10.20.2009

I'll Get You Murphy ... And Your Little Laws Too!

Isn't it ironic that everything seems to always happen at the most inconvenient time?

~ It all started when the dog threw up her entire dinner on the brand new rug. I was holding the baby in the kitchen, and with my super human mom ears, I heard the gurgling sounds that dogs make before they get sick ( usually seconds before they blow chunks on the first carpet they can find ) and ran into the living room as fast as I could ... knowing exactly what was about to happen. Too. Flipping. Late. I won't bore you with the details of my scream fest with the furry thing, my hysteria about vomit on 'said' brand new rug, or of my frantic cleaning. But I will tell you that it's as good as new. And the dog and I are friends again ... though it was definitely touch and go for several hours after that.

~ Since Friday night it's sounded like we're living smack dab in the middle of downtown Baghdad with all the firecrackers going off. Diwali is finally here and instead of being able to sleep in, we've been serenaded day and night with 'cracker after 'cracker. Not surprisingly, there was an explosion in a firecracker warehouse over the weekend here in Tamil Nadu that killed 32 people. It almost breaks my heart to hear that these people are spending thousands of rupees on these commercial grade firecrackers ... well over half a months salary that literally goes up in smoke in mere minutes. It would be easier if they just burn the money directly, rather than deal with the missing digits and ER visits that are plaguing the hospitals this week.

~ We had a dinner party on Saturday night, only to find out the hard way that most of the shops were closed on Saturday for Diwali... and there was not a head of lettuce to be found in the four stores I went to. Adding insult to injury, my oven decided not to work ... kinda like my driver that day too.

~ The girls woke up at o' dark thirty on Saturday, and even earlier on Sunday (despite them staying up later AND being on fall break). What part of "Stay in your bed until the clock says 7:00!!", did they NOT understand?

~ The baby followed suit and was off his rocker cranky this weekend, not taking any naps, and waking up exceptionally early. Uncharacteristic ... even for him. It doesn't help that his face looks like a game of connect the dots, and thus we're headed back to the dermatologist tomorrow to find out why his skin looks like a**. When making the appointment through our nurse, I had to tell her to remind the doctor that he has an obligation of doctor / patient confidentiality, and when I go there I don't want to hear about all the other American patients he's treated in the last week. Last time we were there I knew all about his treatment of another woman's peel and pimples... which I'm sure would mortify her if she was aware I knew.

~ The internet has intermittently been out, making it difficult to research how long my hair is going to continue to fall out postpartum. I mean, it fell out the entire pregnancy due to my out of whack thyroid. Why is it shedding in clumps now? Can't I keep just a little bit?

~ My maid got a phone call on Monday that her husband's brother's mother-in-law died while seated on the toilet that morning. A crappy way to go ... no pun intended. She was a non-blood relative to my maid, an irony in and of itself, though my maid insisted that she leave to be with her family in their time of mourning. With the average extended family, coupled with the poor health care, someone is always dying. The cycle of life here moves at a much more accelerated pace.

~ My dryer is broken. It's been broken for several weeks despite the several work orders I've put in, and the repeated attempts to have the maintenance crew understand what's wrong. See, it shouldn't taken two drying cycles, each 80 minutes, to dry my clothes. Right? Yet, these geniuses keep telling me that because I'm washing one load a week of delicates ON delicate, that THAT is the reason why my clothes aren't drying. Um.... no, the washer works fine. It has NOTHING to do with the dryer. But I can't seem to convince them otherwise. Nor do they stick around long enough to see that just because they feel warm air in the dryer for the few minutes they're here, doesn't mean that it still isn't taking almost 3 hours to dry each load of laundry. Ah.... the frustration!


Here are a few photos of Sheridan's class from last Friday's Diwali party. We did the same things this year as we did in Riley's class last year... lucky for me as it was easy to plan! Though sometimes competency is a detriment as I've now been asked by the kindergarten teachers to help coordinate UN day for the Pre-K and KG classes next week. So much for taking any breaks...





19 comments:

Tenakim said...

such cute pictures. Hang in there- you have your hands full.

Michele said...

Have the housekeeper hang the clothes to dry. I only used our dryer for underclothes and towels/sheets, everything else got hung because the dryers took forever.

Amy Amy Bo Bamey said...

Love the pictures of the class. Very Cute!

The firecrackers going off would get so annoying after awhile.

The dog and the new rug...ugh...that would have made me mad but what can you do....nothing but suck it up :)

Hang in there girl!

The Mom Jen said...

GACK...dog vomit, I can't even handle human vomit.

What a week for you, here's to a better one all around.

Beautiful pictures, your girls are darling!

Mom24 said...

Oh my goodness...that's a really crappy list of things. Here's hoping things get better soon.

I'm assuming they've checked the dryer vent? I know if it's blocked at all it increases drying times.

Firecrackers? Stupid waste of money...and digits. :-)

Sorry Grady's still having trouble. Hope the doctor can help.

Nice save on the rug.

Christy said...

Oh my goodness - what a week. Re: the dryer - this might have already occurred to you, but when this happened to me recently Matt went outside and unclogged the vent that connects the dryer to the outside and voila it started drying clothes normally again.

Those pictures are precious! What colorful outfits! Hope your son's skin clears up soon! And hope the dinner party was a success even without lettuce!

Kat said...

Oh man. I need a drink just reading that. Hang in there!

Crystal said...

you can't win for losing, eh? I hope you can at the very least get the dryer fixed! that has to be extremely frustrating. Sheridan is just a doll : ) It looks like they had a great celebration. Cheers and I hope your week truns around for the better~

Crystal said...

you can't win for losing, eh? I hope you can at the very least get the dryer fixed! that has to be extremely frustrating. Sheridan is just a doll : ) It looks like they had a great celebration. Cheers and I hope your week truns around for the better~

Jen said...

Wow, you sure have been having some adventures lately. Here's hoping it gets better.

Natalie said...

I'm curled in the corner drinking with Kat...come join us!

Kirsten said...

I don't even know where to begin. The fun never ends. I really, really hope you get the dryer fixed soon. I know that can be so annoying!

Hope things calm down soon.

Unknown said...

B L E S S... is it too early to start drinking?

Ramit Grover said...

Hi, now that I've stopped laughing, I'll write a little something. Sorry to barge in between all you goregous ladies, but you said that your maid's relative passed away on Monday and we know that Diwali was on Saturday. Well, next time there's a festival around, try talking to your maid well in advance that you would need her on the day of the festival for a party or whatever but soon after the festival you would give her a couple days off to compensate plus give her a small gift or token of appreciation. Knowing the maids and the servants in India, bet you ten bucks no one died and it was just an excuse to take a little vacation.

(I've had my grandpa's caretaker boy cry his heart out right in front of all of us that his mom is seriously sick and he must go right away. So I sent him off. Later we found out that he needed the vacation urgently to get married.)

In case you've had the repairmen come in several times for the dryer and they've been unable to fix it, then find out on google or something who the head of after sales service is in your city or state and call them directly. I've always realised that calling the senior person directly makes most repairmen do the repairs much faster and at times cheaper too.

Plus, sorry about the rug and all the kids in the pic look adorable (I don't know which ones are yours)

And surprisingly this year there was much less ruckus on Diwali than the previous years. Less noise, less smoke, less pollution :-)

Now I'm going to read your post once again from the beginning and laugh for another full ten minutes!

Rick said...

I have read your blog for a while (been going through the FS tests, and passed the Orals 10/5 in the Management Cone). I am a Project Manager for a large homebuilder and would like to help a little with the dryer. It sounds like something to do with the venting of the dryer. The heat would still feel warm, but your vent is probably clogged. You can pull out the dryer vent and run your dryer and see it that helps. Also look inside where you pull the vent from, may be clogged in that area, not the tube itself. Good luck.

anymommy said...

Love the update and they are so darn cute.

karey m. said...

is it horrible that i laughed LOUDLY about the firecrackers?

it was so much better in jordan when they stopped the whole shooting in the air thing...

WHY IS THIS SO HILARIOUS TO ME?!

Anonymous said...

oh JP ... i just dont even know what to say ....

you bring hilarity to your s*#$ week, that's for sure!

sleeping going any better so far this week?

just tonight, I looked at my husband and said "when the hell does Diwali end anyway?" ... the firecrackers CONTINUE!

Lisa said...

oh. my.

btw - my hair is JUST starting to not fall out so much. and it was the worst it's ever been this time. I forgot to remove a wad from the shower & josh thought it was a dead rat. seriously.

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