Wednesday, August 19, 2009

A mug's life, or, reports from the laundry pile.


In case you were wondering, we arrived home safely at about 6:00 p.m. Our trip to England was wonderful. Just wonderful. Best family vacation ever. I saw Stonehenge! And Oxford! And sang in a 13th-century cathedral!

When we got home, the mail was stacked up and waiting; Toby the Turtle was fed and happy, and no one had stolen the jewelry I had never locked up at the bank because I couldn't find the safe deposit box key.

Now the suitcases are unpacked. The loot is organized. The laundry is about halfway done. Groceries have been bought. And even cooked.

I'll get around to posting more trip reports and pictures of England. I really will. I've been expensively educated and now possess a high degree of writing skill. Coming up with evocative descriptions of the sheep in the meadow/the cows in the corn is a piece of cake.

But the internet prefers pictures. And for me to shut up.

As I think about the mechanics of uploading hundreds of photographs to my laptop and then to Flickr or this blog, I realize my vacation really is over. And real life has me by the scruff of the neck.

My son is starting high school in less than a week. He's going from a class of 60 to a class of 1,000. Ordinarily I'm not much of a worrier, but I got off that plane and immediately became frantic. How's he going to handle it? And how do they get lunch? And how many gym uniforms should I buy? What's with this fancy new calculator they say we need? Why aren't the old fancy calculators good enough?

And he needs new sneakers.

Also, my daughter is sick and is coughing in a very bronchial fashion. That's a bit worrisome, too.

They're both getting full-on braces on Friday. (Should we eat caramel corn non-stop until then? Because after Friday, it's no more caramel corn for them for quite a while.)

I'm still waking up at 5:00 a.m. every day.

It's raining. Maybe that's why it's kind of dark outside ...

11 comments:

  1. Is Stonehenge smaller than it seems?

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  2. What do you mean, you're unpacked? I got home 2 days ago and I still haven't done that.

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  3. Welcome back.

    The new mugs are great.

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  4. Shit dude! No way you are unpacked! I returned here like the 4th of August and I still have a bag sitting in my room -- AND I have a housekeeper here, I'm just too lazy to ask her to wash the stuff in there. (I'd totally have to call and then she barely speaks english and then i'd have to send a text and then her friend would call me -it's a big production - trust me on this one).

    You totally should eat a lot of caramel corn and chew the shit out of some gum.

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  5. you're NOT a worrier? Perhaps we are not related after all.


    I'm still paying for sassy's braces. p.s.

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  6. Neil: Yes, it is. But the really weird thing that you never see in the photographs is that it's right off the highway. I mean, people could be stuck in traffic 50 yards away. Now that's eerie.

    SC: Well, that's all I did on Tuesday. Open suitcases, drag the laundry to the basement, and put away everything else. It took all day.

    JotE: Thanks!

    Michel: Don't be overly impressed. I still have BlogHer crappe sitting around from July 25th!

    VodkaMom: Well, we're very old-fashioned around here, with strict gender roles. My husband handles the worrying, and I handle the talking.

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  7. And might I add that you handle the talking colorfully and spectacularly!

    Neil and Poppy: I can only picture Stonehenge as eighteen inches tall with a dwarf dancing around it.

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  8. Ah, the post-vacation reality b**** slap! Hang onto that mug for dear life!!

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  9. So, I've gotten a catalog or two, that has that very same saying "Keep Calm and Carry On" via poster form, but not in cup form. I assume you got it "over there". I've never seen the other side of the coin (the other saying) either, but I love it!

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  10. That mug needs to say, "Freak the f*ck out."

    Just sayin' y'know.

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  11. Glad you had such a great holiday here and I'm loving your new mugs ;) I really enjoyed reading your take on the UK - Miss Marple made me laugh a lot! xx

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Gentle Readers:

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

xxx, Poppy.