The Whiny Post Where I Complain JUST Because I Can ...

In about 48 hours Matthew's plane will land back here in hot and steamy Chennai, thus relieving me from my single mom, and pre-pack out alone duties. I can honestly say that these past five weeks have flown by. Though as of today, for the first time since he left, I've pretty much reached my limit... I. Am. Done.

My car is still in the shop. The Toyota dealership towed my car to their shop almost three weeks ago, and it took them until last Friday to figure out what was wrong. Apparently they 'say' I need a new ECM / ECU. Maybe even another fuel pump. But that's not all. They call me every other day changing their story; They have the part. They don't have the part. It's going to cost Rs 50,000 (about $1100), it's going to cost less. They have to order the part from Japan. They need to search for it from Sri Lanka. It will take 15 days. Now it will take 25. It's going to cost Rs. 100000. Nobody makes the part anymore. So which one is it? I. Don't. Know. And I just can't deal with the apathetic attitude of the maintenance department and management of Lanson Toyota anymore. So I wait. Until Matthew returns. Because I'm putting him on the case. Maybe they'll listen to him. Or maybe they'll just nod their heads. I'm going with the latter.

These past two weeks have been quite busy with School Board responsibilities. We are in the final stretches of hiring a new Head of School (aka Superintendent) to begin in the 2011 school year. The search committee has diligently worked since December to recruit the best candidates, and last month the Board read through all of the resumes and selected three finalists to each fly out and spend 2 full days at our school. Thankfully, I was not on the committee, but I have gone to dinner with all three finalists we flew in, and been involved in two sections of the interview process. It's been a fantastic experience meeting with these three candidates, and hearing the directions that they would potentially take our school. Now we just have Saturday to deliberate over all of the information collected and make our decision. I'm sure that will be a LONG day!

On top of the car cr*p, the School Board stuff, and the internet outages that have me throwing my fists in the air, I've also been dealing with a now 1-year old who has turned from a sweet docile little munchkin, to an almost-toddler who arches his back and does 'the noodle', who only wants to be held when HE wants to be held, who wants to crawl around all day, and who loves to get into his sisters' stuff more than anything in the world, and who cut 2 more teeth this week. What is it with the 1-year mark that completely changes their innocent behavior? I completely forgot about this annoying stage. Oh he's now a busy boy. A busy, busy boy!

I went to the dentist on Monday to decide if we could take the next steps to fit my crown. After examining my tooth again, the dentist thinks that I still need to give it additional time to heal and see if the pain is truly gone. If it isn't by next week they need to perform the 2nd root canal. So far, we've postponed the crown for the 4th time while we wait and see. My next appointment is scheduled on Memorial Day. Who knows what we'll do then....

Cyclone Laila made her way through Chennai on Tuesday and Wednesday, providing a reprieve from the heat and enough rain to warrant borrowing Noah's Ark. Of course, with the cyclone also came incessant power outages, internet outages, and maintenance issues, and I'm still dealing with a tad of the aftermath.

So forgive me if there's a delay in returning e-mails. If I don't sound as chipper or even as humorously sarcastic as usual. I'm a little down in the mouth. And I'm starting to get into pack-out mode.

Ten days until the movers come. Twenty-one days until wheels up. It's happening folks...