Moody Monday

Yesterday I got up at 4 AM to drive out to the desert to meet my new (hopefully) contractor. It was surreal driving out there by myself in the dark - and kind of nice, other than the early wake up nausea. I accomplished three things yesterday - picked up more tasting cakes (I asked to baker to use less sugar this time - the last cakes gave me the runs - and voila! These cakes were much better and did not upset my stomach. Hooray!). I met with the contractor - builder, really - who is my realtor’s husband. He seems like a good guy, even if he talked over me a lot (what is it about white guys this age? Ugh), and I think we can move forward with him. The only disadvantage I see is he can’t do all of the projects - the bathroom and stove install may be beyond his scope - and since he has a full time job, progress may be slow. But he said he could commit a couple to a few days a week on it, which was better than what we were getting before. I’m worried that by spring break - a month from now - the place will be nowhere near ready to even camp at, so now I’m not sure what my plans should be for that week (we were supposed to camp out there to do finishing work on the place - I don’t know if anything will even be started by then). So now I need to wait on his estimate, and he probably can’t start for a couple of weeks. Back to the waiting game. Supposedly our shipping container comes on Thursday - we’ll see how that plays out. Maybe we can camp in there, if we can arrange a quick temporary toilet:shower situation by then. 

On my way back I stopped at a cactus rental place, but discovered they’re just too pricey for wedding stuff. And they don’t deliver. So that’s a no.

But it was a productive day. It was weird to be home by noon and feel like I had already had a full day. I pretty much just lay around in bed the rest of the day.

I feel like things are winding down. Last week was soooo stressful with all I had on my plate; much of it has been resolved now, or at least I’m at the point of waiting for people to respond so my hands are tied. I emailed all of my staff last Tuesday and Wednesday about working this year, and much to my chagrin almost no one has responded. Wtf? Do you want a paying gig or not??? I’m really irritated by this. It makes me want to fire everyone and start over. 

The boys’ birthday party is this Sunday and I’ve done pretty much nothing about it. Part of this is because it’s easy - it’s at a trampoline place and the food is already ordered, so my only job is cake and maybe goodie bags if I even do them. I bought and wrapped all their presents. Everyone’s been invited and most have rsvp’d, so it’s not like I have a ton to do…but considering how much energy I’ve put into these parties in the past, it feels weird to be barely thinking about it. 

After their party, a couple of big things happen at once - I teach Theo how to do his own laundry (which means I will be doing only my laundry for the first time in ten years!), and I get Bobby’s kid watch set up and start them walking home from school. I figure I’ll walk up to get them and walk them down a few days until they feel comfortable. The whole thing makes me a bit anxious - I second guess myself a lot that I should ever let these kids walk alone - but the fact that they’ll be walking through a very safe area until they get to our street where it all changes, they won’t be alone, they can get in touch with me, and lots of other kids in their school walk home, tells me that I’m not out of bounds in thinking this is possible. We’ll see how it goes. They may be just too lazy to even want to do it! To be fair their backpacks are pretty darned heavy. I think if I had the choice of a .8 mile walk or being chauffeured I know which I’d choose.