At the Orthodontist

Maybe this is why there is not much of a market for lyrical and thoughtful books about being 41 or having a 14 year old.  Annie La Mott may have been able to find meaning and God in the sleepless nights as a new parent and I would say that there is meaning in waking a sleepy 14 year old half an hour earlier than usual and serving her an under toasted english muffins that her sore teeth can tolerate and taking the bus to the orthodontist.

My Shredded Days

I have said it said in anger and with irony but the truth is that my days are often shredded usually by the ones that I love and it is has become such an expected outcome to be interrupted that I find myself sometimes shredding my own time.

Time has become the piece of paper that I realized as a child could be folded and ripped infinitely by more perfect hands than mine.  Rip a paper in half and I have enough for both my children to draw.  Rip it in four and I could bind my scraps together and make a little book.

Many pieces of paper, many tiny shreds only make a mess.  It is not snow, it will not melt away and I can drink cold coffee and eat the burnt toast but I can not make anything of shredded paper and I cannot make anything of a shredded day but a joke.

They Hated It

Because Rabiah says she hates buffets and Sylvia says she hates museums we took them up to Lowell this weekend for a Cambodian buffet and a tour of the nearly deserted National Park Museum.

I am a little wary of buffets myself but Max had been there with friends from work and it was good although it left us all so thirsty that we made at least four trips a piece to the water fountain at the Museum.  The weather was and still is January freezing and I was sulking about the walk across Lowell to get to the Museum.  I had gone out at 6am for a bike ride so it's not really the cold that scares me, it's the cold with the children that is frightning

The museum is hot.  They are trying to give you the full industrial worker experience and what can I say, my frozen toes appreciated it.  They also give you ear plugs for the noise of the machines but if the 19th century proletariat didn't have them I'm not going to be a wimp besides most of the exhibits are removed for the area where the looms are making their music.  Very 1830's techno.

Yesterday plans were less Family Fun Magazine in nature and more odd urban family.  I offered the girls the opportunity to see Jane Eyre with me but they opted to see Beastly without me.  Actually they would not have cared if I attended.  We walked the 3.5 miles from our house to the somewhat 1990's trashy Alewife cinema and I let Max indulge in his favorite type of retail therapy at Whole Foods while the girls enjoyed their movie in the suitably numb condition that is induced by sharing a slushy and large popcorn.

I biked again yesterday.  Having a new bike will induce crazy behavior.  I also understood why my knitting was looking strange, I had been overlooking part of the directions for my lace pattern.  After ripping the whole mess apart and turning the page I have been able to produce lace.

Eye Doctor

Up the hill to Somerville this morning.  I think walking makes you feel young because it's mostly high school kids out walking at 7:30 a.m.

Rabiah is trying to put her contacts in while her eye doctor coaches her.  I've read all the magazines but I'm not quite ready to start my work and besides I need another cup of coffee before I can work.  They had free coffee in the waiting room the first time we came here but never again.  Maybe I imagined it.

March Snow

Does that title say enough?  No astonishment in New England but maybe a wry smile and another week in extra dirty winter coats.

Sylvia needs to be picked up at three.  There will be just enough time for a quick walk to the library and then back to school for volleyball practice.  Two weeks ago it was dark when we walked home but today even with a stop at the War Memorial Pool to sign Rabiah up for swim practice it will still be light when we get home.

Curry for three and tofu for one at the kitchen table tonight.  Rabiah has been told to walk home from swimming on her own.  I have to get her to an 8am eye doctors appointment tomorrow so whether I am making sandwich or relaxing with a book I plan to be at home at 7:30 tonight.

Weekend of March 19 and 20th

After finishing swim season in grand and exhausting style last weekend the girls finished their ski season yesterday.  Max and I checked in on the girls twice and provided money for plenty of food to fuel all their runs down the icy and slushy slopes.   We chose to celebrate mud season by doing two short hikes  Wachusett Meadows and in the Leominster State Forest.

Today my day was only slightly shredded with children's activities.  Laundry and cleaning were shoehorned in as usual but I did manage to bike on the river, practice the violin and spend 3 hours reading The Revenge of the Radioactive Lady by Elizabeth Stuckey-French, two before the sun was up this morning and one at a coffee shop.

Thank you Max, Rabiah and Sylvia for asking the Question.

On Wednesday or sometime not until Thursday but always by Friday someone in the family asks me, "Do we have any plans?" and I mostly enjoy trying to shoehorn bikingboatinghikingreadingwalking into our weekend.

We can rest on Monday and even though I might prefer to have enough time to write the novel or three or twenty that lives in my head at least I have time to write about what I did on the weekend.