Sink o’ de Mayo

Hee!  I realize I am not clever by using that title, but hey, it amuses me.

We decided to celebrate this momentous day by having Korean food for dinner.  I found a delicious recipe for spicy Korean chicken online quite a while back, and it’d been a while since we had it.  We’ve been having such rotten weather that I was desperate for something hot and soothing.  The spice did an excellent job of warming me from the inside, that’s for sure.

And instead of cerveza, I am drinking a gin and tonic.

Trust me, after the day I’ve had, I need it.

On the days that Grace has school, I get up between 7:15am and 7:20 to hop in the shower, and I wake Grace up at 7:40.  This morning I was awoken at 6:45 by the sound of her screaming at the top of her lungs.  Utterly confused, I jumped out of bed to find her in the hallway, screaming at Kurt that she wanted another hug before he went to work.  She was somewhat sleep-addled, I guess — there’s no other explanation for how confused she was.  I mean, Kurt goes to work every single day.  This isn’t anything new.

Her screeching was so loud it woke the baby up, so now I had two screaming kids to wrangle.  Did I mention I hadn’t gone to sleep till well after 1am?  I’m reading a great book, and I just didn’t want to put it down.  So here I am, exhausted and blind, since I hadn’t even stopped to put my glasses on, trying to soothe two screaming kids.  Yeeesh.  Finally I got them settled down, and I went back to bed for twenty more minutes.

Because Grace woke up so early, she was extremely tired and uncooperative when it was finally time to get out of bed.  She had to go to the corner twice in the forty-five minutes between getting her up and leaving for school.  And when she wasn’t in trouble, she was narrating my entire morning to me, non-stop.  It was all I could do to prevent myself from tearing my hair out in frustration.

Finally it’s time to leave.  Mary Ellen’s in her car seat, so I grab that (it’s getting so heavy) and head outside.  Strangely enough, the van wouldn’t beep as I pushed the button to unlock it.  The damn thing just wouldn’t start!  Here I am, in the pouring rain with a toddler and an infant, with no working vehicle — and Grace is supposed to be at school in five minutes.  GAH!

Could my day get any worse?  Oh yes, but only slightly.  By the time I get to school (Kurt came home to jump the van), I tried ducking into her classroom before the school nurse could see me.  But alas, I wasn’t quick enough — and I got collared.  She’s been bugging me for the last couple of weeks because Grace’s allergy information wasn’t up-to-date, and I knew she’d say something again.  She really tore into me, giving me no room to make excuses.  By the time she was done with me, I wanted to punch her in the gut, and I’m not a violent person.  As it was, I was blinking back tears after all that had happened that morning.  Even Grace’s teachers noticed I wasn’t doing well.

But you know, the nice thing about having such a shit-tastic morning is that it can only really go up from there.  Kurt agreed to buy me an Egg McMuffin, which went a long ways to cheering me up.  And later, after Grace got home from school, she took a three-hour nap while I read on the couch.  I ended up falling asleep too as ME snoozed on the floor.  She had been crawling around, perfectly content, when she got tuckered out and fell asleep holding onto my foot.

So yeah, I think I earned my gin and tonic.

Geez, we’ve been busy.  One day we went driving around and ended up at an antique store about an hour away.  Sunday we went to the circus up in Providence, which Grace found absolutely fascinating.  I thoroughly enjoyed it myself, but then I’ve always liked the circus.  That’s how Kurt and I celebrated my 21st  birthday, many years ago.  Only then we lived in Norfolk, headquarters of PETA, so there were protesters outside handing out pamphlets.  Personally, I was rooting for the tigers to gnaw off the head of their trainer, but alas, they didn’t cooperate.  One of them looked about ready for a snack, but he ended up behaving and walking into his cage, meek as a kitten.

I’ll try to catch up on all y’all soon.  I miss you all!