Wordless Wednesday: Scout Night

One of my kids favorite things this summer was camping out at the local minor league stadium with the Cub Scouts.

Lordy, Lordy...

            I turned 39 for the second time today. I’m not going to lie, when I woke up I seriously considered hiding under the covers for the better part of the day. The air was cool after Mother Nature’s tantrum yesterday so I pulled an extra quilt over myself to go back to sleep. When my husband came in to kiss me goodbye, my elderly cat snuck into the room and curled up with me. My kids were up and watching TV downstairs. I suspect they had been warned to let Mommy sleep in on her birthday.

            But I could hear a lot of activity in the neighborhood. The morning after Hurricane Irene the neighborhood was alive with the sound of chainsaws from people clearing away downed trees and branches. We were very fortunate—no major damage, no power loss on my street and no flooding in the basement. I could hear transformers blowing throughout the day yesterday but we never had more than a few seconds without electricity.

            I realized that lying there was just making my back stiff—you have to worry about stuff like that when you get old. So I got up and went to my computer. There were a couple dozen messages wishing me a happy birthday on Facebook. It’s so strange and wonderful to get messages from people I haven’t seen since the days of Aqua Net and Duran Duran.

This was delivered to our table as the violinist played "Happy Birthday"

            Since my birthday fell on a Monday this year, I did the bulk of my celebrating on Saturday. My marvelous friend Kate Sterling took me into Boston to have high tea at the Raj Hotel (formerly The Ritz). We spent and elegant afternoon overlooking Newbury Street while sipping Champagne and tea and nibbling on tiny sandwiches and pastries. Afterwards, we headed back to my place, changed into jeans and flip-flops, grabbed my husband and headed out for Mexican food. Our good friend Claire had graciously agreed to baby-sit my little guys as we indulged in Carne Asada and margaritas. The evening was just as enjoyable as the afternoon in a completely different way.

            I had every intention of sitting down and writing a piece about turning forty. But I have nothing very enlightening to say. The world did not stop turning. I feel exactly like I did yesterday. I am thrilled we didn’t lose power during the hurricane.  I’m mentally kicking myself in the butt to get to the gym. The breakfast dishes still won’t wash themselves. My kids are still loud, energetic and adorable. My marriage is still pretty awesome. I’m still spending far too much time checking Facebook and not enough time actually writing. Do I feel smarter? Stronger? More capable? Yes. Not more so than yesterday, but a lot more so than I did when I was in my 20’s. In other words, 40 is a lot like 30… with a few more gray hairs.

Farewell Mommy-mobile

            The lovely Jessica over at Four Plus an Angel recently posted about a luxurious trip to the grocery store—luxurious because she took it without her children.  Yet, despite her momentary child-lessness she felt as if she had the word “Mommy” tattooed on her forehead. The theme of her post was running through my head this week as I prepared to retire my stereotypical mommy-mobile—a beige 2002 Ford Windstar.

            The van has been less and less reliable lately. It even broke down while we were on vacation in Virginia. I had to put $800 dollars into it this summer and I swore I wouldn’t put one more dime into it. I’ve even been stingy about gas and haven’t put more than $25 worth at a time—which isn’t much in a car that big. I’ve been on the lookout for a replacement. We really don’t need a car that big and after last winter I’m anxious to get something that handles better in the snow than the Windstar. Of course a skateboard would handle better in the snow, but that’s another discussion altogether.

            So this week I went car shopping and brought home a small SUV. Thursday morning I started clearing out all the stuff that has accumulated in my mommy-mobile:

• Six empty juice pouches
• Two rolls of paper towels
• Broken crayons—some melted
• One smashed box of tissues
• A bottle of Resolve Carpet Cleaner (we have carsickness issues)
• Approximately 800 plastic grocery bags (see above)
• Six reusable grocery bags (which are mysteriously not in the car when I’m actually grocery shopping)
• A collection of CD’s that includes the soundtracks to Curious George and Cars
• At least one pound of dropped Goldfish, pretzels, Cheerios, cartoon-themed gummies, and Teddy Grahams
• Various cords to hook up a DVD player or computer to the van’s semi-functional entertainment system
• Bits of forgotten Happy Meal toys
• The “coolest sticker ever” from the dentist office

            I realized that even if I weren’t driving something so typically “mommy-ish”, the contents of the vehicle would give away its mommy-mobile status.  I wonder how long it will take before my snappy new vehicle will take on the state of the mommy-mobile. At the moment only things on the floor of my SUV are floor mats. The only things in the back seat are booster seats.  I wonder how long it be before I arrive at a destination with Jack Johnson’s “Three is a Magic Number” blasting from the speakers and an avalanche of discarded candy wrappers and forgotten matchbox cars pour out when we open the door.  

Goodbye Mommy-mobile. We had some great times together.

Write on Edge: Turn Around

This week's VERY short Friday fiction is brought to you by Write on Edge (formerly known as The Red Dress Club). The assignment? Let’s lighten it up around here. And when I say lighten, I mean REALLY lighten. This week’s assignment will require the fewest number of words ever: we want you to write a story – your choice of topic – as a tweet. That’s right. One hundred and forty characters. Not words. Characters. Make us laugh. Make us think. Make us want more. Mostly, have FUN with this. You’ve earned it. Come back Friday and link up.

Turn Around

(a story in 140 characters)

I saw him from a distance & called out. He didn’t hear me so I ran calling, “David!”  I reached him and blushed as he turned. It wasn’t him.

Wordless Wednesday: Brave

            Last week James had surgery at Children’s Hospital in Boston. He injured his hand six years ago (I’ve talked about it here and here) and needed some repair work done. I know plenty of grown adults who act like babies when they’re patients. It was impressive to see my baby act so brave.

Little Monkey and Blue Monkey getting prepped.

All dressed up and ready to go into sedation.

James' first words when waking up from surgery, "I want to go home. I miss my brother."

            James had a little postoperative nausea and pain, but it’s been almost a week since the surgery and he’s doing really well. He’ll be in the cast until September 12^th. Personally I’d be going bonkers if I was without my right hand for three weeks. He's been adapting and not slowing down at all!