After six days of no school and late nights, Moon had a little trouble going to be sleep last night. Every twenty minutes, she’d be back in the living room complaining that NOTHING she did worked. Finally, I gave up and went to sleep with her for no other reason than at least I could get some sleep. It was, after all, midnight! She tossed and turned and kicked and ground her teeth so that neither one of us got any real rest.

I’ve never actually gone into a cave during winter and poked a bear, saying “Hey, get up! It’s time for school!” but I have a pretty good idea of what it would be like. Man, the kid is NOT a morning person.

After I got her off to school, (God bless those teachers), I didn’t have time to go back to bed. Nope, I had ads to do, and web posts to write and coupons to print – stop me if this is all too exciting for you. I actually had to shower and go out into public. I made a stop at my volunteer job, then my real job, followed by the Staples, the library, post-office, Kroger and Publix. Yes, I will drive to two different grocery stores if one has .75 cents off juice and the other has pears at .99/lb verses 1.29/lb. What are we, the Rockefellers?

I am working hard this week to get everything done because I’m going to a writers’ conference on Friday. It’s important that Moon and JD have a plan for fun, and plenty of food in the refrigerator. I want them to have a great weekend while I’m out of town. It’s my 17th wedding anniversary, so they ought to at least have deli ham if they want it, amiright? What’s an anniversary party without ham?

Speaking of food, the only thing I’m NOT looking forward to is eating in Birmingham. I’ve been on a 99% juice or raw food diet since Saturday and my critique group made reservations at Bonefish for Friday night. Bonefish – home of Bang Bang Shrimp! I just ate a handful of chickpeas and an olive for dinner. I’m planning on taking some food, but this ain’t my first rodeo. I’ll either go off my diet and eat everything in sight, or stick to my plan and deny myself a delicious meal. Either way, I’m going to be grumpy.

I wonder if my roommate has ever gone into a cave in winter and poked a bear.

Moon has been out of school since Thursday, or so says the calendar, but I’m pretty sure it’s been longer. Like weeeeeeks longer. I keep telling myself that she will one day outgrown Barbies, but sometimes it feels like we’ll be sitting on her dorm bed and fighting over Ken.

Except that Ken is much too pedestrian for us. We don’t play normal Barbies, no, we play GREASE Barbies. A few months ago, I let Moon watch the “good” parts of Grease. Basically that’s just Olivia Newton-John singing Hopelessly Devoted to You, but it was enough to capture Moon’s attention. Now I have to sit through Barbie sessions where Danny, Sandy, Rizzo, Kenickie and Frenchy go to Rydall and have to deal with Mrs. Zucko, the hard-nosed teacher. I LOVE Grease, but Moon Mrs. Zucko yells every time one of my characters launches into song, so it takes some of the fun out of it.

I shouldn’t complain. At least we’re playing something that makes some sort of sense. Unlike her favorite game to play in the car – Grease Wars. This is a fun and entertaining game where I get to be all of the characters from Grease while she plays Padme, the mysterious new student from “Jersey”.

No wonder public school cut out recess.

This was a tough weekend for a person who spends a lot of time on the internet and hates conflict. First of all, the shutdown. If you knew what vile and ugly things I wanted to spew on Facebook, you’d probably drive over and take my computer away. Or urge me to go ahead and write them if you’re my mother. It’s a constant battle of typing, deleting, hating, and confessing. Who did people hate before the internet?

I’m guessing the University of Georgia. Seriously, how aggravating was that game? Tennessee was soooo close and I was actually dancing around my living room in a bright, orange #16 jersey right up until the last dang touchback. Lucky for my smug husband, he was not at home. And lucky for my television, I was babysitting Allison. I hated to undo all of my “Tennessee is awesome, Georgia sucks” training by terrorizing her with a flat-screen against the wall fit.

I was so undone by the loss that I couldn’t go to church on Sunday. My pastor is not a Tennessee fan and while I know Jesus is, I wasn’t sure if the sermon would touch on that so I punted. See what I did there? Besides, I had a tennis match to prepare for. My team is in 2nd place and I’m undefeated so it was important that I give it my full attention. I was just pulling into Kroger to buy cupcakes for the match, yeah, we are THAT serious, when I got a phone call. Seems the other team was so intimidated about playing against me, they defaulted. I was a little bummed, but then my partner called to say she was also bummed because she had just put on her Georgia shirt and visor and I remembered that I hate tennis. And her.

I came home and settled in for another afternoon of football – this time Denver vs. Dallas. Denver has been killing everyone, but no, as soon as I decide to watch, it goes down to the wire. Luckily, Denver pulled out a win and remain undefeated.

God bless Peyton. I am SO sorry for every bad thing I ever said about him just because we lost to Florida during his reign.

And also for the way I looked dancing around in the living room in your #16 jersey. What can I say? I eat when I’m nervous. Win bigger next time.