I have officially joined the ranks of soccer moms and old people everywhere-- I am the proud owner of a minivan. I always said I would never drive one, but they're just so practical and I so love to be practical. It's the newest car I've ever driven, a 2005. I feel like such a high roller as I load up and go to the grocery store. That in itself is pretty nifty-- after eight months of being a one-car family, it's nice to be mobile on my own again. Of course I still refuse to leave the base by myself, but it would just be silly to regain all my independence at once, wouldn't it.
On Saturday there was supposed to be a function at the pool with Tom's battery. Normally in El Paso you can plan something at the pool and not think twice about the weather, since it's pretty likely that it will be hot and sunny. However, come Saturday at noon, there was a torrential downpour and flash flooding. I guess it is monsoon season, after all. (I'm not kidding. That's what they call it.) So far it has rained more in July than it had the previous seven months we were here. So that would be... like three times. Maybe four.
Yesterday I decided to take my newly mobile self to the library for storytime. I used to take Jacob when we lived in Moorhead, and they had this really good story lady who both of us enjoyed. This was my first trip to the library on base, so I didn't know what to expect. It was in a basement, for starters. So we get there and the kids are all pulling these beanbags over to the story area. Apparently underneath the beanbags was a giant cockroach, causing twenty some small children to run away screaming. They informed the story lady, who also promptly ran away shrieking. The story lady herself gave me quite a scare. This woman had to be at least a hundred and thirty eight years old, and about seventy pounds. Her eerily skinny body was wearing your typical older lady outfit found in the misses' section of your local Herbergers-- gold sequiny shirt over a super pointy bra, Gloria Vanderbilt slacks up to her armpits. She was also wearing an excess of costume jewelry, which I supposed matched the long talon-like nails and scary ass makeup. But the real eye catcher had to be the enormous Dolly Parton blond wig. It was huge, and threatened to take over her whole head when she moved, causing her to look like a blow-dried Cousin It. So this woman proceeds to tell a story-- quite badly. Then she read a story-- also badly. She didn't screw up the nursery rhymes, but "coloring time" consisted of a piece of blank paper and some pencils. Ring around the Rosy met with some success, but snack time was madness. Oreos and Coca Cola for a group of 3-5 year olds. Three words: Sticky. Sugar. Caffeine. It was like storytime in the Bizarro world. I'm afraid to go back... yikes.
In other weird happenings, we went to a minor league baseball game last Wednesday. While we were there, we saw a guy in a Powerbowl t-shirt. Turns out it was someone Tom had played football with back in the day-- what are the odds of that? The Cobber Connection never fails to amaze me. So we hung out with this dude, and then he actually volunteered to watch our children so we could go out. He didn't even seem crazy (not that that would have stopped me). So on Friday, Tom and I went out on a date, without children, for the first time since we got married nine months ago. We saw Pirates 2. Johnny Depp is so hot... but that movie was weird.
0 comments:
Post a Comment