As promised

An update on how the day was weird, and turned out to be tiresome indeed.

It all started with not being called to wake up. Well, before that, my dad was prevented from waking me up at 5:30 by brother and mom. I'd said my goodbyes to brother yesterday evening before going to sleep, not seeing the point in waking up in the middle of the night, murmuring a 'don't jump the plane unless you have a parachute' comment and go right back to sleep. Or, with my luck, be awake for the rest of the night and having to do all of today on 5 hours of sleep. So, we said goodbye, safe journey and all that good sobby stuff before going to sleep. Dad did not wake me up.

DH on the other hand, can be trusted to call at any time in the early morning before he goes to sleep. Never after 8:00, or he knows I'll get on to him for not going to bed before midnight. He doesn't 'do' clocks and never checks the time during the evening, right until the moment he decides he's getting tired. That didn't happen until 1:30 his time, which is why he called me at 8:30 in the morning, when I was no longer around to answer the phone.

Mom didn't call me from the airport, as I had told her repeatedly that I had set the alarm, and that between it and DH, I would certainly be up before 8:00. Which is why I frantically called her at 8:20 to ask what time I was to have expected the first batch of kids to show up, right after the father of the first batch finally got to leave for work.

At 8:13, I woke up, screamed a little when I checked my watch, jumped into my clothes and down the stairs to open the door to two slightly undercooled kids and their father, holding his phone from when he was calling the house phone, wondering if anyone was there. Well, I was. As it happened, just as I was zipping up, the alarm went off. 7:15 Winter Time. Gods I felt stupid and inadequate. Luckily they were the first batch to be expected, so none of the other fathers needed to know. In between arrivals I managed to brush my teeth and put on socks and shoes. Not a great start of the day.

Of batch #1, 100% has a cold of the running snot type, followed by 100% of batch #2. Batch #3 was snot-free, and assured me she had eaten all of her dinner the night before, and even finished her yoghurt after. Believe me when I say that's quite an accomplishment, as she only ever does that here, and only after much power-struggle has been overcome. At 9:00, one child was removed from the flock to sleep. Which he did, blissfully, for 90 minutes. By 10:30, after Tweenies, Tubbies and King Koos, breakfast and a coffee, the parental unit finally returned from Zaventem, having gotten themselves lost in Antwerp in search of that really cheap gas station. Left the house for a few minutes in search of cheap fabric, and returned to find much snot, unhappiness, and a 2 year old trying to get a feel for where my boundaries lie. Corporal punishment is so last century, but I can sometimes see the point of it. By 14:30, I was ready to leave the house but had an instant soup instead. Colds never help, and I was clearly tired and grumpy, but dear Gods, we can start our own "stop procreating" lifestyle group just with the 4 of them there. Just before soup, the most rational and least demanding one (who sleeps in my room) farted in her sleep, filling my room with sewage-grade stink. Mom transferred my 'wages' which is really kind of her.

Book club book #1 has arrived, so I can go pick it up anytime. I was late responding to the Ravelry position, but they got over 1500 applications, so it wouldn't have been any use anyway. Looking at the NHTV job site made me feel incredibly inadequate again, being in the place of under-over-qualifiedness. Will call about it tomorrow regardless. I would quite like to be a lecturer. I'd be a quite cheap one too, I imagine. They should hire me. Also applied for 3-month in-house translating job to be done in Germany for Gaming company, which will surely come to nothing.

Lovely Laura interrupted this posting, with more and new job openings in the Midland area. Sweetness, found lots more in the DFW range, which is currently slightly more convenient. Still, thanks bunches, sent them all on to DH, who is out, doing important expensive stuff.

Tonight the Screnzy starts. Actually looking forward to it, even though it won't be good, make no money or won't help with the future one bit. Still, it's something to do of an evening, when there's nothing on the telly.

For now, still working on the Blue Mariyam Bag, almost done with the crochet bit, and managed to score some fabric today.

Life isn't all bad, but I'm having that wine anyway. Bottoms up.


PS. Laura's cats are adorable little tigers.