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...