Sixteen Candles

I feel a little like the main character in Sixteen Candles today.   Only before we go any further, in a good way, not in a bad way at all.  

This morning my husband and I were trying to sleep.   Our children and dog were most definitely not trying to sleep, they were, instead, playing games with the dog on our bed.   Squealing was followed by one or two children trying to get under the covers while a happy dog tried to get to them, lick them, sit on them and play with them.   My husband is pretty talented at sleeping through the most intensely loud situations.  You can tell, because it doesn’t even interrupt his snoring.   But this morning was too much and we had to get up.

My daughter wasn’t going to school today because of a fever she developed yesterday.  Fever and malaise but otherwise she was fine.   The morning was busy though because I had a doctor’s appointment and my husband had a dental cleaning.  What to do with the sick child?   Bring her with one of us.   She said she’d like to see dad get his teeth cleaned and my appointment was mostly talking anyways and that was boring.

My husband made breakfast, the children got dressed, I got in a hot tub and worked on getting moving.  At eight my son and I went to his school and then I started the long morning of working with the doctor and pharmacy on what our next plans were to deal with my new insurance company declining multiple medications I’m prescribed—including the alternative medicine they wanted me to take instead.  

Coordination with the pharmacy and the doctors office took two more trips, then to the Chiropractor at almost noon on the dot when I got a text from my son’s Integrative Therapist about us still being on for our noon conference call?   I told her I’d call in ten minutes and she said that worked for her.

An hour call there followed by a second hour call about the new endowment fund we’ve created in honor of our retiring head of school, followed by a second call on the same subject because one of the attendees had a conflict and couldn’t make the first time slot.

About to hang up from three hours of phone calls and my best friend messaged me saying she thought I was coming over an hour-and-a-half ago and was everything okay?   Damn.   She and I had messaged about that last night but I got pulled away from the phone right in the middle and didn’t confirm with her (on my side).   Drat.   She and I got to catch up for ten minutes though as she drove to school to pick up some of her children.

When they got in the car I mentioned that my family had completely forgotten my birthday so far today.   Ellie said, “oh, just like in Sixteen Candles!”  I laughed and said, “you’re so right.”   But, I told them, I wasn’t sixteen, I was now forty-nine.  

By the time you get to almost half a century in age, birthdays seems much less important to celebrate.   Or perhaps they’re grow in importance to some people.   In our family it’s never been much of a thing unless you’re a child and want cake, ice cream, presents and a party.   We’ve never done much in the way of celebrating birthdays other than a dinner and a birthday call.   My mother had sent me a birthday email, complete with one of her famous Word documents sporting clip art depicting characteristics or interests of yours.

We’ll celebrate tonight with dinner my husband makes for the children.  And we’ll sing the birthday song.   That’s about all it takes to make me happy though.   I don’t mind at all that they’ve forgotten my birthday.   What would be nice though would be to be sixteen again…

The Big Boy Update:  My son has taken a small dose of Benadryl for the past several days before he goes to school.   It was an idea I had to calm him just a bit so he could hopefully drop his energy level down, making it easier to do his work.   He says it’s helping.  It’s not a long-term solution, but it’s something to try.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter still has a fever.   One of the children near us had the same thing and it took a few days to pass.   She’s sleeping on the chair in the living room now, listening to Ninjago on the television.