So, how is your day going? - redux

It seems yesterday was not one of those days where I was to be 'on schedule'.

After picking girl.imp up late from school, and there is nothing more heartwrenching than watching your child walking across the deserted parking lot (I was 18 minutes late, and I would like to mention that every other day that I have picked g.imp up from school that parents wandered the parking lot for almost 20-30 minutes. Large groups, small groups but still groups and they seemed in no hurry to leave. The one day I'm late and tumbleweeds and an eerie whistle greet me when I arrive).

So anyway g.imp is walking from the school, the teacher, Mr. Sharpe, is behind her telling me that I am only a couple minutes late and that they just decided to go indoors--so no harm no foul. Apparantly he had not cleared this strategy with g.imp who began wailing, buckets of tears and snot washing from her face...

But honey, Mr. Sharpe said everything was ok!

Later I decided that wife.imp was not going to make it home before parent-teacher open house so I packed up the imps and went to Max and Erma's. Its one great attraction was that it is very near g.imp's school. And they have terrific chocolate chip cookies.

The downside? Max and Erma's do not recognize any schedule. Slow food preparation would be a kind description...but they were strategically located!

And were as slow as I remembered. We ordered kids meals: corn dog and mac'n'cheese and a sandwich, Roast Beef with Brie. It took over 20 minutes to prepare these dishes. 20 minutes for cheesy noodles to be scooped from a pot and for a breaded hot dog on a stick to be microwaved. I dare not guess where the found my roast beef. I think they ordered out.

Result was we left the restaurant with about 3 minutes to make the start of the school event (for which student attendence is discouraged). And after suffering through the staff introductions and short speeches, I was beginning to wish parent attendence was optional. One of the reasons I no longer work for the Fourth Estate is that covering organizational meetings, even those in which we were fed, was B-O-R-I-N-G!

One just cannot make them jazzy or interesting. This was no exception.

So we are shuffled to the individual classrooms. G.imp's room had the distinction of being voted the warmest room in the school and it showed. Cool air could only be acheived in that room if someone were to make an impertinent pass at one of the mothers. After about 10 minutes, I was considering the possibilities and this was around 8 p.m. I cannot begin to imagine how warm it is during the day when the temps average 95+F.