In Which Our Heroine Panics, But Just a Little
Sometimes I do worry about my mental state. I have been forgetful of late, but just a little. Still, I need to write things down a bit better. My friend Elenarda is coming to visit next week. (You can read about someone else's opinion of me back in college here. Just check the Feb 28 entry.) I'm looking forward to it. That's certainly not the problem. The problem is that I thought she was coming the week *after* that and there is lot of cleaning that needs to be done in the meantime. A whole lotta cleaning. And some shelfs need to be installed. And some other things need to be done too. Like, oh, more laundry.

Never mind. I have plans this weekend. I get to babysit. I realize that to most people this is not some sort of an honour, but I love it. So long as it is the right child. And this weekend is definitely the right child. Catherine, who is almost three, is one of my absolute favorite children in the entire world. Smart as a whip, very curious, very energetic, and since she has been raised well, she is very polite to boot. Ok, so she needs reminding every so often, since she is only almost three, but still. I adore her. She's terribly fun. She now has a five month old sister named Clara. I'm babysitting Clara as well, but I haven't met her yet. I'm sure she'll be fine.

This is part of the whole happiness deal. Since I'm all happy again (oh, the joys of modern pharmaceuticals), I feel that everyone else should be happy. What would make Catherine's mother happy is a night out with her husband. What would make Catherine's dad happy is a night out with his wife. And what would make me happy is to babysit the kids. So all in all, everyone's a winner. The kids really are that wonderful. I'm good friends with the mother, who is a wonderful woman, but I really do think that many of the times I call her, it is so that I can ask her if she wants to drop off Catherine so that she and I can play. She's that charming. And bright. I've seen her come over to my bookshelf, pick out Calvin and Hobbes, and bring it over for me to read to her. She thought it was a children's book because of the colours and pictures on the front. Of course we didn't read that, we opted for Curious George, but still I was impressed for a girl at (then) two and a half.

I'm also having drinks with some friends on Friday. I haven't seen them since before I left for China, so I'm very glad about that as well.

During the days this weekend, well, that's more work. Particularly in light of the forthcoming arrival.

And of course, tomorrow is Ash Wednesday. For reasons I've never quite figured out, Ash Wednesday is one of my favorite religous holidays. I think it is all the contemplation of mortality, which seems a little odd to me given my complete inability to deal with death.

I think everyone needs this sort of break. Lola was over here this evening for pizza and fun, and she was so exhausted I kicked her out early, poor thing. It's only Tuesday!
Love,
Anne