Today flew by. Drew left for Seattle close to noon, an hour later than he'd wanted to, but we both got up late and I needed to finish slogging through the take-home exam for my marketing class (and thank heaven it all ends Tuesday night because I REALLY need that night to be free again, to say nothing of all the hours I've squeezed in homework and reading. I can't remember the last time Drew and I unwound upstairs on Saturday nights by renting a movie. Or, hey, just reading books!) So, he and Rachel ate breakfast and did some auxiliary grocery shopping while I raced through the third and last question of the exam. Then it was time to leave for a gathering of the chavurah. Rachel was very sad to see Drew leave but was OK as soon as we left. The chavurah was at a lovely house in the Southwest Hills of Portland -- felt like being in a treehouse -- and unlike the last chavurah, she found plenty of ways to amuse herself with toys and stickers. (Many thanks to the chavurah hostess, whose name I forget, for sending Rachel home with even more stickers. She has a daughter who has outgrown them and the stickers had apparently been sitting in a closet, forgotten and lonely, for years).
About 90 minutes after we got there Rachel announced, "I want to go home for nap." "Bless your heart," said one of the grownups, who has two girls slightly older than Rachel. Of course I was going to oblige, since our next event began at 4 and I really wanted her to get an hour's nap in. I put her to bed at 3:15, returned to the take-home exam...only to hear the little patter of feet at 3:45, just as I'd finished talking to Drew, who had just arrived in Seattle. I sighed, gathered Rachel and myself together, and headed to Laurelhurst, a couple minutes' drive away (and site of Laurelhurst Park, where we had Rachel's 3rd birthday celebration last year). The event was a house party for a candidate for Oregon attorney general, held at the house of the Willamette Law professor who runs the international law clinic. And a more stunning house I cannot imagine. It was right across the street from the park, the interior was old but tastefully gorgeous, roomy kitchen, perfect landscaping, etc. etc. I definitely chose the wrong profession to pursue.
The professor, a mom herself, had thoughtfully arranged for two babysitters to take all the kids of the adults at the event to the park, and Rachel was a bit hesitant but once she realized she was going to the park she was fine. (And she apparently forgot I had told her she could watch movies at the event, because I'd been told there was a media room, but it never happened. OK by me; Rachel got out on the fresh air on a cloudy but rainless day). When she returned, she sat next to me and colored quietly, then disappeared into the backyard with the other kids. When I found her she was watering the flowers with a plastic toy watering can she'd found, using water from the water feature installed out back. "It looks like she's going to be a gardender!" one of the babysitters squealed, and I had to laugh, since I have not a green thumb on my body and my poor garden, or what passes for one, is a MESS.
Afterward I called Mom and Dad, and Rachel asked very nicely, "How's Valerie doing?" (I think she misses her cousin very much.:)). Then dinner with my friend Sarah and her son Noah; he and Rachel are becoming quite close. We went to a brewpub where they have a play kitchen and lots of toy food, which Noah and Rachel were very happy to keep bringing us until there was barely any room for the real food. Noah told Rachel he and his mom were going to Baskin Robbins after dinner, and so of course Rachel asked to go, and she asked so nicely (and covered me with hugs and kisses afterward) that I couldn't refuse. Noah got pink peppermint ice cream, some of which ended up in Rachel's hair, and Rachel got vanilla which she barely finished. Sigh...I hate good ice cream going to waste and I can't stand vanilla. The kids ended up playing some kind of "Open, Sesame!" game until the moms told them to stop, and then Rachel and I headed home, I got her into bed and asleep more quickly than usual and FINALLY finished the damn take-home exam. That ends virtually all of my written work for the class; the last class period is Tuesday and it will consist of presentations by the smaller groups in the class who are taking it for credit; I'm just auditing.
And how, having taken Tylenol PM to deal with my aching back from yesterday's all-day chorus coaching session, I am heading to bed. This next week I am going to take it (somewhat) easy.
No comments:
Post a Comment