tisdag, maj 13, 2008

Current Events

I just spent two hours explaining to the Dean of Students why my high-schooler is tardy a lot. Now I'm going to be late for bed.

I shouldn't have offered any excuse. As my high-schooler says, "There is no excuse for being late." But she's up until midnight studying every night. (Lately she's been falling asleep to the Confederacy of Dunces assignment.) The alarm goes off at 6 am. She is getting dressed by seven and she has to take her younger sister to elementary school. Any worse hours and she might as well be a farmer. I suspect straightening every strand of hair on her head each morning doesn't help the rush hour flow so much, and then there is the time it takes to find the top that reveals the most cleavage possible, but the morning sounds around here are happy, energetic sounds and I don't want to mess that up with a lot of yelling "ARE YOU READY YET" up the stairs. We are so civilized lately, I can't stand it.

And that's not easy. I have two modes (just ask the dog): sweet and yellalish. Really. It's hard to explain. I'm nice and almost calm most of the time. But if I have to educate someone on something they should already know, like a clean white towel is not a eye-make up remover pad, or about something ridiculous, like the fact that piano keys are not wider and hence the location of the notes at variation from one Steinway to another, I can go straight to loud without any warning.

And because being loud is as stupid as being stupid in the first place, trying to stay calm is important. And to do this I cannot disturb the current operations of the household, no matter how dysfunctional they may appear to someone on the outside. The girls and I are all quite fine 'round here, and that's a very, very good thing.

Ohhh, I miss you, blog.