in which i prove that my family is out to get me

"Hey, mom. Alex is on the phone. Can I go over to his house?"

Being that we just walked in the front door from my picking MyFavoriteKid up from school, "Well, okay...but can you walk to his house or ride your bike over or something? I don't want to go back out again. We just got here."

Kid leaves with phone, goes into his room. Couple minutes later...
"Mom, Alex has moved and so I can't walk there. It is too far. Here, talk to him."

Which I do...
and I get his new address, which is much farther away and across a rural highway that I'm not ready to have MyFavoriteKid cross on his own yet on a bike. And so I tell Alex that we'll be there in about 15 minutes or so, at which point Alex offers:

"Well, so you don't have to pick him up, my mom says we can just meet you at the school at the Open House at 6. You were going to go to that, right?"





(the empty lines are here in case I ever find a proper way to communicate to you that I had absolutely no frickin' idea there was an open house tonight)






I call the school, and they say they sent "word" home with all the kids today. Word???? Duh. Wonder what kind of "word" the parents of the kindergarteners received. Sheesh.

The office claims that in addition to "sending word" they also sent something home last week about the the little fundraiser bookstore sale thingy that would be open tonight from 6-7. I did receive that flyer, but I thought it was just something going on after a PTA meeting (the one I would have skipped....sorry if I am ruining your impression of me), so we sent in our order form in lieu of going to the sale in person. I surely did not think that the book selling thing was in conjunction with an OPEN HOUSE. Why would I ever think that IF THE ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE BOOK SALE DOESN'T INCLUDE THE STATEMENT "DURING THE OPEN HOUSE"???

Oooh, sorry. I am yelling, huh.

After this call to the office, I have MyFK going through his backpack, and although there was no sheet announcing the open house, I am just tickled to have found out that there were several other things in there I was expected to have reviewed and sent back. Things like helping out with the art fair (last weekend), or ways to express gratitude during Staff Appreciation Week (hint: it's the week that is now half over).


So my afternoon/evening/night? Fairly screwed up at this point. I am typing this fast and I hope it even make sense (and not too rant-y). I did let MyFK have the brief playdate at Alex's house this afternoon, even though based on the backpack burial of paperwork, I don't think he deserves it. But MyFK hasn't been invited to hang out with this kid in ages, an Ales has been refusing MyFk's invitations, and now we know why---he was moving.

But now I need to go clean myself up and get into proper school event attire (which is not even close to what I have on at the moment), pick the kid back up, supervise homework, water the garden, walk the dog, feed the kid (and myself I guess, too...wouldn't that be swift?), and get it all done in time to get to the damned open house.

Which I will promptly return home from and then deal with bedtime and cleaning up the house for the new housekeeper coming tomorrow. Yes I know. Shut up. I am cleaning for the cleaning lady. Stupid. But you would, too. You should see the place. It's not "dirty", it's just that all the surfaces are covered with clutter and knitting and dog hair and stacks of mail and mountains of folded laundry waiting to be put away, and if I don't take the time to clear off the surfaces, it will leave nothing for the cleaning lady to clean. Oh, and the kitchen. Let's not discuss the kitchen today, shall we? I've been catching up on other people's blogs for a couple of days (not my own, obviously), and I have been doing so in lieu of washing dishes, it would seem.

So here I am, not catching up again. But at least I am telling you that at 2:52pm instead of close to midnight. That is sort of an improvement, isn't it?