April 30, 2008

orange you cute

Current balance for broken arm: $1,168.00.* Not including co-pays, or the ER bill, which we haven’t seen yet. Or all those OTHER doctor visits this month. Or the antibiotics or Henry’s meds, which cost TWICE as much now that we’re having them compounded. Or all the wine I’ve drunk since this started.

On the upside, this may be the LAST cast.  We go back in two weeks and the doctor is pretty optimistic that the arm will be completely healed.  And until then, he won’t get run over in the parking lot because you can see that orange cast about three blocks away.

*Before insurance. Thank GOD for insurance.

April 29, 2008

things that are weighing on my mind

1. My hair is a disaster. I had it cut two weeks ago, and it’s already a mess. Also it is longer on one side than on the other, which makes me crazy. I think I need to change stylists, AGAIN, which REALLY makes me crazy.

2. On Sunday, we put mulch in the flower beds, over the flowers we planted on Saturday. I wound up with a wee sliver of redwood mulch in my finger, which REALLY hurt. Today it worked its way out and now my finger is fine. The human body is an amazing thing, you know.

3. Charlie has had at least one gigantic sobbing meltdown every day for nearly a week. I think he’s had it with the broken arm and the strep and the itching and the medicine and the missing school. And while I wish he would stop crying about his PANTS already, I feel for him; I would like to lie down and cry about my hair, for example (see #1).

4. My birthday weekend was lovely, clouded only by intermittent moments of badly behaved children, which is pretty much the norm around here.  But the entire quart of Thai peanut chicken salad that I ate made it all better.

5. I’m getting a new camera! Probably a Cannon Rebel, unless anyone has any other suggestions.  It needs to be very VERY simple to use and VERY easy to carry, because I am a delicate flower with a short attention span.  And a limited budget.  Just so you know.

And if you have any ideas about my hair, I would love to hear those, too.

Today is Tuesday, which means that while I was worrying about my hair and marvelling at the fact that my body PUSHED OUT A WOOD CHIP, I was also writing about other things, like what to wear to a new job and why the white handbag is the Perfect Bag for Summer. Go, read! You might learn something.

April 25, 2008

he got me a lifetime supply of Tylenol

Me: I have the WORST headache today.  Seriously.

Him: Oh, didn’t anyone tell you?  After 40, it’s just ONE BIG HEADACHE.  Welcome to the rest of your life.

Me: Great.  Just GREAT.

April 24, 2008

four-OH!

Today is my birthday; I am 40. I could wax eloquent about all the things I expected to do before I was 40 or all the things I hope to do now that I am 40, but instead I will tell you about my day, because you will NEVER BELIEVE THIS.

My birthday went like this: get up, get dressed (in an actual DRESS even because I was going to have lunch with my husband and then go to the Apple store to replace my iBook’s power cord and perhaps also stop at J. Crew because IT IS MY BIRTHDAY), get kids up, get kids dressed, take kids to school. Come home, eat cereal, read New York Times, get ready to talk with magazine editor about writing for magazine. Call editor, leave message, think about starting to clean up house.

And then the school calls because Henry has an ear infection and has cried the ENTIRE WAY through Mass. Woo!

I spent the rest of the day with a kid who alternately felt FINE and wanted to tell me IN GREAT DETAIL about an episode of SpongeBob he watched TWO WEEKS AGO when Charlie was forbidden to move and was watching TV for twelve consecutive hours each day and then felt HORRIBLE and cried and sobbed and wailed and moaned and clung to me with all his strength and power and 63 pounds of heft.

All this was all before lunch, which clearly I was NOT going to spend in a grown-up restaurant with my husband. Instead we took Henry (who was feeling pretty good at that particular moment) to HIS favorite restaurant, a local sandwich place that I have decided I am OVER. And we had a lovely lunch even though I am OVER Gourmet Deli. Sorry.

After lunch, Henry spent what seemed like a hundred hours but was probably only one sobbing and crying and insisting that I FIX HIS EAR RIGHT NOW. And then he was fine again and we picked Charlie up and they talked about their days and then we got to the doctor and he sobbed in the waiting room and then we went into the examining room and he was polite and cooperative and then we left to drive through at the pharmacy and he sobbed and sobbed and sobbed and insisted that the people in front of us FINISH ALREADY AND GET OUT OF THE WAY because his EAR HURT WHY DIDN’T ANYONE CARE THAT HIS EAR HURT AND WHY WEREN’T WE GETTING THE MEDICINE AND HIS EAR HURT DID I HEAR HIM ABOUT HIS EAR WHY AREN’T WE GOING HOME YET OWOWOWOW ITHURTSITHURTSITHURTS MAKEITSTOPNOW!!!

I’m guessing that I must have passed out about then because I have no idea what was next.

So far, being 40 feels just like being 39 and 30 and 25, except for the part about the screaming kid, which I would never have seen coming a decade ago (or really even yesterday because who knew he had an ear infection?!? not me, clearly). Apparently 40 is the new 30, whatever that means, although I think really it just means that a whole group of us is getting old and trying desperately to turn old into cool which just seems kind of lame to me.

And that is what I have learned at 40: trying to be cool is lame. Goodnight, ladies and gentlemen! Apparently my work here is done.