Thursday Highlights - July 19, 2007

Well…it’s been quite a day! I woke up to the sound of what I thought was an airplane taking off. Turns out it was just Jeff cranking up the window air conditioners and series of fans he has “circulating the air” throughout the house. We hollered our good-mornings and the day began.

Langston was pretty grimy from yesterday so I decided to give him a bath/haircut combo. He was getting a little shaggy over the eyes and I thought that the piles of hair were also probably pretty hot. I swear he’s the only 11 month old you could use a pair of thinning shears on…but, I guess it’s better than being a cue ball. Well, I bring him out to the sink…strip off his jammies, lay him down to whip off the diaper and as soon as I pull the tabs I realize it is LOADED with some very “loose stool.” Crap! All those anti-biotics he’s been on…they always warn on the label that it could cause this…but so far we’d gone unscathed. Um…not anymore. So, I kind of “gathered” everything back together and made a run for the changing table. None of this has phased Langston in the least, by the way. After the toxic clean-up we headed back for tub time…even more necessary now, I might add.

Well, the bath did kind of distract Langston while I took mad snips at his hair…but, he doesn’t make it easy. I think that I did better than last time’s scraggly disaster…but, let’s just say that his hair isn’t going to be getting in his eyes any time soon. Tee hee. Fortunately, Langston has no idea these things are going on around him. He was most concerned that “little Langston” was still in place throughout the experience. Any freedom from the diaper and he must immediately make VERY sure that all his pieces and parts are still intact. A lifelong concern, I guess….and endless fascination.

I scurried around getting him dressed because I had an 8 o’clock conference call. I had the number with me so I could just call in from home. But, of course time goes so fast. Especially when combining Langston’s morning prep with my own. And, the fact that there was about 1000% humidity in the house wasn’t helping either. I had a fan in the bathroom blowing directly on me and I was still all sweaty along the hairline. Yuck. I just hate that.

So, the call went on…with Langston jabbering and talking in the background. I’m sure everyone appreciated how he howled when I took the remote control away from him. I quickly left the room to somehow preserve the integrity of the call (yeah…I’m not calling in from home…yeah, I’m not distracted AT ALL!)…when I returned…like 3 minutes later he had literally gotten into EVERYTHING he is not supposed to. Books and magazines were scattered all over the floor…he had pulled the vcr off the shelf…he was sitting among a stack of cds and dvds, chewing on Jeff’s shoe. I’m such a good mother.

Well, after a totally breathless race around the house with my arm hooked under his arms…toting him around…stuffing things into the diaper bag, putting the dishes in the sink, stuffing my stuff in my purse, grabbing a bottle of water…FINALLY we got into the car and headed off. I had the air conditioning on high and guzzled said water as we cruised down the road. It was only 8:45 and I was already exhausted. I really don’t know how single mothers do it.

When I left him at daycare he was sitting in between two other kids (poor, sad little expressionless blobs) in the group high-chair table…he had a fistful of cheerios in one hand, a sippy cup of milk in the other, laughing and talking…so cute.

Work has been really quiet. So, I’ve been wasting a lot of time. A lot of web searches (can anyone explain to me how I can have full and total access to televisionwithoutpity.com but the moment I try to enter in my “pampers points” on the pampers website I get the access prohibited screen? What is with that?). Returned some phone calls. Updated my calendar. Cleaned out a drawer. Watered my plant. Boy, is it already 10:00??? This day is FLYING.

Anyhow, then I had lunch with my friend Sharon. That soup and salad combo at Olive Garden is pretty good. Although we both agreed that while the breadstix and soup were still terriff…the salad was getting a little lackluster. A lot of big, white chunks of iceberg lettuce…the dressing seemed a bit watered down…you know.

Then I got a phone call from the Grand Rapids Press. Turned out that the reporter was writing some story about Steelcase being listed on an application for a charter school from GVSU. This is true…but, it’s a long, tangled story and I’m not really thinking that we want to start talking about it right now to the media. Her deadline was early afternoon and I told her that I would try to track down the guy she wanted to talk to. Well, after a bunch of tracking down I finally get an email from him that he’s at some board meeting up in the UP and isn’t available until Monday. Actually, I’m pretty relieved. So, I call this girl back and tell her the sad tale of the board meeting and that it doesn’t look like we’ll be able to make her deadline…and I apologize. She says, “It doesn’t seem like you’re very sorry at all…and you haven’t tried very hard to help me” and hangs up on me. That just means I’ll be so much MORE likely to help her when she calls back again. I just had to laugh…boy, she sure told ME! What she doesn’t realize is that after my time working at the cable company, when all those sleazebags hosting porn sites with their cable modems would call and cuss me out when the service went down…I got a pretty thick skin. I mean really, once you’ve heard it from Herb the porn purveyor can Beth at the Press really make me feel bad?

Well, now I’m starting to think about how nice it will be to get home for the day. It’s been a long week. Mostly just because not much is going on. Everyone’s on vacation I guess. My phone has only rung once today – and it was hateful Beth at the Press, so it doesn’t really count.

So, I will spend some time thinking through some projects I want to do around the house…maybe make some preliminary plans for Langston’s birthday party (Can you believe he’ll be a year old in under a month? I can’t. Actually, you probably haven’t given it much thought…some friend.)…maybe check out some photographers on-line…or hopefully, scoot out of here early so I can get a head-start on the night. You have to take advantage of these things when you can. We are going to Lansing to have dinner with mom and dad tonight. That should be fun.