Thursday, October 22, 2009

Meka leka hi meka hiney ho

Hiya. Where have you been? What's new? Please share.

I have so many thoughts swimming in my head that I can't focus. This must be how my students felt when I told them to write. Augh!! Okay. Head clearing. I'll work backwards from now. I just bought a new pair of glasses. These are necessary because upon going to the eye doctor I found out that my prescription had improved for the first time in, oh....my whole life. So my glasses are too strong. Before you get too excited (I feel all that excitement out there!) I'm still very, very blind. Oh, and I have cataracts. Have I mentioned that? Yeah, I'm 80. So anyway, since I am so very, very blind, my glass with the 40% discount were $457. FOR REAL! So with this fragile vision of mine, you can see that it's important for me to be frugal, as we all know I can be. It's necessary for me to have both glasses and a home to live in.

Today I hosted a playgroup. It's this playgroup that I joined about a year ago to meet new people and I haven't been to in quite a while, even though I met a lot of people I liked. Why haven't I been, you ask? Well, there's one woman there whose kids I truly can't stand. Every single time we're around them her kid is totally mean to Piglet. Not that I expect him to have everybody treat him perfectly and make him into a wimp, but this kid is MEAN. Like, knocking Piglet to the floor over a toy when he doesn't even know him mean.

Today, he took sidewalk chalk and starting drawing all over Piglet's car. Now, I'm the first to admit that Piglet is crazy OCD about cleanliness, but this was just rude and mean. The mom never says anything more than, "Alexander, no..." and then returns to conversation. [Her kid threw a huge shovelful of sand on HER and she said no. I would have carried him to the car, beaten some part of him, taken away his joy, and driven him home, but that's just me.] So....Piglet goes up to Alexander and says, "Chalk is for the sidewalk, don't write on my car!", which I thought was a relatively mature response for a 3 year old. Alexander drew on Piglet's face and shirt in purple chalk and then knocked the bottom of his cup up into his face so water went all over him. Piglet burst into tears and indiscernible words and ran to me. Alexander's mom gave me the "your kid is a weirdo" face. So there's my dilemma. And I haven't even mentioned her 6 year old that she homeschools without a college degree, or the fact that she's doing this homeschooling while her 2 and 3 year old boys who have the same birthday (you do the math) are running around the house every day.

So what do I do? Other than her (and her hellions) I like the other normal people that I meet. Oh, I forgot to mention that she runs the group and is at every single event. Yeah. That. Would appreciate your thoughts, please.

Let's see, that's all been today. I re-started tennis on Tuesday night. A lady called me on Monday about a league that started on Tuesday. A very casual league....good to get back into the swing of things. (Heh.) The courts are ranked and you get moved up or down based on how well you do on your court after playing three sets of doubles, one with each of the people on your court. Well. You start at the bottom. On my court, there was one normal woman, Grandma Bessie, and Jimmy. Jimmy was mentally retarded and didn't actually speak aloud or call scores, but did play tennis, if somewhat erratically. He was silent - I swear, I thought he was mute - until the third set when he was my partner and he turned to me and said, "Are you 26?" I was about to receive a serve and was a bit off guard. I thought for a fraction of a second before responding firmly, "Yes, I am!" If he wants me to be 26, or thinks I look 26, I'll be 26! "I'm 22," he said at the next serve. I'm not sure if he was hitting on me or just getting his facts in order. At any rate, I won my court, so maybe next week I'll get to move up. I wasn't nearly as terrible after a two year break as I thought I would be.

Gus has only had one food incident since the Five Fiber Bars Incident. On Tuesday, he snagged a bag of coffee grounds out of the pantry (I swear, this dog must be hiding his secret opposable thumbs), ripped it open, and sampled it. Judging by the stripes of coffee on the carpet, I'm going to guess that he didn't care for it. The vet [who, by the way, looks at the caller ID and answers, "What did he eat today?"] told me to watch for signs of agitation or fidgety-ness, lest his heart be affected by the caffeine. Since he flopped down for a nap, I decided he was okay.

Piglet is having a good year in preschool. Everyday, he tells me that he played and ate lunch, though he brings home all kinds of artwork, letters, colors, and numbers. He also sings long songs in his room during "quiet" time that I know I haven't taught him. Alas, he must be learning by osmosis, since he's just there to play and eat. Behold, his school pictures:


School picture!Cheese!

That should just about catch us up on the week. I made some pretty stellar meatballs from ground turkey for dinner last night. Aside from a Thursday night trip to buy glasses, that may have been the highlight of the week. Coming soon: Ways to Live Frugally, by Pigs. Will accept suggestions.

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