All in a Tuesday

“Puck.”

“Yes, Dad?”

“Someone left the window down in Mom’s car last night.”

“Oh.”

“And it rained.”

Giggles.

Fortunately, the interior was not, in fact, destroyed.

There were more tears in the office than usual this morning. It was my weekly Tuesday hour for answering the phones, but with a variety of delays at hand, I ended up reading “A Man Named Grant” for about an hour and a half from the cushioned waiting chairs by the receptionist’s desk. Sometimes that can equal a sideshow – including whichever students are just having a particularly bad day.

It wasn’t all swollen tear ducts though. Halfway through my wait, I helped the librarian outfit Jell-O cups with plastic spoons and straws for Puck’s class as a goofy teaching aid during a fun-time read-aloud next store. Puck walked by the office a few minutes later on bathroom break with a piece of red Jell-O clinging to his gray hoodie.

“I didn’t like the Jell-O so much,” he informed me. Quietly, at least. We’re working on that.

Over two hours after arriving, I got clearance to leave, after delivering one more message, this time to Puck’s class. Every time he sees me at school, he gets this sort of casual cool-guy sound to his voice.

“Hi, Mom.”

Needless to say, I was late to Ditto – in the mucky gray half-rain-spit of an early Tuesday afternoon. I was immediately put to work hauling up boxes of Easter goods from the basement, transporting bed frames, strollers, and a particularly heavy and large piece of table glass that I wasn’t sure would make it across the store without cracking all over our hands. When I looked up from finishing a large arrangement of $2 winter shoes on a three-tier table in the back, it was time to go.

Rose joined Puck and me for quesadillas with generous sides of sour cream and guacamole for the evening.

Tucked Puck in for the night with his sizable handful of questions about death and hell.

Rejoined Oxbear and Rose in the kitchen for grasshopper cookies and comedy shows.

Outside, the temps dipped.