A very minor tragedy
Mar 26, 2008 The Story of My Life
My friend Kristen is sponsoring a kid photo contest but I won’t be playing. You want to know why? Because Brett — while saving Madison from a rogue wave — dropped our camera into the ocean. He was hoping it would dry out and work but so far no dice. It is salt water, after all. I’m glad he saved the kid especially considering her hard-won ocean happiness but am awfully sad about the camera. We’re planning to head to Klickitat Street and Grant Park — that’s a photo op I need to cover.
Also I realized that I left a sort of central outfit to my vacation wardrobe lying on my bed at home. You know how it is with trips this long — you have to pack with versatility in mind. So I packed work clothes (for the conference) and play clothes only the central play clothes outfit isn’t here so I’m at a loss.
Perhaps these two things were what led me to wake up at 2am in a stone cold panic worrying about 4.3 million other things. Things like: Who the hell is paying for all this anyway? (Me.) And how in the heck am I going to make sure all our expenses are covered when I’m taking a ridiculous 10+ days off? Which led me to the ever-popular: Who do I think I am anyway? Why am I not fourteen steps ahead of where I am career-wise? When will this agent get back to me and what if s/he says no and no one else wants it either?
That’s when all panic hell broke loose and the fears started coming fast and furious including: When am I going to get back to my exercise routine? Why did we buy this house that needs so much work? How in the world did Peanut get fleas and why did we have to find out after we left from the kind people who are caring for her? Why haven’t those two clients paid their bills yet and how can I get them to? How are we going to replace the camera? WHO’S PAYING FOR THIS ANYWAY? Can the kids really eat this much Easter candy without their little bodies going into total sugar shock?
I’m a worrier by nature and it’s always worse at night when all the monsters under the bed come out to play. I’m not feeling so hot this morning but maybe I can doze in the car on the way back to Portland.
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More about the beach
Mar 25, 2008 The Story of My Life
Madison was worried before we got here because she’s developed a fear of sharks. And crabs. So we told her that sharks don’t come to Oregon beaches because it’s too cold and that there aren’t any pinchy crabs here anyway. And we decided to put away the ocean book before she got to the jellyfish. She’s very nearly four, which means she’s just figuring out that she’s mortal and she worries.
The ocean is, of course, pretty darn big even if you’re not a very small person so she stood on the sand and just started. Noah took off to leap into the waves but she was afraid to even put her feet in the edges and the foam spooked her, too. So she built sand castles while Noah and Brett ran in and splashed around. She’d look up to see what they were doing and shake her head.
Then we walked down to the rocks (where the sea lions sun themselves but they weren’t out today — there was one out in the waves bobbing his head but that was it). And she was grossed out by the seaweed until I got her to touch it and then she was more brave about touching things. She started gathering shells (really shell fragments) and I led her bit by bit closer to the wet sand, close to the waves, until one came up and pooled around her feet. It surprised her but she didn’t run this time. She stopped and we watched it come in again, pooling around her feet again and this time she laughed. Then she shouted, “I did it!” and then she started to dance.
Pics of these events in the next entry. (Written without coffee after sleeping crammed into the bed with two wriggly children. Typos are a given.)
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Tags: hotels, Madison, newport beach, Noah, Oregon, traveling
The easter bunny is a hero
Mar 23, 2008 The Story of My Life
S/he somehow figured out that the kids were in a hotel and managed to gift them with junk — much of it chosen to keep boredom away while riding on a plane. Smart easter bunny!
Today we’re hooking up with Brett’s side of the family but otherwise laying low because we are TIRED. And we may have woken up at a luxurious 9am our time, but we went to bed at 3am. Of course we’re in Portland where coffee was cool before coffee was cool so it’s all good.
I’m still rocking nervous about my presentation on Saturday. Current worry? What if nobody shows up? I’m counting on audience questions so I know what to say next. Also I left my index cards at home — oops — but they should be easy to replicate.
At our luxury-ish hotel they have terry cloth robes and a super-magnifying mirror in the bathroom. I give the robes an ironic thumbs up (I think robes are silly but fun) but the magnifying mirror doesn’t do much for a person’s self-esteem. Fortunately the world doesn’t look at me through magnifying mirror glasses so I’ll go back to ignorant bliss.
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Wifi should be free
Mar 22, 2008 Parenting
I’m sitting here in the Chicago airport updating on MarsEdit (it’s a blog editing program) but I won’t be able to upload here because their wifi isn’t free. I’m hoping Madison sleeps on the next leg of our trip because that child chattered the whole way here and my brain hurts. She’s pretty wired. We just spent the last half hour riding the motorized walkways back and forth. It made her positively giddy. (I snapped pictures to prove it.)
Madison found the flight exciting and the woman who had the window seat was nice enough to give it up so that Maddie could plaster herself against the window. Most thrilling of all was that I let her order a sprite from the flight attendant and sipping on that kept her busy (I drank most of it because a child with that much energy doesn’t need the sugar influx). She was also impressed with the tray tables and is looking forward to having the laptop sit there so she can watch Thomas on the next part of the flight. And she liked that there are shades on the windows, which she can push up and pull down, which she did, several hundred times. Now she’s singing and she’s pretty loud. I hope people think she’s adorable instead of annoying. Truthfully it’s probably a mixture of both.
(LATER)
We’re here! It was a long, hard plane ride but we survived. Madison slept but no one else did so she’s running around the hotel room making a fuss over everything and we’re all growling at her. Poor Madison — cursed with high energy! Now Noah’s crying so I’m signing off. (sigh) Traveling is mundane hell.
