Exhausted daughter returns, and recent entertainment
Note: I actually typed this up last night (Sun) and then forgot to actually post it. :-P
MiniPlu is back from her senior-class trip to Disney World/Universal Studios in Florida! She did send a few pics while she was gone, and I spoke to her briefly last night, so I have a general idea how it went and it sounds like she had a blast. However, she had come down with a cold right before leaving, and all the gogogogogogogo + not enough sleep + laughing and constantly talking to friends didn't help, which means she hasn't had much of a voice in several days. I don't want to tax her voice too much, so I'll wait for more stories until after she improves.
Although the 200 kids (+ chaperones) flew down on a single flight on Wed, they came back today on two flights. MiniPlu was assigned the earlier one, which was initially supposed to leave around 10:30a and get in early afternoon. Then, yesterday, apparently the airline decided to move their flight - by a LOT - and they were suddenly on a 7:45a flight. This meant they had to be on the Disney bus to the airport at 4:15a, and be checking in with their chaperones at 3:45a and basically the kid got 3 hours of sleep last night. (But it's still preferable to the other group, who were on a flight 12 hours later and basically won't get back to the area until nearly midnight - and then have to go to school at 7:20a tomorrow.) At least this way MiniPlu got to nap a bit and tackle some homework, and her laundry is done.
I'm annoyed at Will, though. See, back when we thought she'd be back maybe 2p-ish, I went ahead and scheduled a blood donation for 11:45a, knowing I'd be done in ample time to still pick her up from school (kids were bused between the airport and school in both directions). Except with the change in flight times, now I wasn't going to be able to pick her up. Will said he'd be fine picking her up instead, so I texted MiniPlu to let her know to expect him and not me. With the benefit of Life360, I was able to track her progress, and told Will when she passed a particular landmark that meant she was about 15 mins from school, so he'd know to get his shoes on and get out the door. I went out the door, but, enroute to the blood drive, I stopped at a light and checked her progress again via Life360. The bus was off the highway and about 3 mins from school ... and Will was still at home. Now, it's only a 6 min drive to school, but STILL. I called to WTF him, and he was completely dismissive, saying, "It'll be fine. It'll take them forever to offload bags and stuff, so she won't be ready to leave for awhile." And I'm just ... "No, you need to BE THERE when she gets off the bus." And he just didn't get how important it is for a kid to see their parent the minute they get off a bus/get out of an event, to know they don't have to stand around and wonder if they've been forgotten, etc, especially for a kid who's been away for four days and has explicitly stated that she's missed us. Even MiniPlu had noticed, as she was moments away from school, that her dad was still home, and had called to make sure he hadn't forgotten.
Now, he showed up within a couple of minutes of her arrival, and it's not like she was truly stranded. But he was one of only a handful of parents who WASN'T already there when the kids arrived and MiniPlu was understandably annoyed. Especially as there is absolutely no reason why he was late. He was dressed. He wasn't in the middle of something. He just didn't seem to think it mattered about getting his ass out the door earlier. (Also, it didn't, in fact, take more than about 2 minutes for kids to grab their bags. But even if it had, she would have wanted him there WITH her while they waited.) All I could do was apologize via text for Dad being a PITA and for not being there, myself. I had to explain to him, in small words, why it mattered that he be there. :-P
Men.
Also, I continue to have a love/hate view of my BIL. 'nuff said.
MiniPlu is, of course, drop-dead exhausted, as well as still sick, and she's going to have several grueling days ahead of her with school, tests/quizzes, Winter Guard (flags) practice, meetings, etc. She's very fortunate that a test she was supposed to have tomorrow got postponed to Wed!
I am happy to report that my blood donation went well - that's two in a row! Initially I just failed the iron/hemoglobin test by two lousy tenths, but the nurse/tech said sometimes warming your fingers helps (I do often have cold hands) so I spent a few minutes rubbing my hands together, and then she tested the other hand - I had a tech once tell me they can get two different readings from each hand - and, sure enough, my levels went up six tenths, more than enough to pass the minimum. Yay!
In other news, Two and I attended the middle school production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat on Sat night, which is a musical I adore. It wasn't the strongest performance I've seen the school do - their rendition of The Music Man three years ago was WAY better - but the kids clearly work hard and it's definitely better than what our old middle school could achieve.
(Did I report on our trip to NYC to see Hamilton last weekend? We had fun eating at "the best pizza place in NYC" (even MiniPlu had heard of it) - a typically tiny hole-in-the-wall spot with reasonably priced and delicious slices. And we shopped at the two most important stores in Times Square: Hershey's, and M&M's. :-D As for the musical - we did, alas, have nosebleed seats, and I wish we could have sat closer without paying, you know, $500+ a ticket, but it was still an enjoyable experience to see it live.)
I also finished two books: The Body by Bill Bryson, which was absolutely FASCINATING. All kinds of cool stuff I didn't know about, plus stories about how various systems and bits of information were initially discovered, the progress of our knowledge about those things, debunking common myths, recent discoveries, and admissions about how much we still don't know. If you have any interest in consumer-level science (and not super-duper technical stuff), then I highly recommend this. I've found his travelogues sometimes uneven (some I loved, some I really did not), but this one and The Mother Tongue are among my favorites.
The other book I finished was the second in the Lady Hardcastle series called, In the Market for Murder. The characters were so delightful, and there are so many interesting allusions to Lady Hardcastle and her maid/BFF's past adventures, I was very happy to return to the cozy mystery series and delve into another story. Nothing really too noteworthy to say except that it was just as much fun as the first one, and it wasn't until the murder weapon was finally revealed that I had an inkling about which of the many possible suspects it actually would end up being. Although I admit I was also a little surprised at how a couple of other side mysteries ended up being tied together. Anyway, a fun return to the 1909 English countryside, with lively and interesting characters. I do recommend this series if you like cozy mysteries.
Aaaand, I think that's about it from here. How are you?
MiniPlu is back from her senior-class trip to Disney World/Universal Studios in Florida! She did send a few pics while she was gone, and I spoke to her briefly last night, so I have a general idea how it went and it sounds like she had a blast. However, she had come down with a cold right before leaving, and all the gogogogogogogo + not enough sleep + laughing and constantly talking to friends didn't help, which means she hasn't had much of a voice in several days. I don't want to tax her voice too much, so I'll wait for more stories until after she improves.
Although the 200 kids (+ chaperones) flew down on a single flight on Wed, they came back today on two flights. MiniPlu was assigned the earlier one, which was initially supposed to leave around 10:30a and get in early afternoon. Then, yesterday, apparently the airline decided to move their flight - by a LOT - and they were suddenly on a 7:45a flight. This meant they had to be on the Disney bus to the airport at 4:15a, and be checking in with their chaperones at 3:45a and basically the kid got 3 hours of sleep last night. (But it's still preferable to the other group, who were on a flight 12 hours later and basically won't get back to the area until nearly midnight - and then have to go to school at 7:20a tomorrow.) At least this way MiniPlu got to nap a bit and tackle some homework, and her laundry is done.
I'm annoyed at Will, though. See, back when we thought she'd be back maybe 2p-ish, I went ahead and scheduled a blood donation for 11:45a, knowing I'd be done in ample time to still pick her up from school (kids were bused between the airport and school in both directions). Except with the change in flight times, now I wasn't going to be able to pick her up. Will said he'd be fine picking her up instead, so I texted MiniPlu to let her know to expect him and not me. With the benefit of Life360, I was able to track her progress, and told Will when she passed a particular landmark that meant she was about 15 mins from school, so he'd know to get his shoes on and get out the door. I went out the door, but, enroute to the blood drive, I stopped at a light and checked her progress again via Life360. The bus was off the highway and about 3 mins from school ... and Will was still at home. Now, it's only a 6 min drive to school, but STILL. I called to WTF him, and he was completely dismissive, saying, "It'll be fine. It'll take them forever to offload bags and stuff, so she won't be ready to leave for awhile." And I'm just ... "No, you need to BE THERE when she gets off the bus." And he just didn't get how important it is for a kid to see their parent the minute they get off a bus/get out of an event, to know they don't have to stand around and wonder if they've been forgotten, etc, especially for a kid who's been away for four days and has explicitly stated that she's missed us. Even MiniPlu had noticed, as she was moments away from school, that her dad was still home, and had called to make sure he hadn't forgotten.
Now, he showed up within a couple of minutes of her arrival, and it's not like she was truly stranded. But he was one of only a handful of parents who WASN'T already there when the kids arrived and MiniPlu was understandably annoyed. Especially as there is absolutely no reason why he was late. He was dressed. He wasn't in the middle of something. He just didn't seem to think it mattered about getting his ass out the door earlier. (Also, it didn't, in fact, take more than about 2 minutes for kids to grab their bags. But even if it had, she would have wanted him there WITH her while they waited.) All I could do was apologize via text for Dad being a PITA and for not being there, myself. I had to explain to him, in small words, why it mattered that he be there. :-P
Men.
Also, I continue to have a love/hate view of my BIL. 'nuff said.
MiniPlu is, of course, drop-dead exhausted, as well as still sick, and she's going to have several grueling days ahead of her with school, tests/quizzes, Winter Guard (flags) practice, meetings, etc. She's very fortunate that a test she was supposed to have tomorrow got postponed to Wed!
I am happy to report that my blood donation went well - that's two in a row! Initially I just failed the iron/hemoglobin test by two lousy tenths, but the nurse/tech said sometimes warming your fingers helps (I do often have cold hands) so I spent a few minutes rubbing my hands together, and then she tested the other hand - I had a tech once tell me they can get two different readings from each hand - and, sure enough, my levels went up six tenths, more than enough to pass the minimum. Yay!
In other news, Two and I attended the middle school production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat on Sat night, which is a musical I adore. It wasn't the strongest performance I've seen the school do - their rendition of The Music Man three years ago was WAY better - but the kids clearly work hard and it's definitely better than what our old middle school could achieve.
(Did I report on our trip to NYC to see Hamilton last weekend? We had fun eating at "the best pizza place in NYC" (even MiniPlu had heard of it) - a typically tiny hole-in-the-wall spot with reasonably priced and delicious slices. And we shopped at the two most important stores in Times Square: Hershey's, and M&M's. :-D As for the musical - we did, alas, have nosebleed seats, and I wish we could have sat closer without paying, you know, $500+ a ticket, but it was still an enjoyable experience to see it live.)
I also finished two books: The Body by Bill Bryson, which was absolutely FASCINATING. All kinds of cool stuff I didn't know about, plus stories about how various systems and bits of information were initially discovered, the progress of our knowledge about those things, debunking common myths, recent discoveries, and admissions about how much we still don't know. If you have any interest in consumer-level science (and not super-duper technical stuff), then I highly recommend this. I've found his travelogues sometimes uneven (some I loved, some I really did not), but this one and The Mother Tongue are among my favorites.
The other book I finished was the second in the Lady Hardcastle series called, In the Market for Murder. The characters were so delightful, and there are so many interesting allusions to Lady Hardcastle and her maid/BFF's past adventures, I was very happy to return to the cozy mystery series and delve into another story. Nothing really too noteworthy to say except that it was just as much fun as the first one, and it wasn't until the murder weapon was finally revealed that I had an inkling about which of the many possible suspects it actually would end up being. Although I admit I was also a little surprised at how a couple of other side mysteries ended up being tied together. Anyway, a fun return to the 1909 English countryside, with lively and interesting characters. I do recommend this series if you like cozy mysteries.
Aaaand, I think that's about it from here. How are you?