Friday Is Good

Grace under pressure, I think that’s what I’ve got some form of. When the day is just dumb and boring and endless and we are all getting on each other’s nerves, I can be as cantankerous as the rest of them. But when there is Actual Badness going on, I can keep it together and be pleasant for much longer.

I mean it won’t stop me from complaining.

Our Actual Badness at the moment is simultaneous head colds, day 2 for both kids. Endless snot and a pair of that kind of cough that clears a room.

…yesterday I had pink eye

(does anyone want to come over? I didn’t think so!)

but the eye drops have taken care of it in a hurry.

I got up at 5 am today and SA went to work at 5:30 so as of starting writing this I had been on shift for 9 hours already (3 more hours to go!) and this is my first break. Yet I am keeping it both positive and real and I think it is because of three things: (isn’t it always?)

1. Returning from our walk this morning, I remarked upon a gigantic moving van backed up into the cul de sac we call home. The driver / loader guy asked me if I wanted to come on board. I said sure. Maybe he meant it in a dirty way but I was more, hell yes, let me get the kids inside the house and I will do a different job moving furniture for a while. After all, is a change not as good as a rest? Then he said, we’re going all the way to Newfoundland!

Imagine that for a moment. You just hop in a big truck and move to Newfoundland. As far from here as you can get.

OK, I said. I’ll be back in five minutes. The man laughed at me. Why did he laugh at me?

Trombone said, Mommy what is Newfoundland?

I said, it’s on the other side of the country.

Trombone said, That is a long way.

I said, yes.

Is it farther than Mexico?

Yes.

Can we go there?

Someday.

I spent the next half hour fantasizing about moving to Newfoundland. I had a really great little house on the edge of a cliff and a big dog named Danger Beagle who was not actually a beagle.

2. I made kickass lasagna last night and am eating the heck out of it today.

3. Yo Gabba Gabba.

I have not written about this children’s TV show before. I suspect it is a divisive one; that there are folks who hate hate hate it and then folks like me. There’s this guy, DJ Lance Rock? And he wears orange. And he has a ghetto blaster full of weird friends. And he puts them down in this diorama and then they come alive and they dance to the worst / best dj remix style songs. I find it impossible to resist. Also, it does a lot of my parenting for me. This one episode we have on our PVR that Trombone has watched every morning for a week, it teaches greetings and manners. There are these little bouncy balls with smiley faces and when they bump up against each other, they say excuse me. But the thing that really endeared me to this show months ago was the Party in My Tummy song. See the vegetables actually cry because they don’t get eaten! Brilliant! So Happy Friday to you.

(Oh and 4. I have a new alter alter alter ego thanks to a captcha. Justice McMullen. It makes me smile.)