd call them AA bras - there were some As that had actual curvage and these really don't yet). Still it's the first "real" bras for her, so she was happy (although they're snugger around the ribs than she's used to - they actually fit just fine, but she's having to get used to how a proper bra actually feels). Picked up Two after that, and then it was the usual homework and dinner prep and double gymnastics in the evening.
Fri: Will took the day off, because we not only were meeting with a AAA travel agent at 10am, but he had a haircut mid-afternoon, and felt that there was no point trying to get actual work done with all the back-and-forthing he'd end up doing. I've been trying for ages to get things nailed down for Europe, but feeling kind of boggled by all the various options and not sure really what was doing to be feasible or whatever.
Unfortunately, the guy we got was essentially useless. He told us straight out, when I quoted the airfare I'd been seeing on Travelocity (and related) that we should go ahead and do that on our own because it was a good $600/person cheaper than he could get. He had even more trouble finding quad rooms at non-exorbitant rates (ie thousands of dollars/night) than we were having (and can SOMEONE tell me why Europe makes it so hard to travel for parties larger than two?), wasn't able to get any more train info than we could (nothing past two months in advance), and, basically, didn't have any information I either already knew or could get myself. The only thing he did add was to suggest a Seine cruise + Eiffel tower package, to help bypass the line, which sounded kind of nice, and to point out various reasonable geographic locations to stay in Paris (not hotel-specific) because I'm TOTALLY at a loss there. Otherwise, the biggest thing I took away from the appointment was, "I can do this better myself, after all." Which is a shame, because when we went to Europe in 2011, our agent was much more helpful. We did still book our London hotel on our own, because of a special Internet rate, but the rest she was helpful with. I don't know if our itinerary is more complicated, or if he's just not that talented or what.
It did prompt me and Will to do some hotel and car-rental booking on our own, for things that offered free cancellation in the event that AAA Dude managed to find something we liked better. However, he called today to say he needed more time because he was still having trouble finding suitable things, so, honestly, I think we should just go ahead and do the rest, including the flights. Sheesh.
After the appointment, Will dropped me off at TKD, which wasn't too far away. I was there early enough to get in a reasonable warmup for once, rather than arriving just in time to change and start class. Only one other person came, a guy three belts ahead of me. He's still two away from black, but he's good, and had gave me some useful pointers for sparring. At one point we clashed (we hit each other at the same time in an unplanned way), resulting in my cracking his big toenail. After he'd bandaged that up, he pointed out that I had a bleeding gash down the inside of my left ankle that I hadn't even noticed, so I was blotting that for the rest of the class (we initially couldn't find the First Aid kit). Between the two of us, I'd gotten some blood on my uniform; when I was showing it to Will afterwards, we had the following exchange:
Will: *goggling a little* "What were you KICKING?"
Me: Billy [Lastname]. *g*
As I later retold it: I split his toenail, he gouged my ankle - we called it even. ;) (I also woke up to a spectacularly purple bruise on my left knee - still there, in fact.)
The rest of the day was taken with various misc stuff, picking up kids, packing for NJ, etc. And mourning Leonard Nimoy. I'm not a huge Trekkie, but there was something just so arresting about his character. Star Trek IV is still my favorite, and I do love, "Double dumb ass on you!" as well as the (relatively) recent car commercial starring Nimoy and Zachary Quinto. LLAP, Mr. Nimoy.
Weekend: We planned to spend the entire weekend in NJ with Will's family, as our youngest niece had recently turned 8 and she was having her peer bday party at some gym place on Sunday evening. Unfortunately, the weather fulfilled its forecast, with snow starting Sunday around noon. It was the ice, which was scheduled to arrive later in the afternoon, which had us really worried, however, so as soon as Will finished his workout, ate and cleaned up, we packed up and headed home. It was a slow, sometimes tense trip; what would normally take us 1:40 took us nearly a full hour longer at 2:35p. When we were nearly back, I suggested Will might want some calming tea after the ordeal. He replied, "I was thinking of something a bit stronger." :P But at least we made it home safely. Unfortunately, Melanie's party could only be rescheduled for this Fri afternoon, which means our kids can no longer attend - the only way we could get there in time would be to pull them out of school at, say, 2pm, and it just feels too ridiculous to do that. They're very disappointed - this gym apparently had a zipline MiniPlu was dying to try, and trampolines and who knows what else. Such is life.
Monday: We had a two-hour delay Monday morning, presumably so the buses could scrape off the small amount of ice we got on top of the 3" of snow (which had largely stopped by 7pm). This presented a problem, as I had PT at 10am, right when I needed to be taking MiniPlu to school, and also interfering with my ability to get Two to school at 10:30a for safety patrol. Also, Nala was scheduled to get her stitches out at 9am - the morning was already crowded because it meant that the minute I got the dog back home, I had to turn around and go back out to PT. Thankfully, I got another middle-school mom to pick up MiniPlu at our house (although I offered to drop her off) and I took Two over to another safety-patrol kid's house on my way to therapy. (Nala is now cone free - although she was illegally cone free over the weekend, as well, because we accidentally left the cone in PA when we went to NJ. Thank goodness she never showed much interest in the stitches.) Once PT was over, I shoveled the sidewalk - Will did the driveway but didn't have time for the rest. The sucky part of having a large-ish corner property: all the sidewalk that goes with it. :P
I was asked to sub for PREP that evening - the 7th grade class that MiniPlu *isn't* in. Aside from them all staring blankly at me whenever I tried to get discussion going, it went ok. When MiniPlu warned me that kids were often sneaking looks at their cell phones during her class, I made all the kids in my class put their phones up on the blackboard rail (where I had written their names in little slots) until class was over. Pity it didn't make them actually participate in class at all, but at least they couldn't be secretly texting each other.
Tues: started normally enough. I ran, did a small amount of my shoulder PT but didn't get to finish. Worked the school library in the morning, ate, walked the dog, wasted an hour on the internet and took a short nap in the afternoon. (My devotion to getting more sleep is still working through an enormous sleep deficit, it would seem.) It had started lightly snowing around 1pm but - wonder of wonders - nobody called for early dismissal. It was a little slippery although not horrible when I went to pick up MiniPlu from school.
There is a 4-way stop not far from my house. I was heading south, and a guy in a green SUV to my right was heading east. It was my turn, I'm pretty sure, but Green SUV went at the same time I did. I leaned on the horn and slammed on the brakes, but the snow meant I couldn't fully stop in time and, as far as I could tell, he didn't try to stop at all. His car hit mine across the front. I finished crossing the intersection and pulled over to pull myself together for a minute before I got out. Looked around the corner in the direction the other car had been going ... and he was gone. Went back to look at my car, and was pleasantly surprised to find that while my front bumper was clearly scraped up, and cracked in spots, there was no visible further damage - no broken headlights, no dents in the frame, nada. But I was royally pissed that he'd left the scene of the accident! If I hadn't slammed on the brakes, he would have seriously T-boned me.
But since the car was driveable and no one was hurt, I continued on my way, picking up both kids, and relating what had happened to Will. I wasn't sure there was a point in talking to police.
"Do you know what model it was?"
"No."
"Did you get the license plate?"
"No."
"Sorry, lady, we can't help you."
But one of Will's coworkers' husband used to work closely with the police and said it was good for me to file a report anyway. If anything, it at least makes the other guy look guilty for leaving the scene of the accident. I wasn't sure how long this would take, dinnertime was approaching, and Will was stuck in crawling sleet-related traffic (took him an hour+ for what was normally a 15-min commute) so I decided to wait until I'd fed the kids (and myself) and Will was either home or nearly so before I headed to the police station. Now, THAT was a slippery trip, with a good inch of sleet all over the place, but I made it.
And then it all turned out kind of funny. I was gently teasing the cop who was taking notes on my case for having absolutely atrocious handwriting. "I hope you can read your notes, because I can't." One of his coworkers turned around and said, "Are you making fun of his handwriting? Oh, good, I'm glad someone else is!" because apparently it's a running joke that he has illegible writing. So, we're all kind of laughing about that, and I mentioned how my daughter had been in her middle-school play recently, and how, in leaving her a note (they have paper bags of candy where, for a small amount of money, you can leave some candy and a nice note for the actor/crew members of your choice - they get the bags at the cast party), Will had written so badly, all MiniPlu could read was, "Dear MiniPlu .... Love, Dad." He had to translate the rest for her.
The cop who'd been helping me looked up and says, "What role did your daughter have?" So I told him they did Willy Wonka and she was an Ooompa Loompa. He nodded and said, "Mine was a Golden Ticket Girl." When I looked at him, he then added his daughter's name. Well, it turns out that girl is one of MiniPlu's friends! She was the understudy for Veruca Salt, as well (MiniPlu felt she would have done a better job, in fact). But, yeah, so, suddenly we have this bonding moment because our kids know each other and we're both familiar with the play they were in. It was just funny.
Anyway, he took my statement, looked at my car (as stated: bumper scraped up, cracked in spots and the cop also noted it was pushed slightly out of alignment but the frame is probably ok) and that was it. But at least it was a positive experience overall, even if nothing really comes of it. On the other hand, if they pull over a green SUV with a scratched up driver's side, for some other infraction, they'll know it's probably the guy who left my accident scene. :P
And now I get to report it to insurance, get the car fixed, and feel like absolute shite for getting another car banged up even though this one wasn't my fault at all.
Wed: Because of last night's sleet, I wasn't remotely surprised when the call came at 5am for another two-hour delay. I was, however, absolutely FURIOUS when it was changed to a full-on cancellation at 7am. Just as with the previous time they pulled this "we're changing our minds" crap, there was NO REAL REASON FOR IT. Yes, the neighborhood streets were still slushy if they hadn't been plowed yet. But the main roads were FINE. I know we have a large district with varied terrain (hilly and flat) and neighborhoods, both rich and poor, but I can't imagine anyone's streets being any worse than my unplowed (at the time) neighborhood. You know what I had to do when I needed to go to the store? I DROVE SLOWLY. Shock and amazement - that's all it took for me to travel safely. We picked up our kids in the snow yesterday. Why couldn't they have school today when it was forecast to be above freezing and, at worst, have light rain throughout the day? So getting to school might've been kind of sloppy for some folks. WE LIVE IN PA. GET USED TO IT. The rest of the day was completely ordinary. We lost Easter Monday for this?? OMG, I'm so angry - and even more so as we're forecast to get another couple of inches of snow TONIGHT (same damn system - it just won't go away) so God only knows what that will mean for school tomorrow. All I know is, any more snow days from here on out are going to be tacked on to the end of the school year, and I plan to leave for Scotland on my chosen date, school or no school.
Color me disgruntled in the extreme.
So, yeah, my day kind of went to the dogs, although I did manage to get in the most crucial things: laundry, grocery (Baskin Robbins pints are now available at my grocery store, including my very favorite flavor!!), picking up someone's late chocolate order for the fundraiser I'm running at school, TKD at noon, gas in the car, shoveling, walking the dog, supervising homework, making dinner. Not much time to sit around, and I didn't get to the public library like I normally would have, but ... it had to do. And, OMG, the shoveling. First off, the instructor did a lot of core work at TKD at noon, which is good because I need that. But still - a lot of core work, some leg work. I had been hoping that the weather would be mild enough to melt the sidewalks and I wouldn't have to shovel, but by the time TKD ended, I had to admit this wasn't happening. Unfortunately, by then the slush had half-melted and half-frozen to the sidewalk, making it INCREDIBLY heavy, and requiring foot leverage against the shovel in order to pry the slop loose from the pavement. It took FOREVER to clear and my back was killing me by the end. Between TKD and that, I am likely going to be in serious pain tomorrow.
While I was shoveling that endless sidewalk, I kept telling myself, "By this time next month, there will be flowers. They might just be croci, but THERE WILL BE FLOWERS."
So, uh, yeah, that's been my week. Sorry for the tl;dr post. Oh, one bright spot - I was asked to stand up for my Boston friend who's getting married summer 2016. She gave me a choice, in case I'd rather stay with my family for the event (or they'd rather not sacrifice me for the commitment) but I said I would be honored to, and Will pointed out (correctly) that he's spent WAY more time in garages with his friends than I've spent doing anything with my friends, and that Jen and I have been friends for over 20 years. So, I'm excited about that. :D
And now it's time for bed. I've been good about getting there on time since making the switch in my Lenten commitment, but since it's almost guaranteed that school will not start on time tomorrow (if at all) I felt I could get away with cheating a bit tonight.