good turns

I saw my g/e doc on Thursday, and he concurs that I did myself in by eating very, very badly last Sunday. If I were more rational about my "attack" on Monday, I probably could've seen that for myself: I've never had such a problem before. Even before I had my gallbladder out, I never had a severe attack, I just had a constant, dull ache. Anyway: I don't have to see him for another year, barring any incidents. It's nice to get news like that when you've braced yourself for another expensive invasive procedure to figure out what's going on.

Friday, took the kids for our weekly Border's jaunt, and was shocked to be offered a job, of sorts. Miss M, the storyteller, needs someone to fill in for her when she's on vacation in the late spring. I said yes! She was so happy and relieved that I agreed, she didn't want to cancel the story times. Story times are 3 mornings a week, there are songs and usually 3 toddler-friendly books. I started taking DS2 to storytime when he was tiny, and of course I've been taking all of them just to hang out since before DS2 was born, so Miss M has been aquainted with me and my kids for nearly 5 years now. I think maybe I'm a bit crazy but this is a very low-commitment gig, and it could be a lot of fun. The storytime crowd at Borders tends to average about 20-30 people, half toddlers, half parents. There's the usual mix of wanderers, screamers, and whatnot, but all the parents are engaged in the process, usually. Best thing? Each story session lasts only about 45 minutes, so it's not like I'll be trapped there all day. And of course, DS2 gets to tag along, since the sessions will be after he's out of school. We'll see how it goes.

Today DS1 and I survived the first half of his first 2-day swim meet. He swam the 100 meter freestyle and the 50 meter breaststroke, but he disqualified on the 50m by slipping in two or three freestyle armstrokes -- oops. No big deal, kids "deke" (DQ) all the time, there's always another meet. Tomorrow, the 50m backstroke and the 50m butterfly. I'm fulling expecting him to DQ on the butterfly, too, since he hasn't been practicing that stroke very long. It's OK.

Poor kid fried to a crisp today. I don't know why I thought, "It's February, how bad can the sun be?" It was pushing 90 degrees today in the sun, and my boy is looking lobster-ish. He's quite fair so that makes it worse than it would be on, say, me. I slathered him with moisturizer and put him to bed with some ibuprofen. He denies pain and laughs about how funny his face looks, and has been in a great mood all evening, so I have to think that it's not a bad burn, in spite of how it looks. Tomorrow: sunscreen, and at all future meets, too!

Last: Big is coming in to town for a conference, and we're getting together for lunch on Tuesday. I don't know what to expect, we haven't seen each other in more than ten years. In my mind's eye, he looks the same as when I last saw him, and I know that won't be true of him anymore than it's true of me. But even more than looks I wonder if how he is will be different, as I know I am different. A lot has happened over these years. We'll see.