Trifles of the Day
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Monday night, on the way to the store, OLeif and Collette managed to lock themselves out of the house. After waiting for about half an hour in the car in the driveway, thankfully in much less frigid weather, Theodore and Denae pulled up with their spare house key.
At the store, OLeif left his wallet in the car, and Collette waited with the cashier while he hustled back out to the parking lot.
That night, as Collette fell asleep, she noticed that the house smelled peculiarly of skunk. OLeif noticed it too; by morning, it had mostly dissipated.
Meanwhile, that Tuesday morning’s sky was briefly brushed in pale pink and lavender, above snow-less grounds. It seemed almost to be March.
At the house, Rose had just cut up a large piece of cloth; Collette had purchased it five years before (an odd pink, orange, and yellow plaid-like print). And Rose decided to make part of it into a headband for choir that day.
Rose was also distributing Krispy Kreme coupons from a calendar which she had swiped from the youth building. These coupons included a free raspberry-filled jelly donut, in honor of Elvis for the month of January.
Before leaving, however, there were three hours for teaching. Collette finished off 32 ounces of raspberry tea, as horrible as it was. And while she reviewed material with Rose, Rose polished old camera lenses with Q-tips and Windex.
During her brief break at ten o’clock, Rose took her somewhat bent Day of the Triffids poster off her door, and ironed it directly on the kitchen counter. Once it had been smoothed, Collette heard enough banging from her door, to make her wonder if Rose was hanging an entire museum. Finally, the poster was hung and Rose returned Francis’ new hammer to him.
Later, Rose brainstormed on assisted living places to where she might move Great Uncle Fred, nearby, so that he wouldn’t be lonely anymore.
Carrie’s job seemed to be progressing – her supervisor had quickly pushed her through training, and she was handling calls on her own, calming irate customers.
Linnea was a little nervous for that evening. Being currently involved in American Heritage Girls, she was off to earn her etiquette badge that evening with the rest of her “troop”. They would be visiting the Pasta House, ordering their meals, practicing polite dinner behavior during the meal, and figuring their tip at the end. They would each be given a grade at the end of the whole experience.
“I don’t want to get a grade,” Linnea had said, rather worried. “I’ll fail.”
Collette had no doubts that Linnea would do fine at her dinner, and end up enjoying it. But Linnea was also very concerned about the menu. Being a picky eater, she was afraid that the Pasta House would not offer any foods which she could eat.
“Mom, do you think they’ll have macaroni and cheese?”
“I’m sure the Pasta House will have macaroni and cheese,” Mom said reassuringly, trying not to laugh.
After Collette picked up OLeif from work that evening, they bought a red couch.
OLeif spent the rest of the night, battling it out with the power drill, installing a rattan shade in the living room window and a curtain rod in the bedroom.