Oh, Where Oh, Where Has Maman Been?

I am not quite ready to tell the story yet.

Some of you know.... and I appreciate your support and love.

For the rest of you? I ask that you hang in there. I will say what I need to say eventually. I am waiting for the pain to lessen. Yes, I have been at a loss for words which is someone monumental in and of itself. Plus, I still keep thinking that I am stuck in a Kafka story.

The kids are more or less fine. Rocked a bit, but rolling with it... The same with Kevin. We are all healthy and safe.

As for the rest, I am sure when I finally settle myself down enough to write this out, you will think I made this story up. Trust me.

On a lighter note, I did go to Missouri to attend a teen volleyball tournament and while there I got to meet Busy Mom! So there is proof that life doesn't totally suck.

Now I have seen everything

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BWChicago / Brian April 4, 2005 Via Flick'r



I spent three hours yesterday circling the north side of Chicago

Round and Round in the car... carting people to their camps, meetings, etc.,

Then picking them up.

After dropping Imelda off at Cheer Camp I then had to pick up FD from his office. Why? Because otherwise he hires a car service to pick him up. He won't take a bus, or a train or even a cab. He has been this way for years. sigh.

However this story is not about his trasportation issues.

It is about the utter weirdness that I encountered. Traffic was miserable and for some reason every car that moved in front of me was required to slow down to 15 miles an hour. This made me extremely irritated. Yes, I believe that is the term that we will be using.

However irritated I might be, my eyes are still open and watching around me. And I start noticing license plates. Why? I don't know. The girls gave up long ago with the license plate game on road trips. But for some reason, FD and I still play... and quite frankly we suck at it. We only managed to score 40 States and 5 Canadian Provinces.

But now? I am seeing license plates everywhere I go. So as I am driving yesterday I manage to spy Montana and Idaho. I guess fate is taunting me. I know this, because as I am dropping off FD, my break light goes on. Ugh.

Then there is the conversation... Imelda starts telling me how she managed to sleep in even though I woke her up before I took her father to his meeting. "But it was ok, Mama," she tells me, "Lillith made my lunch and breakfast". WHAT? Lillith was up at 7:30 in the morning? And she was being nice to Imelda? whoa. That isn't my normal day.

After her drop off, I am off to get FD again... And that was when it happened. I was making a left hand turn when I saw them. Two Theravada Monks. In their saffron and ocre robes. Barefoot. At Broadway and Lawrence. Uptown. Chicago.

It was time for me to go home. I had seen too much for the day. And it was only 9:00am.

I think this is self explanatory

How long is it until we have a chance to have a competent President?

Meanwhile the folks....

Are in bizarro world...


Well Las Vegas, but to me it seems very similar.

The characters walking around this place are amazing...

Today I saw two young men, who I swear, were trying to recreate Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas...

Last night at dinner, we saw two couples in their late middles ages (who appeared to be from Iowa) who were leaving dinner with appeared to be a prostitute.

Maybe it is just someone's daughter gone awry... but I woundn't go to dinner wearing pleather hotpants and vest, thigh high fishnest and knee high boots... Well at least not with my parents...