Day in the Life

5:30 get up and start getting everyone dressed, fed, brushed and combed and off to work and school with their bags, laptops, permissions slips, etc.
7:30 take Eliza to her school. The drop off was inexplicably difficult (was it because we were a few minutes late? Or the attention we were giving the strange sores on her cheek from the "mango milk"?) E was all a tremble, clinging, crying, Mommy don't leave! I want to go to the car with you! And then that awful last vision of the teacher’s firm grip on her arm as I run out the door…
8:00 receive call and respond to husband’s request: bank machine, then office to give cash to operations team who are registering my car. Tom, the mechanic, checks the fuel tank for leaks...where does it all go? This ancient Camry we bought from the wife of the previous director is looking more and more like a lemon and a black hole for money, sigh.
9:30 meet new friend / real estate agent at house in Avondale where owner is willing to move out for a price (no thanks)
10:30 Fabulous Friday field day for kindergarteners and preschoolers at the HIS...parents gathered on the margins, little kids lined up... I was really looking forward to seeing Miles race since he enjoys running and feels confident and competitive. But he was sidelined! – learning a hard lesson on keeping up with his hat. (Is that a lump in my throat? I should have double-checked his school bag this morning. Off to the lost and found: BINGO!) School rule demands that all children have to wear hats outside... sigh. At least he got to do the long jump and relay race. And I could tell he thought it was special having me there :)
12:00 rush to pick up Eliza…didn’t realize I was supposed to take Miles home after the mid-morning activity and got totally off track…last parent to pick up my kid on a Friday (12:08 yikes)
12:30 lunch at home, drawing and painting with the kids, phone calls and arrangements to see more houses
2:30 tea at Jan’s house… a friend of a friend from Amman (Hillary)…meeting her for the first time, she was so sweet, and there is nothing as valuable as local knowledge and connections.
4:30 hair appointment…running through a downpour with my raincoat held over my head. I need an umbrella!
5:30 hot bath
6:30 set off for the “dinner-dance” fundraiser, wearing the dress and shoes I bought in 1999 for E&W’s rehearsal dinner. We headed to the once Sheraton now down-graded to Rainbow Towers, and downtown traffic came to a total standstill in the pouring rain.
7:30 made use of the Mercy Corps 4x4 and had the pleasure of cresting the median. Sweet freedom! Tried a new route and not really knowing anything about the area, ended up stuck again, this time with stranded unhappy pedestrians crowded into the streets and against the cars. Was feeling like an idiot in my dress and our big empty car while all around us smaller cars were packed like sardines. A guy banged on my window. We were totally blocked in like this for a very long half an hour. That was the low point in the evening.
8:30 abandoning our efforts to get closer, we head in the opposite direction as soon as possible. Impressively, David does not give up and is going for a third attempt, looping around to approach from the opposite side of town… as if a dinner-dance was high on his list of ways to spend an evening.
9:00 we make it! ... a strange scene…like we’re arriving in the middle of the night in the middle of a storm to a tower in the middle of nowhere to be with a hundred other overdressed frazzled people from around the world who have been sitting in their cars for the last 2-3 hours. We roam zombie-like around the buffet. A magician goes from table to table to make watches and rings disappear from our bodies then reappear in his wallet or mouth. There is a live auction, then a ballroom dancing demo by sequined high school kids, then a band plays 80s songs with an African twist. Lucky for us, we’re at a table with some heavy drinking Serbs and Australians. And strangely but mercifully, when the lights are dimmed, everyone gets out on the dance floor and dances.