A Friday morning scene:
it’s 9:57 am, and I am supposed to be dropping food off to our friends who have just become parents at 11:30 am. I have left the grocery store with the necessary ingredients, a wiggly Bug in the stroller and a Good Boy not reading the room as I try to speed walk home, trying to stop at every smell on the street.
As I power walk to the last cross walk into our neighborhood, I’m clutching his leash tightly and sing-songing “Come on, Ty!” to keep him moving with me instead of pulling to go to every plant or wall along the walk. The Bug is babbling, kicking her feet up as she attempts to get her sneakers off now that she has been locked into the stroller instead of walking on her own.
I step into the crosswalk and feel Ty pull the opposite way, sure he’s seen a discarded piece of food or trash on the ground. Cars are coming from both sides, so I tug on his leash and keep walking. He pulls harder, so I turn to see him trying to squat for a poop. I tug even harder to get him out of the street to poop, one hand on the stroller, as he starts dropping turds across the whole crosswalk, one on each stripe.
I get the babies out of the street and park the stroller on the sidewalk, tying Ty’s leash around the side and telling him to sit and stay with the Bug. Grabbing a poop bag, I turn back and am about to cross the bike lane when I hear someone yelling at me in Dutch. Looking back at the babies, I see a class of 26 six year olds and five teachers walking on a field trip blocked by my stroller and Ty. I run back to move Ty so they can continue, as she’s yelling at me to do, when all of the tiny humans realize that there is dog poop throughout the whole crosswalk and devolve into giggles and pointing.
Poop bag in my hand, babies moved out of the way and children continuing their walk, I turn again to clean up when all of a sudden I see a tiny New Balance sneaker flying through the air into the face of the two bikers that have suddenly appeared in the bike lane next to me. The Bug had success, apparently.
As I apologize profusely to the biker and grab the shoe, I swoop down and scoop up the poop. The children are still laughing at pointing, and as I pick up the last piece and stand up to see their mockery, I watch one of the six year olds walk head first into scaffolding on the street and start to bleed profusely. She begins crying, and the teacher for some reason starts yelling at me again.
I quickly grab my babies and walk the opposite way home.
The sun is shining and it is 67 degrees. I walk another two minutes and a second New Balance sneaker flies into the air with a shout of delight.
Happy weekend.
What I’m Reading
I finally read Onyx Storm, the newest instalment in the Fourth Wing series. I thought that plot wise it was way better than the second one, but the series just needs an editor who will take the book and the audience seriously. Honestly, these two read like fanfiction more than a published novels. A few examples of lines that I can’t get out of my head:
“as we pass what appears to be a tea shop, judging by the painted sign outside the door.” This sentence irked me so badly for some reason just say you passed a tea shop!
“Xaden Riorson is a lot of things, but happy isn’t usually one of them.” Why can’t men be allowed to be happy?? Why is it sexy to be with an unhappy man??
“turning those gorgeous, gold-flecked onyx eyes into weapons capable of melting the underwear straight off my body” What kind of weapon would that be? How would that help in battle?
“worst—period—mentor—period—ever—period” Why would this not be written worst.mentor.ever. I actually cannot get over this one.
“Is it toxic? Maybe. Is it us? Absolutely.” Yikes!!!
What I’m Watching
I’m teaching a page to screen adaptation unit, so we started Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet in class this week. Perfection - the collective sighs from my 13 year olds when young Leo looks up on the beach from his notebook for the first time. We’ll continue with a Bollywood adaptation in a few weeks, Ram-Leela, which should be cool to compare.
What I’m Loving
I had a 6:00 pm dinner date with my friend Juliet. We gabbed for three hours, had bubbles and split a bottle of wine. Romance your friends!
Our Bug now has a mini football (soccer ball, but I’m really trying to use the European term because that’s what all of her little friends will call it) and she is obsessed. Hopefully she’s got her Dad’s athletic abilities!