Forgive me my errors in the previous post, in which I railed about other people’s grammar. I was irate and sick. Now I’m less irate, but more sick. *Hack, cough, hack!* I’ll go back later and correct them and then pretend I never made them. Heh.

I woke up so late that I don’t want to take my (stuff that I take for ADD that I won’t name because I get enough cheap pharma spam as it is. . .) because I’ll be up until 1AM before it wears off. So, instead, I’m trying to knock some things off the to-do list. Watching me, you’d be confused as to why I’m wandering around the house with unrelated items in my hands, stopping in the doorway of one after another, shaking my head and turning back, and putting things down only to look for them moments later. If you were able to hear my thoughts, you’d understand. You see, I have to run errands, and as I write them down I remember the stores that are next to the ones I have to visit, which reminds me that I need to measure something or make a note for a later trip, so as I go to the room that contains the thing I actually need for what I was doing, I see the door that contains the thing I would need if I were going to do the other thing. This causes me to forget which room I wanted, what thing I needed, and what I was doing, but something in that room reminds me of something else I needed or was going to do, or inspires me to put yet another thing on my to-do list that I don’t have time for and sends me off around the house to see if I have everything I need to do THAT project, which eventually puts me face to face with the paper that I started working with in the first place. You betcha a day off my meds is all I need to remind me of why I take them.

So, I’m going to take a shower and get dressed and get out of this house with a list in hand. I don’t know if that’ll help, but you never know. When you wake up at 9:30 feeling stuffy and achey and swollen and spend the next couple of hours walking from place to place all over the house and have actually accomplished two things in two hours (which each took less than 5 minutes apiece) getting out of the house certainly won’t make things worse.

Friday, after rushing around to pack, clean the van, and make sure I had everything I needed in the van, I drove down to Baltimore with another band mom (whose daughter is one of Audrey’s best friends here.) It wasn’t a bad drive, not too much traffic, and we made good time by ignoring the Mapquest directions. Thank goodness I’ve traveled down there often enough to know that you don’t need to get off 95, go around the beltway, and pick up 95 again after you circle Baltimore. Sheesh.

The kids arrived shortly after we did, and after everyone was settled in, we went down to a buffet dinner that was only slightly less horrible than every other buffet dinner in the country. We had some scheduling issues, in that the parents thought making the kids spend 8 hours at the stadium was less practical than bringing them back to the hotel, then finding that the hotel told us we could use the pool then decided to give the lifeguards the whole week off. . .I don’t think the kids could have cared less. They rehearsed, we packed up the equipment, and everyone socialized. Some more than others, if you know what I mean. Ah, to be young and outnumber the chaperones!

Lights out at 11 didn’t mean that everyone quieted down. It didn’t help, either, that the climate control in our room was broken and we had to open the windows to be able to breathe. So when the alarm went off at 5:45, I was only pretending to be ready to face the day. Sooooo tired! The kids were, too. You could tell because their performance on this sunny, pleasantly brisk day was not as good as the one the week before in the cold, driving rain! After everything was packed back up on the truck, the director decided that heading back to the hotel was a good idea after all. We said goodbye to the kids and hit the road for home.

My friend and I were much less garrulous on the way home. Thank goodness the traffic was good, again. The only delay was the lady in the Jeep who couldn’t decide where she wanted to be forcing us to get on the Turnpike instead of 295. From one lane to another, not signaling, keeping pace with the cars next to her while she made up her mind. Oh, well, we were back in New Jersey, that’s for sure. I slept for a couple of hours as soon as I got home.

Even though I needed that nap, it made it hard to fall asleep, and when the kittens began playing at 5:30, I couldn’t go back to sleep. I had promised the kids cookies when they got back, so I got up and started baking. I have never made so many cookies at once in my life. I should take a picture. Oh, look, I did!

That’s almost 500 cookies there. Holy cow.

I have no idea what went on down there after I left. I don’t know if Audrey is even on the bus heading home yet. I need to teach her about what her cell phone is for. All I can do now is wait – or call one of the chaperones and find out the ETA. Maybe I’ll have time for another nap. . .