Countdown

My kid pickup woes have been solved - I decided to have both kids head to the library after school, and it’s been a dream. Bobby seems ok with the .8 mile walk, maybe because so many other kids walk that direction after school; I’m sure it’s less awkward than standing around waiting for me. So I head out at 3:45 each day - way better than 2:15 - pull easily into the parking lot, and that’s it. I hope it continues to be this easy for the next two years. It’s amazing how stressed I was doing all that driving back and forth and didn’t even realize it. God bless our libraries, for real. 

Week two of school has concluded and I think Bobby’s doing ok - he seems to have mostly recovered from the shock of it all and is no longer actively complaining about the additional work. Luckily I can make it to his open house night, because it’s Wednesday, but not Theo’s because it’s the night before my event. It’s insane to me that I’m talking about my event in terms of it being just a week away - I even know the forecast (thankfully, mild). How is it going? Well, I announced the additional day for 2025 today amidst much fanfare, and everyone’s excited about it. I sincerely hope it does what I want and gets people pumped to show up next year - more than have been. The situation with the extra costs due to the short setup time continues; sure enough, the hotel wants my sound guy to parse out exactly which costs are associated with the actual spaces they were in breach of my contract on and not the others, which he refuses to do…ugh it’s all messy. I’m going to end up eating it, I think. I’ve stressed out so much about it I have no stress left to give it. 

I’m so full of decision fatigue that all I can do is give my brain breaks by thinking about other things - planning the holidays, for example. We currently have zero plans for any school breaks going forward except a vague one to go to Yellowstone next summer; Thanksgiving and Christmas are empty. My sister was supposed to visit but gave up because it’s all just too expensive. So once again my thoughts drift to the almost 200,000 Marriott points and over 200,000 miles I have on United. Part of me would like to pull off another Big Island trip so we can take the boys on the late night manta ray tour - they’re well old enough now, and it’s pretty spectacular (and only exists in two places on the planet). The miles aren’t quite enough to get us there and back…but could get us there, with a $500-$600 cost per person to return on another airline. We could also go to Mexico, but for how violently ill I’ve gotten the last couple of times I’ve been there, I’m not too keen, honestly. We could just do nothing, or go to the cabin briefly, but I’d rather spend Thanksgiving out there. Another part of me wants to do something really spectacular and go to Iceland or something…but I don’t know what fantasy world I live in that I could afford that, especially this year. 

Yesterday we had a freak emergency when I discovered our refrigerator had quit; of course you never notice these things until all your ice cream is slush and the milk is bad. Despite how badly this went last time, this time, so far, we got it repaired quickly and cheaply and only lost a few frozen items. I now have a fridge and freezer thermometer so it won’t get so out of hand again; and there will be a next time, believe me. This refurbished fridge has already outlasted its proposed lifespan at six years - I don’t expect it to last much longer. But just please, past my event. 

Here are the boys watching the DNC with me.