My days are now organized by food events. Mondays is two for one hoagie
day. Tuesday is ninety nine cent leg and thigh chicken day. Wednesday is
discount bagel day. Thursday is Semolina bread day. Friday through Sunday
are the weekend and don’t count. Both my eating habits and my whereabouts at
any given time are somewhat subject to the above formula.
Today was both discount bagel day and 10:15 storytime at the library, so
Sarah and I were out and about at an early hour. Dropped Maggie off at
school, swung by the only gas station where I can safely pay cash without
having to remove the baby form her carseat, and headed for the bagel
purveyor of choice. Bought a dozen bagels and some lemonade from a manager
who resembled a disgruntled Ricky Ricardo. He insisted that since it was a
discount dozen, it could only be 12 and not a “baker’s dozen.” That if I
wanted 13 bagels I’d have to pay full price. Then he tried to charge me $1.
99 for a 12 oz lemonade. When I pointed out that the sign said it was $1.39,
he sighed and rolled his eyes and said “Well it’s really $1.99, but if you’
re gonna complain I guess we can give it for $1.39 this time. But only
because of the sign.” As though I knew all the secret prices for things and
was actively trying to rip him off
We sat outside, adjacent to the designated old-man-dining-alone-table (the
table went through three of them successively before we were done, which
means we eat even more slowly than old men) and split a blueberry bagel and
our drink. Sarah finished every bite with the exclamation “Mmm! Dat’s GOOD!”
in her sweet little baby voice. She smiled and preened and charmed her her
elderly admirers, then threw bagel chunks to nearby birds. Eventually we
finished and I packed her into the car with a bribe of paper and crayon. And
so we set off for the public library.
Storytime began with coloring time and Sarah did a very lovely job of
sharing crayons with all around her. Or rather distributing crayons
according to her whims. Eventually she had the whole tray in her possession
and put herself in charge of doling them out as she saw fit. Mommy’s little
tyrant. When actual storytime began, she looked around the room and got a
little bit freaked out and hid under a table. Eventually I lured her out
with more crayons and paper. She finally warmed up to the idea when they had
“rainbow time” where they shook little paper plates with streamers attached
and the middles cut out. She didn’t want to leave after that, and hummed the
“rainbow song” all the way home.
So that was our fun for today. Now we are home and offline still after
something like 18 hours. God knows when I will eventually get to post this.
Tomorrow will be bread day and probably running around the used bookstore
handing out toys to other children day. Clever mommy has learned to set up
camp in the children’s area with a pile of magazines. On a good day we’re
there for a while and I get half the stack read before we leave, thus saving
me the need to ever purchase them. If I’m ambitious and wee goosie can
behave herself we may even venture a trip to the movies on Friday before
school lets out. She is so much fun in the mornings these days. Nighttime
being another story. Night time is tantrum city. But perfection eludes us
all, right?
Farewell from mommyland!
Corbid