DECISIONS

I made the poor decision to put tooth #2 in a bowl on a high shelf.  The jealous girls climbed up and it has since disappeared

I'm always shocked by the way the world makes decisions for you.  When I was in my 20's, I had no idea what to do with my life.  It occurred to me that I should be a flight attendant.  I'd travel for free, work a 4-day week, and then I'd get a ton of time to be in the studio making pottery.  This was before I knew that flight attendants are poorly paid, constipated and get varicose veins.  I successfully attended a flight attendant cattle call and was given an interview date and time in Chicago.  I was especially thrilled about that because I'd be able to visit a guy I'd dated in college on whom I still had a massive crush.  Then I heard about the mandatory drug test.  I was a 20-something potter living in San Francisco; smoking pot was mandatory as far as I was concerned.  I went to a health food store; they gave me dandelion tea, cranberry, psyllium, and other horrid herbs to get the pot out of my system.  I adhered to the regime marveling at its affects on my bowels until I got the most heinous urinary tract infection of my life.  I was WAY too sick to get on a plane, and I certainly wasn't going to enjoy visiting the guy.  I was bummed-out until I discovered that seniority at that airline was based on the last 4 digits of your social security number.  Mine would have put my on a puddle-jumping plane for years.

I'm doing another craft fair this weekend in Wilmington.  I made the questionable decision to have kale in my smoothie.  So now I'm trying to sell pottery with green stuff in my teeth.  Normally when I have a kale smoothie, I spend the rest of the day ALONE.  That isn't going to be the case today.  I am reminded of one of my flight attendant friends.  She and the other flight attendants called walking down the aisle of the plane while farting, "crop dusting"  I don't have any crop dusting options.  I wonder if my breakfast decision is going to affect today's sales?

We were reading a book the other night called "Dave the potter"  It's about a slave who made massive 60 lb. pots.  Steel wanted to know about slaves.  I told her that nobody cared about them as people.  They were separated from their families; they could get hurt and still no one cared.  Steel said, "Mama, do you care?"  "Yes, I do; most people care about these things now."  Toby looked at me earnestly and said, "Mama, Do I care?"  "Ummm...Toby, that's something you're going to have to decide for yourself.

I got a horrible call at work on Monday.  Tim had fallen off a roof; the ambulance was coming; no one knew anything else.  They were delivering 3 modules from Pottsdown to Philly.  Someone at the modular company had made the last-minute decision to change the route.  All 3 of the modules got massive gashes in the tops because they'd gone on a too-short bridge.  By the time they arrived in Philly, it had started to rain.  Everyone was on the roofs trying to spread tarps to avoid water damage when Tim fell off.  I panicked and called him.  He was in the ambulance bellowing at me, "I'M FINE!"  He wasn't fine.  He spent that night in the hospital.  The next evening at dinner the kids and I discovered that he was going to have to spend another night in the hospital.  I watched a rumor start in front of my eyes.  "2 nights? 2 nights in the hospital????  Do you think he'll come home with a baby?"  "Mama came home with a baby!"  "Yes, she definitely had a baby after 2 nights!"  "We're getting a baby?"  "Yes, Dada is bringing home a baby!"  They almost had me convinced.  Why else would someone spend 2 nights in the hospital?

If Dada did, in fact, come home with a baby...

We're READY!

He had missed the kids so much that despite being on crutches, in a neck brace, foot boot cast, and a wrist brace, he decided to pick the girls up at daycare.  Usually all of the kids run to him and jump on him-not just our girls.  This time they all looked at him, screamed and ran the other way.  Toby wouldn't let him touch her.  He had to convince them all that he was just trying out his Halloween costume on them.