Don’t get your hopes up, Dad told me last week, but there’s a slight chance I might be able to get home for a few days.
Does immediately hitting Travelocity count as “getting your hopes up”? …
Picky eaters and allergy-safe cooking — the two aren’t necessarily unrelated.
From policy to politics, this rant’s for you.
The day’s events in a family way — unless something else amuses me.
From preschool to kindergarten — so far
Inexpensive homemade gifts, creative parties and low-cost projects, for Christmas and beyond. Many are easy enough for children to help.
Don’t get your hopes up, Dad told me last week, but there’s a slight chance I might be able to get home for a few days.
Does immediately hitting Travelocity count as “getting your hopes up”? It turned out that airfare between his temporary base and California was affordable, particularly since we had a slight cushion in the form of the Fontana Fund.
I’d horded the money in hopes of surprising the guys with a trip in February to the NASCAR track only a few hours from home. We’d do it right this time, staying in a hotel the night before so we could get there early enough that the guys could see some of the drivers.
Aw, NASCAR Schmascar. We’d have other chances at races through out the season – this would be our only chance with Dad for quite a while.
As Dad texted back and forth trying to settle dates, he and I agreed that his visit would be a surprise. I’d load the guys up in the car and listen to Big Guy growl because I wouldn’t tell him where we’re going. We’d get out at the airport, and there Dad would be, larger than life. Or, at least, larger than the Daddy dolls they’ve hugged in his absence.
A higher up told Dad he could leave Feb. 13, and I bought the ticket. What a Valentine’s Day celebration we’d have this year.
First we had to get through paperwork and lost passwords – he had until Tuesday to turn in everything. We battled Web sites and each other all weekend as we tried to nail things down.
You should have sent that paper when you sent the ticket, Dad said.
You didn’t tell me you needed me to send the paper, I countered.
Yes, I did.
If you did, I don’t remember.
How could you not remember? You never forget anything.
Arrggggggggggggghhhhhhh.
We got it all settled early Sunday afternoon. Less than an hour later, Dad got a text message. Change of plans. Leave canceled.
This is so not fair, I wanted to cry, but I reminded myself of what I always tell the guys when they complain about an alleged injustice: Fair has nothing to do with it.
And it really doesn’t. He’s not the first soldier whose plans have suddenly been changed. He’s not even the first one in our family that it’s happened to – I can’t even count the number of weddings, parties and picnics I missed over five years of working weekend shifts.
This situation, though, is just a few clicks stinkier than the ones I used to find myself in. I want to cry. I want to pout. I want to crawl in the closet and hide, and I’m sure those feelings will intensify the day he was supposed to arrive.
But I just can’t.
Because I’d booked through Travelocity, I can recoup the Fontana Fund. But I no longer have any enthusiasm for the trip.
The one consolation is that we’d never told the guys about the visit that’s not going to happen. Dad and I are disappointed enough without piling their misery on top of it.
Copyright 2010 Debra Legg. All rights reserved.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Scooby is beginning to represent the attitude that has dogged me my entire life. I want to be an optimistic. I’ll go out of my way to look for reasons to be sunny. But deep, …
If publishers think I’m impatient, wait until the guys throw themselves fully into the Net.
I’ve only been tapping my foot in front of the microwave for 30 years. My kids have been doing it since …
Sloth is battling greed now, and I have no idea which side is going to win.
Greed: Look at all those beautiful baby basils. Imagine all the sauce they can grow into, all the spaghetti, lasagna …
Valentine’s Day has been canceled according to Boots’ school, which should save a few relationships that normally would shatter in the “I don’t want to buy a present” pre-holiday breakup rush.
Don’t breathe that sigh of …
I get that some parents are a total pain in the rear. I’m sure I am at times, though I try hard not to be.
And I know that a sarcastic diatribe can be cathartic.
Unless, of …
Garfield now seems to be determined to head down that same bedraggled path Chia Scooby is taking. Note the scraggly brown on one side of his head, though the other remains optimistically green. I’m wondering …
Big Guy came off the court Saturday with a predictable grumble: “I didn’t score a single goal. Not one stinkin’ goal. I barely got to kick the ball.”
I’d warned him about that, telling him that …
I did a double cringe when the Valentine’s Day note came home this week from Big Guy’s school: “Due to food allergies, please do not send any candy, cupcakes or food items.”
The first cringe came …
I have absolutely no problem with the police knowing anything my Internet Service Provider knows about me – as long as they use a proper search warrant to obtain the information.
Anyone’s a fool to think …
Uh-oh.
There’s a white growth on Scooby’s ears, and I don’t think Head and Shoulders is going to cure it. The chives – make that chive since the pot is declining to produce more than one …
I missed Family Night at Big Guy’s school yesterday, and I feel a little bit bad about that. Only a little bit, though, because it was the right decision.
The teachers had talked up Family Night …
Every time a kid in California misses more than three days of school, the district spits out a form letter notifying parents that the student’s a truant.
Because the state requires districts to send that letter …
Scooby is shorn, and Eloise Laptop CheezIt the hamster has enjoyed a tasty snack.
Only time will tell whether the pruning will result in renewed green growth or whether this is the end of the line …
The occasional late fee aside, you rarely get to see the cost of procrastination other than in the price of the mental stress it creates.
Lucky for me, I now have a cash register tape that …
I bought a computer two weeks ago.
That in and of itself isn’t earth-shattering. I seem to buy a computer every few months of late.
What’s different, though, is that the newest computer never will be used …
I don’t think the thin, scraggly look was quite what the guys were going for.
“He’s looking bad,” Big Guy said. “Maybe we should cut some and feed it to Eloise. Maybe that will make it …
Mommy, is that how Daddy’s going to fight the bad guys, Big Guy asked as he looked at an illustration in a school book showing a line of soldiers with pistols aiming at enemy troops …
Bayonets – he calls them “knife guns” – crack Big Guy up.
“Why are they using those?” he asked recently as we watched one of the “Pirates of the Caribbean. “Why don’t they just use their …
Barnacles!
Maybe it’s because we’ve been reading and watching too much “Pirates of the Caribbean” lately, but that’s what I’m seeing when I look at Garfield’s face. Barnacles. And algae. And layers of other maritime ick.
For …
It took Big Guy a while to work up the nerve to trust a chocolate cookie after his heart-breaking disappointment at the chocolate-espresso drops I made at Christmas. He even made Boots try them first, …
Remembering that my last adventures with an herb garden ended abruptly when tiny white mites invaded my kitchen and because I’m sick of spooning water over Garfield every day, we’ve added Mr. Mister to our …
You have to wonder if the fumes from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s famous cigar patio are starting to affect his thinking.
Why else would someone who for years has battled California’s wacky budget process suggest making the …
I think I finally figured out why I’m such a lousy gardener. Not quite three weeks into this project and I’m bored with it. Bored, bored, bored.
Part of it’s a patience thing, and I just …
For years, Boots dreamed of joining Big Guy on that glorious place called the soccer field.
He ran onto the grass in the middle of practice. He threw tantrums so horrific he was banned from going …
It’s amusing, in a “fiddling while Rome burns” sort of way, to see how public officials flock to the freebies like hogs to slop – and then fail to report the corporate largess that’s showered …
I know that at a certain point pets start to look like their owners. I’d never been aware, though, that plants begin to resemble their gardeners.
That’s what’s happening with the cilantro. Its wayward sprouts and …
Big Guy bounded down the sidewalk, Best Friend and B at his heels. The three raced to the park, for a real game of basketball instead of the lame ones featuring Mom’s feeble attempt to …
He’s survived solo birthday parties.
He successfully navigated the 100th Day of School, even when a food he can’t eat made a surprise appearance. He told the substitute teacher, and the food disappeared quickly. I’m not …
Here’s an entrepreneurial idea for someone with a mechanical-botanical bent: Invent a rotating plant stand, and not one that you have to keep turning by yourself like the one I currently have.
I’m envisioning a fully …
It was a sad, sad day when Boots’ folder came home from school last week brimming with Christmas-era artwork. Stockings, trees, gingerbread and more, all removed from the classroom walls in order to make room …
I don’t follow celebrity news, not because I’m a snob about it but because I rarely get to watch anything that’s not animated.
I know who Courtney Cox and Jennifer Aniston are because “Friends” was one …
I’m no longer sure whether this is a lion or a dog. The box said Scooby, but he’s starting to resemble Simba. It looks like the hamster might get her harvest soon.
Copyright 2010 Debra Legg. …
Big Guy does not play with dolls. They’re too girly-girl.
He instead plays with bears – but not babyish ones like the once-beloved Bear who got kicked to the curb after Big Guy’s kindergarten classmates laughed …
Mommy, when do I get to have asthma, Boots asked recently.
Maybe never if you’re lucky, I said. I can’t promise that, though. Mawmaw didn’t have asthma until she was in her 50s, so you never …
I’ve been eeking out just enough minutes of activity to meet the government’s fitness recommendations – they’re not as demanding as you think – though my gymophobia holds me back on weeks too wet to …
The kitchen crew is catching up to the critters. Some of it’s still looking a little on the saffron side. If only sunny California would start living up to that cliche.
In all, though, it’s bad …
It took two weeks to repurpose the tea pot.
His tea pot, which had steamed merrily each morning since the start of winter as it waited for Dad to get back from PT. His tea pot, …
I’m beginning to wonder if, caught up cliches about uncooperative cats, I’ve misjudged Chia Garfield.
No, his growth isn’t as long as Scooby’s, but maybe Garfield is simply choosing a different way. Maybe he’s opting for …
It took Big Guy a while to work up the nerve to trust a chocolate cookie after his heart-breaking disappointment at the chocolate-espresso drops I made at Christmas. He even made Boots try them first, …
You have to wonder if the fumes from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s famous cigar patio are starting to affect his thinking.
Why else would someone who for years has battled California’s wacky budget process suggest making the …
I’ve been eeking out just enough minutes of activity to meet the government’s fitness recommendations – they’re not as demanding as you think – though my gymophobia holds me back on weeks too wet to …
I bought a computer two weeks ago.
That in and of itself isn’t earth-shattering. I seem to buy a computer every few months of late.
What’s different, though, is that the newest computer never will be used …
I absolutely hate the idea of paying $3.49 for six frozen waffles. Yet, I have been because once summer hits I lose all inclination to stand at the stove and flip pancakes.
That’s why Van’s All Natural …
I did a double cringe when the Valentine’s Day note came home this week from Big Guy’s school: “Due to food allergies, please do not send any candy, cupcakes or food items.”
The first cringe came …
Sometimes life is all about timing. There’s a chance the soldier took his protective goggles off briefly during training in The Box – 1,000 barren square miles at Fort Irwin where soldiers prepare for desert warfare. Then ...
So there I was last month, stressing until 2 in the morning over Dad’s “welcome home” cake, worried that it would be ugly or dry or have the wrong color stars. Silly, silly girl. If I’d ...
I’m kind of frustrated this morning because I don’t have girls. I don’t even know any girls young enough to appreciate this. But if I did, I’d be all over the tutu tutorial – say that ...
Poor Boots. He wakes up every morning chirping with the birds and with a cheery greeting. “It’s a beautiful day!” Somewhere along the line, though, the grind of the world beats the beauty out of it ...
On one level, it’s simple: When you’re about to fall, just let go and fall. Trying to stop the tumble or, even worse, flailing your arms and legs as you land will make it worse. Somewhere ...
There’s often a reason why Big Guy does the seemingly quirky things he does. A reason that makes sense only in his 5-year-old brain, but a reason nonetheless.
I usually don’t question, because if it’s genuinely ...
This one landed in my Twitter stream just as Boots was diving into a bowl of … Cocoa Puffs: “New peanut flour warning for General Mills cereals.” Luckily, he’s not the child who’s allergic and Big ...
From the country that wants to censor the Internet worldwide in the name of protecting its children comes another bizarre project, also in the name of “protecting children” The British have launched a database, at a ...
Do I ever feel like a dolt after my post last night lamenting the difficulties of finding dye-free snow-cone syrups. I went to a Middle Eastern market today to pick up some hummus ingredients and ran ...
Parties in the park seem to be the rage around here of late – a rage that will be over by the time Big Guy’s birthday rolls around in 103-degree July – and today’s was ...
Six hundred and eight three killed in Afghanistan. Four thousand, two hundred and ninety six killed in Iraq. Many stories of incredible lives, often amazing sacrifices. This is one such story. Army Maj. Steven Hutchison survived two ...
Archive for By the way »
...
