But Abby is an Oompa Loompa (and probably random classmate/candyshop kid) in Studio East's upcoming production of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (note: Abby is in Cast A if you want to see her).
To her this feels like she got all five Golden Tickets; she's so excited about it (and she got her favorite math teacher and she got both Advanced Drama and Beginning Art as eight grade electives) that she couldn't stop talking. She's a motormouth anyway, all three of us are, but this was exceptionally fast and babbly even for her.
These are huge Good Things for her.
And although yesterday was stupid-busy for me, I did okay too. Which is saying something, given my last blog post.
Let's see, what all happened yesterday...?
- Got Lizzy off to her first day of third grade.
- Abby and I went to the bank and finished clearing up all the close-Laston's-account-and-transfer-bills-to-my-account stuff.
- Then we went to the store to return an outfit I bought for Lizzy but was too small when we tried it on. We exchanged it for another and also bought donut holes for Lizzy's birthday celebration at school.
- Went to the doctor to pick up the completed epi-pen release form that we dropped off last week. This is where we hit our first snag. The girls' doctor is on vacation and her MA hadn't gotten the form to the substitute doc before the MA too went out of town.
- An aside - why doesn't our local branch of PacMed keep the local school district's medication release forms on file? They told me this happens every year; shouldn't they have them? Even if it was only for the school district in which the particular branch is located (like Northshore for PacMed Bothell, or Lake Washington for the Totem Lake branch) it would be easier.
- In any case, we go to the school (all the way across town, as the Northshore district is fairly rural) and tell the nurse we need her to fax the form and have it faxed back. She is happy to do this.
- While there, we mention in passing to the attendance office that we haven't received a course schedule yet. Did the potential-but-unrealized strike delay things? Um... Mrs Kirkland; you were supposed to come to the back-to-school fair and get it there. It was a couple weeks ago (yeah, we had other things on our minds at the time). Okay, can we get it now? Sure, just wait for the eighth grade counselor to come out of his office and he'll get it for you. (Another counselor got it before he was done).
- By this point I'm starting to wear a bit thin; I keep catching myself wringing my hands and having to consciously take deep breaths. So Abby and I go to lunch at Mongolian Grill, where we make good choices by abjuring rice and limiting fortune cookies and drinking water.
- Went to the elementary school to distribute donut holes to Lizzy's class. First Day Madness in full effect. Thank Google for Abby, who - while she feels awkward wearing a Visitor badge at the school she attended - is picking up some of my people-ing slack.
- Ran by my work and ordered some tamales from our HACEMOS Employee Resource Group. This did not require much conversation and I was remarkably calm in the workplace.
- Got home and collapsed in an exhausted and temporarily-introverted heap on the couch. It only took five hours to reduce me to this, but they were very busy hours, with some complications that would have undone me this time last week. Watched some TV with Abby. Fell asleep.
- Sent Abby to take out garbage and get Lizzy at school bus stop. Made breakfast for dinner (scrambled eggs and country potatoes)
- Took Lizzy to mom's. Took Abby to Parent Meeting and First Rehearsal at Studio East. Did okay except for a little hand-wringing when phrases like "life happens" were uttered by Studio East staff (they have no way of knowing this is currently an anxiety trigger for me). Then I got hugged by another parent and fell apart just a little bit. Each successive hug was a bit easier.
So, did it exhaust me like it did last blog post? Yes, although I feel rather less fragile. Those eggshell cracks I glued up with an extra week and a half off seem to be stronger than the pre-crack eggshells. I feel much more confident about returning to work soon, probably Sunday or Monday. And I do still have an FMLA safety net if I get overwhelmed.
So maybe I got a Golden Ticket too. Or at least a Bronze, maybe a Silver.
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