Get your ow
n diary at DiaryLand.com! contact me older entries newest entry

1:44 p.m. - December 04, 2006
It Was A 'Whew!' Weekend
What a busy busy weekend, and this week just isn�t getting any better, what with three meetings, a conference call and a report to do, and all kinds of other stuff to get buttoned up. I need a breath.

And since I have to travel tomorrow, I won�t GET that breath that I need. However, all in all this weekend was pretty spectacular, even if I did do a couple of idiotic things (like put a wine glass on the floor and then have the computer mouse fall down and crash right into it. Ooperdy!)

Friday night I covered a girls� / boys� basketball doubleheader against one of Crawfordsville�s arch-rivals. And after I wrote the story I got wrapped up online, and then realized that I had drank yet another Mountain Dew (aaaah � the caffeine) and was up way too late watching �1 Versus 100� on the TiVo.

Way too late? Tomorrow was Saturday, dude!

Well, yeah, but�

Liz had agreed to host a League of Women Voters� committee meeting at our house on Saturday morning at 9. So even though we have a couple of painting and flooring projects still in process, we all had to get up and clean, or watch kidlets, and get them out of the house by 8:45 or so.

So what do you do with kids at 8:45 on a cold Saturday morning?

Take �em to Target up in Lafayette!

Actually, that trip shopping was for a very good cause. The local Youth Service Bureau has a program called the ReinDEAR Program. This program is really special. Needy families submit names of their children, and list 2 wants and 2 needs. Others go out and buy these presents for the children, and then we take the presents (unwrapped, but in a plastic trash bag) to a central place where volunteers match up the presents to the children.

Our assignment was to buy presents for a 9-year old girl. Now, I have some experience in buying presents for little girls, but a 9-year old is a little out of my realm. Fortunately, the needs were jammies and panties, and the wants were a boom box and a Mariah Carey CD.

Now I know jammies, but again a 9-year old was a mystery. I thought they may have been too old for Dora or other cartoon characters like that. Katie was along, though, to offer her advice.

And boy, did she give it. Of course, she wanted to give her Hello Kitty or something like that, but again, it was on that cusp of if that was acceptable or not.

So, I told her that we�re going to give this to a girl who is a little older and she may not like some of the things that you like. Katie realized that this was something pretty special that we were doing, so she really wanted to be sure that we got something pretty.

So we found some neat jammies and they were Katie approved, with pinks and purples and greens all afoot. One of the set of jammies had leopard spots on it, and of course Katie loved it.

So with the wants taken care of, we went to the needs.

All this time Katie was acting pretty responsible, especially for an almost five year old. Kristin was just an angel. She was sitting in her seat in the cart, and wasn�t really reaching for anything and just smiling and laughing and having a good time.

I went to look for a boom box, and they had one at a very good price that could play CDs and the radio. So then, it was off to find a Mariah Carey CD. So we walked over to the CD racks, and I went to the �C� section in pop and�

Nothing! No Mariah Carey.

OK, now what.

Now, I tried to put myself in the shoes of a 9-year old girl. But since I�ve never been a 9-year old girl that proved to be a bit difficult.

I also wanted to make sure that we got something that the parents approved of. I thought of getting one of those �That�s What I Call Music� selections, but some of the songs seemed a bit too�adult�especially for a 9-year old.

So I was pretty much in the girly pop category, and I had to look at song titles and album covers. And I was out of my league here.

Fortunately, there was something that looked promising. The cover pic of this group was wholesome (well, wholesome enough) and the song titles weren�t graphic or sexual or anything. So this little girl will be the proud recipient of a �Cheetah Girls� CD.

Lord knows what it sounds like.

As we were leaving Target, I called Liz and she said that the meeting was still going on, and I needed about 45 more minutes. So I planned a trip to the grocery store to get a few things. Since it was about a half hour to get back home from Target that seemed like a reasonable plan.

But within 10 minutes, Liz called and said the meeting was over, and we could get straight home. Yay!

Saturday afternoon, the house was full of sluggards. Liz and Kristin napped, and I started perusing Our Band Could Be Your Life by Michael Azerrad, which documented the stories of some of the best and most famous 80�s underground bands. I was reading the Black Flag chapter, and put on Black Flag on my iPod while I was reading.

Within 15 minutes, I was asleep, with the dulcet tones of Greg Ginn and Henry Rollins, amongst others, in my ears.

But we had to wake up because Saturday night, we actually had a function to go to! As adults, with no kids! Yay! It was a roving party that three people were hosting segments of, and all were within walking distance. We got to the party before 8 and lasted until almost midnight before we just crashed.

Sunday was packed � with the Hanging of the Greens at church, a visit to Mom for her upcoming birthday, the holiday reception at the President�s house (not W, but an actual effective administrator here at the College) and then I was in charge of the kidlets as Liz went to a meeting.

And of course, since it�s me, and there was a football game on at night, I fell asleep on the couch. I guess some things are a constant in life.

Sure, it may have been nice to take some time and relax this weekend, but it was definitely a fun, jam-packed few days. And I�ll take that over boring old nothingness any day of the week � just as long as I can nap out once in a while.

And I know an easy way to do that � couch + football.

 

previous - next

about me - read my profile! read other Diar
yLand diaries! recommend my diary to a friend! Get
 your own fun + free diary at DiaryLand.com!