It's Friday night. I had a little surgery this week, and haven't been feeling too well. I grabbed my sleeping kid from her bed in lieu of a 36-lb. teddy bear, and we lay in my bed and watched movies and ate Wheat Thins and drank cranberry juice.

I thought about how simple and sweet it was to hang out in your pajamas with your kid, with nothing but a pile of pillows and a box of Wheat Thins. Single parenting has been a humbling experience for me (humbling in the sense of someone pounding on your head with a big rock for an hour, and when they finally stop your cranium is beaten to a bloody pulp, but you weakly lift your now-toothless head and smile up at the sun and think "Thank goodness that's over!" But I digress.) so when I find us in these small little happy moments, I am amazed at how wonderful it is just to be living in this moment, and how lucky I am to be this child's mother.

I gave her a big fat kiss on the cheek, happy to be hanging out with her, and asked her if she liked these crackers.

She pulled one out of her mouth and examined it intently.

"It's a hexagon".

It IS? I quickly googled "hexagon". Six sides. Wow. I'm stupider than I realized. Humbling, I tell you.

So why aren't they called hextuplets?

MALENA! WHY AREN'T THEY CALLED HEXTUPLETS?!

Poor kid never had a chance. :)



Funny, that pancake scene reminds me of my own childhood....

Today I took an extended lunch hour from work. (Only fair - I worked late yesterday, for pete's sake!) I sometimes forget that I work from home and can be a little flexible with my work hours. The constant presence of my laptop sometimes makes it difficult for me to unplug from my inbox, and I regularly work more hours than I give myself credit for.

I missed the first five minutes of the Bonnet House history, but I know it's a private piece of land that was a summer home in the 1920's for wealthy people who wanted to preserve this sanctuary in an otherwise overcrowded Fort Lauderdale. The owners were artists, and the art is still in the home, and the grounds were supposed to be lovely, so off I went. It was gorgeous.

Until the rains rolled in.

I don't mind walking in the rain. We've been having spotty showers lately, so when it started to drizzle, I cheerfully set off for the farthest reaches of the property with my camera, hoping the rain would keep the other visitors indoors. It did. You know why? Because other people are not dumb like I am.

It rained. I didn't care. Then it rained harder. I ignored it. Then it rained ever harder. I started to hope it would stop soon. Then the winds came in off the ocean and the thunder boomed over my head, and I sprinted back into a rustic-looking historical toilet I had passed a few feet back.

Ok, fine. It was an outhouse. I made several panicked, Blair Witch-type phone calls from my cell phone.

"Jackie? I took the day off from work and there was a thunderstorm, and now I'm trapped in an outhouse alone and the water level is rising... was that a racoon? Please pick up the phone...."

"Kara, I just wanted to say thank you for changing your ringer to play 'Superfreak' every time I call.... that may very well be the last piece of music I hear on this earth... I'm about to be washed out to sea in an outhouse with 'She's a very kinky girrrrl' running through my head. Kara, I gave you the best 24 years of my life... and I ... I... I think the racoon is back! Kara?! (gurgle) Sorry! I choked on my gum! Did you ever try this Mojito Mint? It's pretty good. Anyway, my battery is about to die. I always loved you.... Superfreak? Really? God, you're an asshole. Ack! Battery!"

I wasn't kidding about the rain. By the time I was able to scramble to my car in the emptying parking lot, I seriously looked like someone had thrown me into a pool with my clothes on. In the driver's seat, I tried to quickly pull my wet shirt over my head to change into a dry sweatshirt, and had a frantic Lucy Ricardo moment when the dripping wet fabric of my shirt got caught on my elbows, and I fought furiously with myself for two minutes in my bra with my arms stuck up in the air, trying to pull the shirt all the way off before someone else drove past me.

Graceful like swan.

view from outhouse

my escape route...

the road back to my house

Dead quiet Sunday.

It's been hot all day, but suddenly started to rain.

I told Malena to put on her shoes, grabbed an umbrella, and we went for a walk.

The air had the rich smell of earth and ozone. I put in my iPod and listened to some Del Amitri while she stomped in puddles. After a while, I tucked my flip flops under my arm. It was easier to walk in the rain with bare feet.

Malena danced.

Home again. I'm going to curl up with a giant mug of tea, put on some socks, listen to the rain, and enjoy Frida.

A weekend exactly like weekends should be. Friends, a good nap or two, a nice breeze, greek donuts, and a stack of library books that I'm about to go and get acquainted with.

Dammit.

:)

Made a lemon birthday cake for my mom's birthday today, with a raspberry sorbet filling.

It took approximately all day.

They sell these in stores, don't they? Cake?