I returned a book to the library late yesterday. Now you don't know me, so you don't know how detrimental to my mental health this was. This had never happened before and I was darn proud of it too. I received the courtesy notice via e-mail that the book was due, however, in my mind the date was the 6th for some reason. So I was completely shocked when I returned a bunch of books on the 4th and was told I owed $0.10. What book was late? "By the Light of the Halloween Moon". Maggie, my soon-to-be 5 year old, loves this story. She loved the DVD we rented from the library (of course) when she was 3. Last year, the library's copy played all the stories on the DVD except that one. So this year, we decided to dip into the funds (hahahahah - there are no funds to dip in to) and buy the DVD. Amazon wanted $35.99 for it. So off to e-bay hubby went. He's really good at the whole e-bay thing. He found a copy for $14.99, brand spanking new! So we pop it in and as I'm loading it I notice it says "for the hearing impaired". I think OK, maybe it's closed captioned or something - and a small part of my brain admittedly went to a SNL skit with Garrett Morris. We snuggle down to watch it hoping it's not too scary for Siobhan who seems to hate all things Halloween except for an episode of "Little Bear". And sure enough, yep, taking up half the screen is a woman doing sign language. You can't get rid of it, there's no menu option, it's just, well - there. The girls didn't mind though and actually remembered some signs they learned when I did baby sign language with them. This is the book I returned late.
I frequent the library a lot and if some one had to guess my taste based on my rentals, they'd be at a loss because they run from Hemingway to King. H-K is not far apart in the alphabet I know, but you get my point. But in all my years of being a lendee I've never been late. This factors in to my mental health how? It's like this. In my daily juggling of my struggles. The house that never seems to stay clean or clean itself - the nerve! The kids who adore each other one second and are screaming lunatics the next, hello referee stripes. My mother who is slowing slipping into some state of dementia. The pile of bills - ok that one is less only because we've gone green and they're simply online, not less in amount due however. You get the picture, you have your own juggling act. Well, I figured that when I finally lost it, went insane, etc. there'd be a quote from somebody, somewhere that would read "I never saw it coming, she never even had a late library book."
I used to have "She never even had a speeding ticket" in my arsenal too, but that went out the window on a small country road on the way to my sister's when Siobhan was screaming her head off because she wanted to nurse and Maggie was crying because the baby was crying AND because she had to use the potty and I was crying because I was about to be pulled over. The police officer couldn't have cared less because when he got to my car, the girls were all smiles - excited by the pretty pretty lights.
So what's left? I don't know! I guess I'll have to stay sane long enough to find something.
