Wednesday, February 15, 2006

There are some days you are SO glad are over

Today is one of those days that I'm glad is like, totally over in 1 hour. As of Midnight, it will be tomorrow and this will all be a bad dream,...oh, no not a dream. I was awake. That makes it a bad memory. OK.

See, it's like this. Today was the day I was officially announced as taking my 4th term as club president. Two weeks ago, I had a meeting with my officers. Everyone took a position of responsibilty. Two people were doing the chocolate fondues. Others were going to do the fruit platter for dipping. I was going to make my Kahlua Brownies and yadayada.... basically, all details were covered. Today was the day.

Allow me to back track. Yesterday , my eldest comes home with school with a note from his teacher. It informed me that my son didn't know about the "costume" he was to bring in tomorrow. How was I doing on it??
HUH?????? Costume??????????? What is the costume supposed to be? Oh, he has to dress up as Theodor Seuss Giesel. WHAT?????????
How in the world does a person dress up as Dr. Seuss???? He was 20th century! He doesn't have a costume persona!

Due.....On Wednesday. Ha! Today, double Ha!
I was given a grace period of one day, Today. Wednesday.
Quick, boot up the computer and surf for pics of Dr. Seuss and all things Seuss.
11PM Tuesday night I had a brain storm!
Have him wear one of those double sided card board thingys...you know, the ones people wear in catastrophic movies that say " THE END IS NEAR --REPENT!! "
Mine was going to be "THE COSTUME IS HERE - DR. SEUSS! (no, not really!!!)
But it was at least a good idea to cover it with all the colorful characters and books and pics of Dr. Seuss. My son's costume is a walking billboard or poster of all things Seuss.
There IS a name for that-- I found out from a cashier at our local grocery store:
Sandwich kids...oh no! Brain Burp! I don't remember, Cardboard Sandwhich? Drat!!
It was a sandwhich something.
*sigh*
So glad today is almost over!!!

Anyway.....

Remember, the meeting starts at 7PM.

I get a call at 3PM.
One of the fondue makers...didn't remember saying she would. And , she CAN'T DO IT!
Other fondue maker was only doing chocolate and was counting on the unremembered person to do the white chocolate. What to do?
3:15 get a call from the school about status of costume.
THEN
Fruit platter person never confirmed another callers call that she WAS bringing the fruit.
I'm at this point, still cutting up the printed Dr. Seuss pictures, baking my Kahlua Brownies, fielding these calls, and getting together my oatmeal/applesauce/chocolate chip cookies recipe for baking.
AND typing up my itinerary for the meeting so I won't lose my train of thought. Right then,my thoughts were on a runaway train heading towards derailment.
I burn the first two batches of cookies.
at 6PM:

I gather my brownies, cookies, gavel , notes and wearing my new 3 inch heel boots that I've never worn before, totter out the door.
I get to the parish hall. All lights are off. I'm the first one there.
No Problem!

Ha! Triple Ha!
I go to make the coffee and guess what?!!!!!
All the coffee makers (these are the 35 to 60 cup behemoths) are dissasembled! All 6 of them!!
Those long pipey thingyies that go inside are all out, lids don't match, plugs are disattached and someone used up all our coffee!!!!!

At this point, I'm mumbling to myself and having a wonderful conversation.
Help arrives 20 minutes later.
Older ladies come in, discover what pipe goes with what coffee pot and as more help arrives....things start falling into place. (we found a couple of hidden packets of coffee!)
The fondue lady ended up making both fondues.
We had the fondue pots.
Two fruit platters - with strawberries !
Lots of yummy brownies, chocolate covered almonds, truffles, chocolate cake, brownies (in addition to mine), chocolate cupcakes,
DID I mention it was Chocolate Night?

It all worked out great!
Even had a new memeber volunteer to help out with our Sunshine Committee. That had been missing a person for 6 months ! and I not only got one, but TWO people to head it up.
It was AWESOME!!
Everyone had a good time eating everything chocolate, got a lot of things accomplished and I didn't fall flat on my face from wearing my new boots!

I come home at 9:45 and taped up all the Dr. Seuss pics, It looks Damn Fine , If I do say so myself. And I'm all most done typing this ode to a bad day and I get to
GO TO BED!!!!! YEAH!!!!!!!

So, Ladies and Gents. I certainly hope your Wednesday was a HECK of a lot better than mine!!!

If not, let me recover for 24 hours before you share with me, OK???
Thanks.

6 comments:

Brandy said...

Good grief, if ever a day called for chocolate, that was it! You did a lot better than I would have, and the idea of placing book characters on the Boards for your son is a great idea. How did the school manage to NOT inform you about needing a costume before today? Go get a good nights sleep, if you can after all that chocolate! B.

Michele said...

Actually, I slept like a log.
Good question about how could they slip this by me.
Easy.
Back on Jan 9th, a three page directive came home with instructions for this big project. In the first paragraph there are 10 words mentioning the "costume. At no other place in the directions is the "costume" mentioned again. I've had an entire month of back and forth written communication from the teacher. My son, indeed, many kids, had a real hard time with this. It 's the first big project they'd ever had to do.
I won't go into the stress that this has caused my child and our family. It surprised me as to how much! In all that time, knowing what we were dealing with all along, I was never "reminded" about the costume. There was so much angst with everything else, it became the entire focus just to get through the project. From items to decorate a tri-board presentation, to puzzles for student interaction, Poems using the "Famous American's" name, Outlines, Rough drafts, Final drafts, ...every step was a struggle. After all of that, I'm going to remember 10 words?
I get frustrated just Thinking about it...so, in the best Vamp manner, I'd love to walk up to the "coordinator" and say...Bite Me!!

But I can't, because, in all honesty..she's a really nice person. She's just a natural focus of my ire at this point as she was the one who said, 'Oh by the way....."

10AM...2 hours away ..it will be OVER!!!!!

Kelli McBride said...

You can bring home the bacon, fry it up in the pan...cause you're a woman. W-O-M-A-N!!

Good for you!

Michele said...

LOL, Kelli!
Guess what? I'm Back! It's over and it worked out wonderfully!
What I didn't know is that, with the guidance of a teacher, he drew free hand - a large pic of Horton, from Horton Hears a Who! I couldn't believe it!! I was so impressed...with my own son. How awesome is that?
I am so proud of him.
I got to see him interract with other adults as they came up, asked him questions, complimented him and watched him smile a beaming smile that would do a lighthouse proud.
Parenthood sure is a roller coaster ride!

Judson Knight said...

"Parenthood sure is a roller coaster ride!" Never a truer word spoken, Michele! (Or, in this case, written.) Your misadventures make me think of the book I Don't Know How She Does It--and of our own real life. With all the minutiae involved in keeping up with kids' activities, something is bound to slip through unnoticed. Thanks for putting such a humorous spin on something all parents can relate to! And kudos to your son for his drawing of Horton, whose story is--along with many others by Dr. Seuss--a great and profound lesson about life.

Michele said...

Thanks, Judson!
Thanks too for saying that I had put a "humorous spin" on the tale. I made the attempt without truly knowing if I succeeded. If you can't view life's little speed bumps with humor, the events will seem more like unbreachable road blocks. Not healthy in my opinion.
I'm so very glad you stopped by today. :-)

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