Wednesday, September 8, 2010

The Miracle of St. Sandoval de Samsung

Picking up where I left off last night, my MS wrangled a consent from me to spend the night with friend #2. There is a house rule that she will not spend the night away from home on school nights, but I cave easily. So, she arrived at the house in a whirlwind to pick up her clothes for school and her book bag. With a hasty kiss and an "I love you MiMi" she was out the door again and off. I turned out the lights, walked the dogs one last time and retired to my bedroom. I finished off Deathly Hallows, tucked myself in and began the drift method of slipping into sleep. At 10:30, the phone rang. "Hello". "Granmme, I am sooooo sorry. I am so sorry," she sobbed onto the phone. At once my overactive imagination kicked into high gear, trying to imagine what she could be soooo sorry for? Maybe it was my half asleep self that rendered me to draw a complete blank. Hadn't I just seen her a mere hour earlier? She was fine then. Finally, between sobs, she tells me that she has lost her cell phone at the fair. The same cell phone that has previously cost me $294.32 worth of text messages. The cell phone that is stuck like glue to her hand every minute of every day. Bummer. She was so upset that I didn't have it in me to get mad at that point. I gave that a small amount of consideration when she called me again at 11:30 to report that she was still "soooooo sorry" and that she had not been able to find it. Friend #2's mother - an angel among us - even took her back to the Fair and helped her search for it, retracing their steps and digging through the trash. That conjured up images of Templeton the rat on his food forage through the fair in Charlotte's Web.

Every hour or so today I called her phone, only to hear her sweet little voice say, "I can't get to the phone right now, please leave a message". I pondered every idea I could of how to remedy this problem with Verizon, planning to make a visit to the store on Friday. Suspending service tomorrow. I watched usage all day today on the website, trying to determine if someone was using it. (The $5.00 limits charge that I added last month kept me from obsessing about another 2000+ texts or worse). She called late this afternoon, having received another invitation to attend the fair tonite. Begging to be able to go on a reduced budget just to afford her another chance of looking for the beloved cell phone. I finally succumbed to her pleas. Friend #3's mother was working a booth tonight and she didn't need a lot of money.

As I drove her to her friend's house I asked her to please be on the listen for her "ringtone" as I would be calling the phone from time to time so that she might hear it. I also encouraged her to check with the ticket seller's booth to see if by chance it had been turned in, though I didn't hold much hope for that. I said a little prayer after I dropped her off. "Please Lord, let her find it".

At 6:35 the phone rang. It was another friend #1 from last night. "I found Elexia's cell phone". I was speechless. "It was at the ticket booth, but they won't give it to me. Elexia has to claim it herself". I told her that my MS was there again tonight, so off she went to track her down.  When my phone rang again a few minutes later and "Elexia" appeared on the screen, I said a quick "thank you" to St. Sandoval de Samsung.

Who'da thought that miracles can happen, even among the carny-folk.

oh... I really have no idea what Mr. Samsung's first name is. I just figured if I was going to make him a Saint there should be a fancy sounding name.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Carny Fun

It's September and the quiet little town of Social Circle, Georgia has two long standing traditions for the month. The tour of homes which showcases several of the beautiful antebellum mansions in our town. The second is the arrival of the Fall Carnival at the Middle / High School. I'm guessing that it is a fund raiser for the school system, though I'm really not sure. They hang a huge banner across Main Street about a month ahead of its arrival - just to make sure that all the kids in town have plenty of time to amply badger their parents or MiMi's to death about it. You might think or pumpkins and candied apples and scarecrows and crafts. Maybe even funnel cakes or fried snicker bars when "fall carnival" is mentioned. Do not be deceived!

Social Circle Fall Carnival is actually the well traveled McNair Fair. Anyone within the state of Georgia is familiar with the site of it set up in shopping center parking lots. It travels the state year round draws large crowds nightly.  I pose this question to you though. Why would a school system engage a carnival for school nights? What about homework? Getting sufficient rest?

I had made it clear to my MS that I had no desire to go to the Carnival. She was welcome to go with a friend and I would see to it that she had money to attend. So, of course, she had it all arranged for the first night it was open. Home from school and off to the friend's house with assurances that she would be home by 7:30pm in plenty of time to do her homework and get to bed by 9:30.

Let me pause and ask myself, "did you really believe that was going to happen??"  At 7:30 she called to say that she had met up with friend #2 and her mother and was switching to them so she could stay longer. So now it is 9:30 and still no sign of my MS. Homework not done. I'm ready to go to bed.

My idea of a good time is absolutely not standing by the giant swing, singing "Wildfire" and yucking it up with the carny folk! :-)

Sunday, September 5, 2010

A Mimi Labors on Labor Day

Labor Day,  a holiday devoted to honoring all of the hard working Janes and Joes of this nation by giving them a Holiday from their regular work-a-days. Also a day to mark the end of a long, hot summer as the hints of Fall start to appear in cooler nights and days. A time to take a last vacation to a warm, sandy spot on a pool of blue water somewhere.

Or.....

Accept the offer to keep the newly turned three year old twin grandsons while the mother and father figures go to the beach for the week. Hmmmmmm....
I know, I know. A grandmother should accept with grace the position she holds at this point of her life and embrace all opportunities to dote on the little ones. And I do. Though a picture perfect Granmama I do not claim to be. I have to admit that my energy level saps much more quickly than it did 30 years ago. Watching the twins is like watching an instant replay of every instant. They say the same things, think the same thoughts and of course do the same do-s. They fall together, cry together, scream together and happily go to sleep together.

In short, they wear me out. I succomb to stress and frustration just as easily as the best of you. So now, into that mix add my MS and her friend, a big dog and a little dog, and now my 1st grader granddaughter. It's a full house and a house full of noise, laughter and of course a lot of love.The dogs are terrorized, the neighbors have probably debated calling DFACS by now and I had one good nerve left and by cracky.... they got on it this afternoon.

They wanted to wash the car. My immediate impulse was NO, but the word that came out of my mouth was OKAY. What can it hurt I mused. They get wet, have a little fun and I get a clean car out of the deal. So they donned their bathing suits and drug the water hose around to the car. I supplied them with wash cloths, dish soap and a bucket and went back inside.

At first there were the expected squeals of joy and laughter. I took my Harry Potter book out onto the porch to watch the merriment - just in time for twin #1 to slip in the garage and start screaming. My MS, in her bikini with far too many curves to suit me, jumped up from her station at the rear right tire and took off running to her brother's rescue.... only to slip on the same slick spot and hit the conrete hard. So, to recap: Twin #1 is screaming in pain... twin #2 who repeats every word and shadows every move it screaming in commiseration. My MS is sprawled (in the bikini) on the garage floor insisting that she has mortal wounds. Granddaughter #2 is sucking her thumb and the Best friend once dated George Washington. (where did that come from you might ask? - exaggeration is her middle name)

Drawing from parenthood 101, I pretended not to be overly alarmed. Though, I must admit having visions of ER's all night long dancing in my head. I said, "everybody up and go get into the shower". And believe it or not, they did it.

Now I sit here, blocking all external sounds out and typing this account of just a one hour period of this MiMi's Labor Day. I have labored, I have practiced meditation to get through and I have enjoyed several bottle of a nice Cab-Shiraz blend :-)

It's 5:40 PM. One hour and twenty minutes til bedtime!! And they go home tomorrow.