Sunday, September 27, 2009

There's no use crying over spilled tea and cereal down your carpeted stairs

So that's how my morning began: spilling half of my tea and all of Caroline's cereal down the stairs. It's a good thing I just purchased a new bottle of carpet cleaner spray. I'm highly coordinated at the gym, but fail miserably to gracefully complete tasks around the house. I bump into things, drop knives on my feet, whack my knee on the storm door while carrying in groceries and dump food all the time. Seriously. I'm messier than the kids some days.

The last time I spilled a bowl of cereal, I landed on my knee caps, causing a ghastly bruise and disabled me from bending my knee fully for several months. Thankfully I didn't slip today; I was just being lazy and tried to prevent multiple trips up and down the stairs. I'm often guilty of trying to carry too many things at once, a la Rachael Ray and her famous "big carry" on 30 Minute Meals. Lesson learned.

On the bright side, milk and cereal are far easier to wipe up than if I had spilled Hawaiian Punch on the carpet. It's always important to focus on the positive side of things. Sometimes I just ooze positivity.

Or not.

Yep, I'm more likely to ooze pessimism and disenchantment. I'm like Eeyore, walking around with a storm cloud permanently affixed over my head. Speaking of storm clouds (ah, a segue), we got rained on at Caroline's soccer game yesterday. Thankfully it wasn't a downpour, but merely a steady drizzly rain. It's quite fortunate that I had the wits about me to pack an umbrella, although, as you may know, it's easier to use an umbrella for it's intended purpose if you don't leave it in the car. Even more fortunately, I had my trusty dusty side kick with me, who despite his greatest hopes and wishes, does not need an umbrella as fiercely as I do, so he fetched it for me as I sat with the hood from my new hoodie protecting my hair. Because, really, the umbrella is there to keep your hair from getting messed up. I don't care if my jeans get wet, I only care if my hair does. Since Craig, um, has a very wash and wear hairstyle, I get first dibs on the umbrella. It's only fair. Right?
I mean, I'm no princess. I don't require the latest and greatest trends. I fix what's broken and pull the weeds. I'm not afraid of dirt, but I do possess a certain amount of concern for the state of my hair.

I don't know why I worry so much about my hair; it always ends up in a pony tail by the end of the day. I suppose I wouldn't have minded a wet head so much if we didn't have somewhere else to be yesterday evening. We had a birthday party to attend and I didn't want to arrive with a rain destroyed coiffure. I have an image to maintain, afterall.

The party was for Craig's co worker's two kids. They had a house full of kids and adults and some good food was eaten by all. The family is of Asian descent and as you might imagine, they had quite a food selection. I'm happy to report that there were some spring rolls in the house. Oh, how I love spring rolls. They had summer rolls, too. I just had to pick out the shrimp because me and shrimp aren't quite simpatico. Shiver.
Caroline, with her simple palate, ate white french bread and white rice. Oh and strawberries. And cake, of course. She raved about the french bread as if she hadn't ever eaten it before. We don't eat much white bread at home so maybe that's why she was so complimentary.
To her credit, she did try the spring rolls and fried rice; she's just a simple girl with simple tastes.

We had a nice time at the party. And because we're such party animals, when we returned home, we put on our jammies and watched America's Funniest Home Videos.

Really, is there anything more thrilling than watching babies burp, wet cats trying to escape from the bathtub and men getting hit in the groin?

2 comments:

Sissy said...

So sorry about spilling the cereal. I hate cleaning carpet, and had to all the time at our other house. Phoebe tended to like peeing on the carpet when she got mad at us and it was annoying. In this house we have all hardwood floors, and it doesn't happen very often.

Alison said...

Ugh, I hate carpet. We have hardwoods in the dining room, kitchen and downstairs basement/family room, but the both sets of stairs, the bedrooms and a small living room space are all carpeted. Light beige carpet. Sigh.
The good thing about moving around a lot and living in so many places is that when we do buy a place, after Craig retires, I'll know exactly what I will and will not want. Carpet is on the no no list.

Our landlords have a dog and the condition of the carpets when we moved in reflected that fact. We're not allowed to have pets but for the first six months we lived here, I occasionally encountered their dog's hair as I cleaned.