Thursday, July 10, 2008

Monsoon Poppy's flying circus

I have two little cartoon angels sitting on my shoulders even as we speak.

What do you mean, you can't see them? C'mon. You know them--the little devil has a gravelly Brooklyn accent, and the little angel has a high-pitched voice and talks like Eleanor Roosevelt.

Well, see, Eleanor would tell you that my life is wonderful and I am so blessed. And she would be right.

On the other hand, the little devil would tell you that my life is seriously overloaded with a lot of shit I don't want to do. And he would be right, too.

I'm talking about unglamorous Mommy chores, my gym gerbil Habitrail regime, and a ton of unpaid volunteer crap, all of which make my life a virtual compost heap of mouldering to-do lists. For example, today I:

Called up my son's camp to talk to the director about the way my son is being bullied;

Had a three-or-four round wrestling match with my fax machine. (I lost);

Went for my personal trainer session in the pool. Got into my swimsuit, showered down, slicked hair back with waterproofing gel, donned stretchy rubber swim cap; padded out to meet trainer. My trainer was not there and the pool was closed due to lightning. So I was soaking wet, couldn't go swimming, and didn't have any workout clothes with me. I had to climb back into my street clothes and drive home with my hair in a weird Jheri curl do;

Upon reaching home, I spent about an hour watering window boxes, transplanting plants, and re-watering everything again only to have the heavens open with Illinois's first recorded monsoon.*

Now, see, all this would be groovy if I were getting paid to do it.

But I have to do this kind of thing for free, which takes all the fun out of it.

* OK, I'm exaggerating. But only slightly.

7 comments:

  1. There are lots of women in Hollywood who'd pay major coin for that hairstyle.

    -J.

    ReplyDelete
  2. There are days I feel I am drowning in minutiae. I mean, really, there are people working on a cure for cancer, inventing gasoline-free cars, and feeding hungry people in Africa, right? But me - I'm going to Target for swim goggles. And popcorn. And that's the exciting part of the day.

    And, yes, I have a good life, too.

    ReplyDelete
  3. We had the monsoon over the border in Wisconsin this morning as well. Really not relaxing hopping in the shower when lightening is all around this morning.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I hate all that so-called volunteer stuff we have to do.

    But the important thing is, did you get things sorted out with the bully?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Agreed with everybody about the everydayness of it all sometimes.

    But cracking up at the Jheri curl.

    My word verification is "juztil," as in "Juztil I get this kid off to college."

    ReplyDelete
  6. Just so you know, the really cool synchronized swimmers add glitter to their hair gel. I think glittery hair would suit you well.

    Also, YOU WON my ersatz Twitter naming competition! Like this is a surprise.

    WOOT!

    ReplyDelete
  7. My Aunt Ruth used to say: Don't explain. and Don't feel guilty about hating your good life at times.

    And she knew.

    FA

    ReplyDelete

Gentle Readers:

For the time being, I have turned off comment moderation. Please don't spam; it's not nice.

xxx, Poppy.