Interrupted
My Life Thus Far
Slippery Lubricated "Balloons"
I can't put it off any longer. I need to get caught up
before I've missed so many days and have fallen so far
behind that there isn't a chance of me getting current. So
far, this week has been jam-packed and I've hardly had
time to breathe let alone write. I have to sleep sometime.
No excuses, though. None are needed, anyway...
SATURDAY:
The day after Annie's birthday sleepover. In my mind 10am
is the universal end to all sleepovers, but come 10am it
didn't look like anyone was leaving. It wasn't until
almost 2pm that I finally said goodbye to the last little
girl and that was a sad moment for me.
The little girl came here on the bus with Annie at 4pm
with nothing but the clothes on her back, a tattered
jacket and a small backpack with a few papers in it. I
gave her some of Annie's pajamas to sleep in and wondered
how her parents could send her to someone's house with
nothing (on top of that, they never called to talk with me
or to see why she wasn't home until 2pm). When it came
time for her to go home, she asked me for a ride. This
also bothered me a little. Why couldn't her parents come
get her? She asked that I drop her off at a small grocery
store on the side of a busy road instead of taking her to
her house. I absolutely wasn't comfortable with that, so I
insisted that she let me take her to her all the way home.
It had to have been a good 2 miles from the grocery store
to her street. She had me stop in front of a modest, but
well-kept little rambler-style home with a newer pick-up
truck in the driveway. A nice little home. The street was
a cul-de-sac, though. So, when I drove to the end and came
back down the way I'd come, I saw the girl walking behind
the cute little house and up a steep hill to what looked
like a hopelessly condemned house set for demolition. Some
of the windows were boarded up, the roof was sagging,
siding was falling off, the grass was waist-high. My heart
sank. She didn't want me to take her home because she
probably didn't want Annie and I to see where she lived. I
had to resist the urge to take her home with me and give
her a bath, some clean clothes and a new pair of shoes...
I can't save all the neglected children, but it's hard
when there's one right in your home and you missed it :(
Annie got quite a bit of money in her birthday cards, so
of course she wanted to spend it. I took her and her best
friend Sarah to the mall. I got a little irritated at mall
security because even though I wasn't working, I was there
shopping they gave me a ticket for violating the employee
parking regulations. I'm well-aware of the regulations and
I'm allowed to park wherever I want when I'm not on the
clock. I have no idea how they can enforce this rule, but
whatever. I called them up and contested the ticket and
they dropped it. In 3 years I've never gotten a parking
ticket, I'm sure not getting one when I don't deserve it!
Saturday night I went out with T'onna to dinner at Red
Lobster and to see the new spoof Dance Flick, which was
pretty funny. Or was I so exhausted that it just seemed
that funny? Who knows. I spread myself pretty thin on
Saturday.
SUNDAY:
I was finally able to get the house put back together. I
cleaned, did laundry and then at 5pm dropped Annie off at
a Girl Scout sleepover. It was just Annie's weekend of
sleepovers apparently.
MONDAY:
Happy Memorial Day! I didn't have anything planned. I was
thinking about taking the kids to a park or something, but
my neighbor knocked on my door around 10am and asked if I
had any plans. Since I really didn't, I said no and she
invited me to come over and have a little get-together. We
grilled hamburgers and hot dogs for the kids (she made an
excellent Greek chicken salad for us wives) and we put
away a few bottles of Barefoot Chardonnay.
The kids were playing in the kiddy pool, running around
playing games and at some point Sandy (my neighbor)
brought out water balloons. Since we were kind of drunk at
that point we were having some technical difficulties
getting these tiny little balloons to fill up without
breaking. I got the brilliant idea to use condoms! Jason
had a whole drawerful of them and we won't be needing them
anymore, so I brought out about 20 bright orange Trojans
and started filling them up! The kids had a blast trying
to hold onto the slippery lubricated "balloons"! It was
absolutely hilarious!
It was a great day and a real ice-breaker for Sandy and I.
Our relationship as neighbors has been tenuous for reasons
I'm not too sure of, but after that day we've been getting
along great and are starting to develop a friendship,
even. In fact, I agreed to watch her boys in the evenings
this week while she drives to Lakewood to fulfill her
HIV/AIDS certification for Washington State (she's a CNA
and needs to switch all of her certifications to
Washington from Connecticut). I had an on-call tonight and
an on-call on Friday, so my schedule is fairly open. They
didn't use tonight's and I'm hoping they don't use
Friday's. Amy agreed to watch all 5 children should I have
to go in, but it's daunting for me, and I've been a mother
for going on 10 years. I don't want to leave her with them
if it's not necessary.
TUESDAY:
I woke up slightly hungover (because I'm a lightweight)
but I dragged myself up and went to the gym as usual, That
was the only thing that was usual about the day. I went
grocery shopping since the Commissary wasn't open on
Monday (Memorial Day) and then came home in time for Sandy
to bring the boys over at 4pm. It wasn't too bad at first.
It was a nice day out, so the kids mainly played outside
and only came in to use the bathroom and ask for
snacks/drinks. I put some chicken in the oven for them and
it was almost like they turned into vultures. Once the
smell started wafting outside, they call came running in
ravenous. After dinner they played games and watched
cartoons in the living room as I cleaned the kitchen. When
I came out of the kitchen, my heart sank. My living room
looked like a nuclear bomb tucked inside an atom bomb was
dropped right where the coffee table should have been. I
got my kids to bed by 9pm (which is late, but with the
distraction of other kids in the house, I considered
myself lucky) and Sandy's boys laid on the couch to wait
for their mom. They fell asleep around 10pm and I got the
living room picked up just in time for Sandy to come in
and marvel at how my house could be so clean with 5
children in it... If only she knew :)
You'd think that would have been the end of the night, but
it wasn't. Sandy and I got to talking about all kinds of
things. We got our differences out in the open (why we
didn't get along when she first moved in), we discussed
our upbringings, or pasts (we have a lot in common) and
really got to know one another better. I like her :)
She'll never be Gen (no one can replace Gen, she knows too
much), but I do consider her more of a friend than an
acquaintance now. There are things I'll never tell her
(mainly the affair. She's a Navy wife, too and I don't
want her judging me based on that), but I think that's
okay. Is there a law that says friends have to know
EVERYTHING about each other?
By the time we start wrapping up our conversation it's
2am. We were standing out under our carports, about to
part ways when all of a sudden 4 Sheriff's cars come
careening down the hill and turn down the other side of
our street with search lights shining. One of the cruisers
doubled back and parked behind the mini-mart. The officer
got out in body armor and let his dog out the back seat.
He took off down the street and at this point, Sandy and I
are wondering what the hell is going on. She gets the idea
that we should follow them to see what's up. I'm always up
for an adventure, so I said "let's go"! We locked up our
houses and started walking down the street. It wasn't too
long until we walked passed a drainage ditch that had
voices coming out of it. We couldn't tell if it was the
officers searching or whoever they were looking for, but
it was enough to bring us back to our senses. We didn't
need to be out there at almost 3am getting in the middle
of a stake-out! As we came to this realization and started
heading for home, one of the police dogs came running
towards us! Instead of questioning us for being out so
late (there is a 10pm curfew in Jackson Park), they just
told us to stay put until the dog passed us. Sandy asked
them what was going on and the officer said "nothing
ma'am, just doing some training". Training? At 3am? In a
residential neighborhood? On government property? Neither
of us was buying that, but okay. It bothered us that it
was going on, but on the other hand there was such a heavy
police presence it was nice to see that whatever was going
on (if anything), they were taking it seriously.
WEDNESDAY (TODAY):
Because of our little adventure, I didn't get to bed until
after 4am and Keenan decided to wake up at 7am all happy
and totally uninterested in going back to sleep. So, I'm
running on less than 3 hours of sleep. I felt slightly
guilty about it, but I just didn't have the strength to go
to the gym. I procrastinated and waffled over whether or
not I should go until I didn't have time to go even if I
wanted to. Annie gets home at 2pm, James and Jovian were
coming over at 4am. I'd waited too long to make my
decision. Oh well, missing one day isn't the end of the
world.
The evening went much like Tuesday evening except instead
of chicken I made spaghetti. For some reason James was
having trouble behaving for a little bit. He kept kicking
the other kids. I told him at least 5 to 6 times to stop,
but he wouldn't. So, I told him to come in and sit down
for awhile as punishment. Well, he wasn't having that.
Instead of coming in voluntarily, he took off running down
the hill! I took off after him in nothing more than
stockinged feet. Imagine how crazy this looked! Me running
after a little 4 year old boy barefoot as he runs in
circles around the cul-de-sac, weaving and bobbing. Annie
tried to catch him, his brother Jovian tried to catch him.
The little brat was just too quick! I told them "let him
run! He may have speed, but I've got stamina! He'll get
tired eventually!" And sure enough he did. After about 5
minutes he started losing steam and I scooped him up like
a football and carried his behind into the house. I
dropped him on the couch and looked him in the eye and
said "you'd better be glad you're not mine right now". He
didn't move the rest of the night. I don't play. I've
never had a child run from me like that. I told Sandy
about it and she was highly upset. After I caught my
breath it was kind of funny, but he does need to know that
I'm not playing. When I say sit down, I mean sit down. I
can imagine how it must have looked to the few people
walking past. I heard one lady break out laughing.
Sandy got home around 11pm tonight. We chatted for a few
minutes, but neither of us had the energy for another all-
night therapy session. I've come to the end of this entry
and I have every intention of heading off to bed now. Yay!
I'm all caught up! I don't see any reason why I won't be
back on schedule with my entries. This is probably one of
the longest one's I've ever written and I don't
particularly want to do it again... Ciao!
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