Whew: have hit wall, thankfully

Oh.my.gosh. What a day, y'all. Despite some major roadblocks, everything went really smoothly and well today, but about five minutes ago, I realized how seriously tired I am right now. I had just settled in with my half melatonin last night when I decided to check on Oliver. As I walked in, he opened his eyes, looked at me and started hacking this awful, raspy, clogged-throat cough. I had a moment of Mom-terror, scooped him up and brought him into bed with me. He was thirsty. No problem. His tummy hurt- "I might frow up." To the toilet. Like a weary partier, he pulled the potty seat up, set his hands down on either side of the porcelain bowl (keep in mind he's wearing Batman PJs, complete with cape), sighed with resignation and settled in. No throw up but as he's a hurler, I was glad he wanted to take precautions. Advil, lots of rocking and songs, lots of cuddling and kisses and then I got him back into bed.

My melatonin had jumped the shark at this point but I said goodnight to T and hoped for the best. At 5:50 this morning, I awoke with a start, certain I had forgotten to do something major for the luncheon today. In fact I had prepared extremely well, and wasn't that wise because, as I mentioned earlier today, Ol woke up with a fever, a slew of aches and pains and, as such, school was a no go.

Can y'all even imagine what my morning would have been like had Tom not been able to work from home, take Ol to the doctor, and help me out like this? It is in moments like these that I have an even more profound respect for single moms, unsupported moms, all moms just trying to do/be something other than Mom, whether because they need or want to. I mean seriously, what would I have done this morning? I had a full lunch plus dessert for 50 people in my kitchen, clients waiting for me. I had scheduled things down to the minute. All of this was based on the assumption that both kids would be at school. I was to deliver everything at 11 and then head from the Capitol area back up to Jack's school in Bethesda by 12:30p to set up the snack spread for the faculty meeting. In the meantime, T had to catch a flight to Boston. Mother.of.god. Like I said, it all worked out; I even managed to get make-up on and don a cute outfit. But enormous thanks to my very good husband for making much of this morning possible and good.

Ol helped me set up the faculty goodies, and then he and I went to the market to get stuff that looked palatable for a slightly yukked-up tummy. Then to pick Jack up, then to interview a potential sitter. And then, finally, two short hours on my own. Thank you babysitters and the money to pay them. I finished painting our guest room -if you're looking for a lovely, soothing gray, Smoke Embers by Benjamin Moore is terrif- tidied up and then just could.not.go.another.bit. Thank goodness my physical self shows limits; obviously my energizer bunny brain doesn't.

I've got a glass of rosé (now empty) on my left, Percy is snoring on my right, the babysitter is here for 28 more minutes, and I've got some nice leftovers for dinner. A bit more wine -hey! I rocked today!- and then to bed. Oliver calls!

P.S.- Just checked on Ol, and he said, "I love you more than I ever have." Dying right now, dying.

Happy almost Earth Day rather

Ok, so it's tomorrow but it's never too early to start thinking more about our planet, for the love! Remember how a few weeks ago I spoke about how marvelous it was to be surprised by someone you think you know to the cell? Well today my little Jack shocked me again. I thought we would never release his bike from training wheels but we did, and within a week, he's gone pro. New electric green bike, all gears and brakes and shocks and stuff, just riding to beat sixty, up and down the alley, round and round the cul de sac he goes. It's just awesome. It's so often the little things, you know? At present, Nutmeg is trying to beat the crap out of Percy. Poor pug, first the boys displace him and now the cat tries to play by scratching his eyes out.

Meal two for my sweet older couple will be a beef stew I thought they'd like, rice for the gravy, strawberries and salad. I'm excited to see them tomorrow, and after putting aside their share, T and I enjoyed this for dinner. As my friend, Lili, feels, rice and gravy is SO comforting. True that!

PS- you know what drives me crazy? When you open a new box of Kleenex and they're so tightly encircled that the first few tissues you (try to) pull out, tear into irritatingly small and wasteful, useless bits? There's gotta be some technological work-around here!

The state of things, Nanny

What a week this has been, y'all. Crazy Chechens in Boston! An idiot Senate! Pollen bombs everywhere! Texas fertilizer plant blows (people, this is unfortunate but to me demonstrates just what nasty shit industrially produced fertilizer is; how about some manure? some compost? none of that blows the eff up)! And every night this week proved to be one in which sleep was interrupted, sometimes briefly, sometimes much longer. Last night, I awoke at 2a though I can't remember why. Due to T's snortastic snoring adorned with spasmodic coughing, I quickly realized there was no way I was going to get back to sleep if I stayed in bed with him. To the basement I went and an hour later I was still up. Annoyed, I managed to finally fall back asleep at which point I began having a torrid love affair with Ben Affleck who, as it turned out, was married to my friend, Evi. Sorry Sam. Anyway, Ben and I were away at some prom-type of event which we required we stay at a beach house. There was a random child there too. Where Evi was, I don't know, but Ben and I were dates and it became obvious that we could not ignore the flames of our love. At times we were in the library between stacks (WTF?) while at others we were at Balthazar (yes, in NYC) where we saw my friend, Amy H who asked me about canning. That latter point is actually something that would happen in real life, but why she and I happened into each other at Balthazar while I was with Ben Affleck for christ's sakes is beyond me. And why she needed to know about canning at that point is too.

I'll be honest in telling you that this was not an unpleasant dream but it was weird as all get out and I awoke feeling a bit off. I ran upstairs and made a pie. Then I went to yoga. Ben's face still whispers through my mind. It's a bit odd. But this week was too so I'm giving myself a pass. And yes, I'm wild for my actual husband so worry not.

Last night I was at the table after dinner when I heard our Skype ring. My aunt Andree had Nanny in her wheelchair at the computer and they were making calls. Readers, I could not have been happier to see Nanny's face. She was her same beautiful self, just a bit slower and much more tired. We Skyped for 10 or 15 minutes, and I felt so grateful for it. She didn't talk much but I know she heard everything I said. We told each other how much we loved each other, again and again, and I told her the story of the elderly couple I'm cooking for and I thanked her for always being so much of everything to me. This call was such a gift. Look at these glam old pics of Nanny and Papa (her husband/my grandpa, Pete, who died when I was in high school). Papa owned and ran a restaurant in Lake Charles for years and Nanny made all the cheesecakes for it, thousands during the restaurant's run.

I love looking at these old pictures and am thankful my mom is such a photophile; she has album upon album of old family pics, keeps them well organized and has scanned many into her computer before too much degradation made them unrecognizable. People don't even look like this anymore, you know? I feel transported to another era, really.