Why Rachel and Mommy eat dinner and go to bed so late

1. Because Mommy's new boss has decreed that no one, under any circumstances, is allowed to work from home, so I have a 2 1/2 hour commute home every night and sometimes I don't make it to preschool until after 6.

2. Because Mommy needed to get a pedicure today because all she has to wear during the summer, shoe-wise, are sandals. And so Mommy needs regular pedicures to cover up her yucky toenails. Mommy would have gotten a pedicure on Sunday, but she was so eager for Rachel to experience Mt. St. Helens (who knows how soon we'll be back there?) that she figured she'd take care of her feet tonight. She couldn't do it during the day because she goes swimming during the day to relieve her stress and her new boss probably wouldn't appreciate her disappearing for two hours.

3. Because after the pedicure, Mommy went to the mall to figure out why the stupid phone she bought less than a month ago had a dead microphone, and the Verizon folks couldn't help her much except to arrange for a new phone to be mailed to her, which would be fine except that she has a VERY IMPORTANT PHONE CALL she needs to handle on Wednesday and really can't wait for Verizon to, you know, build a phone that actually WORKS for more than four weeks. Mommy is also very tired of spending most of her weekday nights at the computer store or the phone store and is considering whether to communicate by carrier pigeon and Western Union because this is no way to live.

4. Because the two hot dog places at the food court decided to shut down their hot dog service at 8:30, and there was nothing Rachel wanted to eat at 8:45, so Mommy apologized yet again for being a bad Mommy and they went home, ate dinner and Rachel didn't get to bed until 10:50 p.m. And she didn't even blink when Mommy told her that she wouldn't be able to buy Rachel's birthday presents until this weekend, and then Rachel answered, "Mommy. It's OK if you don't give me my presents until next year," and then Mommy started crying, and then Rachel said, "Don't cry, Mommy, if you cry then I'll start crying," and then Mommy wiped away her tears and then agreed to read Trumpet of the Swan. And tomorrow morning Mommy will have to wake Rachel up at 7 a.m. so she can get into work at a (somewhat) decent hour so her boss won't be tapping his foot and waiting for her to show up at 8 a.m. Which in any case is impossible because preschool doesn't open early enough for Mommy to drive an hour to work to be there at 8.

And that, folks, is a summary of my life these days.