29 March
So, Saturday was, as I said yesterday, simply shattering.
Cynthia was participating in her very first full contact karate tournament, so she asked me to watch the chickabiddies so that Fran could watch her and cheer her on. I suggested that all of us could go together so that I could watch her fight as well.
Stupid-ass idea.
The kids were hellions. Well, not Bonnie, she was just a handful, but she's one, for heaven's sake, if she wasn't a handful we'd be worried! Molly, on the other hand, was Satan's spawn.
She has always been able to swing back and forth between angelically good and horrifically bad, but it was like a light switch, or hot and cold taps--every time you blinked, there would be a different version of Molly in front of you. I think she lost about half of her body weight in tears.
At one point I bodily carried her out of the building, as she screamed all the way. Actually, I lugged her screaming body around on several occasions, but only once did I remove her to the parking lot.
"I want to go back inside!"
"We will as soon as you stop screaming."
"I WANT TO GO BACK INSIDE NOW!!"
"Okay, stop screaming."
"NOOOOOO!!!!!!"
And on and on, until she had exhausted herself into hiccups, whereupon I brought her back inside and she was good as gold.
And I will never ever twit either Cynthia or Fran again for bribing the kids. At one point Molly had to choose between getting a soda and getting a doughnut, then wept until she got a doughnut as well.
"Do you really think she deserves a doughnut?" I said.
Well, awhile later, during one of her thermonuclear meltdowns, she all of a sudden turned to me, her face wreathed in smiles, and said:
"Kymmie, can I have a doughnut?"
"There aren't any left."
Going over to the table, "Yes there are! Please, Kymmie!"
"Well, I don't think you should have a whole doughnut, but if I gave you half a doughnut, would you promise to be good?"
"O yes, Kymmie, I promise!"
So, I stretched out my arms and said at the top of my lungs to everyone else in the hallway "All of you people have witnessed this moment. This child has promised to be good for half a doughnut."
We went back into the gym, she ate the doughnut, asked for another one, and had another fit. So that doughnut bought me about ten minutes of peace. Ah, but they were ten sweet minutes.
Cynthia made it to the finals, which meant that we were there for a good deal longer than expected, since they did all of the adult finals at once. She didn't win her final, but she acquitted herself nicely, and I think that winning second place in one's very first full-contact tournament is pretty damn good.
I drove home, and just as we left the parking lot Molly said "Daddy, take me to the park! I want to go to the park with one slide!"
Fran: "No, Molls, we're going home."
Cynthia: "It's too late, Molly, the sun is going down."
Molly (who else?): "I DO NOT WANT THE SUN TO GO DOOOOOOWN!!!!"
And that was the last straw, and I just burst into laughter. That child was an advertisement for birth control all day long.
Molly was very good for the ride home, having purged herself of evil. Bonnie, on the other hand, decided to take her turn, and screamed like a banshee pretty much the whole way.
I had a headache above my right eye that just would not quit. I could feel my forehead bulging in and out like in a cartoon.
We all staggered into the house, barely alive, to watch the Worlds.
I had missed the shorts, so Cynthia told me that Michelle Kwan had fallen on her butt and that the skater that pretty much everyone in the house loathes the most, Maria Butyrskaya, was in the lead and it would be almost impossible for her to win.
Then, Cynthia got off the phone and said "After this day of hell and the whole thing with Maria Butyrskaya and all, what worse thing could have happened?"
Fran guessed. Bill died.
I had called it, because on Friday I had talked to Sharon, and she was all happy because Bill was off the respirator and he had rallied and all and seemed so very much better, but I knew that that was a death knell.
A little tip for you all, when somebody dying is a million times better one day, that does not mean that they will magically live and all will be sunshine and roses, it means that they are about to die. I thought that it would be Sunday, only because my Da died two days after rallying, but basically, I was unsurprised.
I couldn't call Bill a friend, not really, I didn't love him as I loved Diane, but flaws and all he was a part of my family, my Love Creek family, and I will miss him very much.
Speaking of Diane, on this day, two years ago, she died of peritonitis after her appendix burst, which was after she was sent home from the hospital 'cause they said that she just had the flu.
We all still miss you, Diane.
March is a dangerous month for my theatre company.
Then we watched the skating, and collapsed into bed at 11.30, the earliest I have gone to bed since I was about fifteen years old.
Quite a Saturday, huh?
Today's horoscope:
You swing from a total absorption in nitty-gritty to being bored and wanting change. Allow both thoroughness and the need for variety.
One year ago today:
"With a semitone bouncing all around" indeed...
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Last Updated Mon 29 March 08:52:09 1999