March Marches On

In many ways.

March is super busy for us, although at least this time there is only one play to worry about.

You see, this is Cookie Month (that is, the store sales, with little girls in green or brown or tan or blue out there selling cookies in front of your local supermarket or hardware store or what have you; the pre-sales were mostly in February). And although our cookie site sales have been fun, it is now evident that Lizzy is pretty much done with her Customer Service Face for the rest of the weekend after one of these. She becomes, well, a bit of a jerk, even to people (like her grandmother) she loves and trusts. Some of this is Aspergers/Autism/Whatever-it's-called-this-month, some is her personality, and some of it is Just Plain Ten Years Old and Grumpy With It.

Especially as there is also Spring Ahead Jet-Lag for everyone involved.

So although we had big plans to deliver the last of our cookies (we have six boxes left of the pre-sold cookies), and to distribute flyers to all 151 houses in our neighborhood (we started a Facebook Group; more on that below), Lizzy was rude to Grandma and not-exactly-rude-but-certainly-not-her-usual-cheery-self to assorted neighbors. So we managed about a dozen households (plus the half-dozen who are already part of that Facebook Group) before not only was Lizzy being insufferable, I was getting there myself.

We'll do the rest over the course of the week; may as well take advantage of the Spring-Ahead-Light.

Oh, the Facebook Group? Yeah, I have no authority to speak for the landlord (we all rent the land and own the buildings), or to speak on behalf of the neighbors to the landlord. But there is no means of communication between neighbors (aside from shouting or a phone tree, I guess), so when there was a water outage a couple months ago, my mom and I started this group to disseminate that kind of information to the whole neighborhood.

It's the neighborly thing to do.

And last week, some of the very few of us in the group (didn't know other's email addresses/weren't Facebook friends with them) actually used it to return a lost pet to a neighbor. So we printed out flyers to share out to the neighbors, inviting them to join the group.

That, my friends, is what the Internet is for, along with reconnecting me with not one, but two people I haven't seen in person for thirty years this last week.

Then there's The Play.

We are (you may have noticed) going Into the Woods this weekend.

It's always been one of my favorites. I am so excited to see Abby in it, even though I've heard her (and the boy playing her son, and the girl in our carpool) doing practically the entire play in the car, in the hair salon, in the parking lot... you name it.

And thank goodness for that carpool; it means that I take the girls to rehearsal (or my mom does when Miz Liz and I have her piano lesson), and the carpool friend brings them back of an evening. Even today, when they're doing tech rehearsal (lighting and all that) from noon to eight.

Because you know what that means?

That means Lizzy McCranky gets to bed on time tonight.

And that will help March go out like a lamb.