Hands Are Not For Hurting

Tonight after I made a yum-o dinner of sauteed brocolli and carrots tossed in whole wheat pasta, olive oil and parmesan cheese with a side of whole wheat breadsticks that I made my own little self (I! know! Carbs with a side of carbs; the best kind of dinner) I transferred wallet, gloss, cell and palm from diaper bag to purse and got ready to jet out the door. Only to realize my meeting didn't start for another hour and a half. Why was I so antsy to get out the door?

As I started to calculate, I realized that I had not left the house without both children in tow since the evening of MAY TWELFTH, when I left them with a baby-sitter after putting them to bed, so you never feel like you can stay out as long as when your spouse is home. Yes, that is almost two solid weeks of having children soldered to my person. No wonder I was ready to get the heck out of dodge!

I buzzed by the post office to drop the invites for Charlie's first birthday party next week and the birthday gift for my sister...whose birthday was March 6th. Yes, I'm wicked lame. On to CVS to brood over Golden or Double Stuffed? Cakesters or Double Stuffed? Obligitory package of cookies for the meeting purchased I had run out of errands and decided to just sit in the lobby of the meeting site and work on a pair of socks.

Oh, did I mention that we meet at a nursing home? With an alzheimer unit? I felt like I fit right in, knitting my socks and rockin' the "Baby, Baby" and "El Shaddai" (which, coincidentally my mother has made known she must have played at her funeral...whatev'.)

It was about halfway through the album as I was singing along (in my head) that I wondered why I knew all the words so well. Oh yeah! It's because my older sister went through a freaky sign language phase where she and one of her girlfriends would translate killer songs like Richard Marx' Hold On To The Night (with tres dramatic hand gestures, naturellement) and an equally cool Amy Grant song. Because you have to play snippets of the song over, and over, and over, ahahahahand over again in order to get the 'choreography' right, we all got to Hold On a little longer. She even performed them as a 'talent'. Probably in her Wham! shirt.

Kind of like when you'd get the tape that didn't have the lyrics printed inside so you'd hit play, pause (scribble), rewind a little; repeat as necessary.

I called Sherri from the old folks' home to remind her of this phase in her life, but had to be content with leaving a message. When I called back later, she said she was ignoring it. Whatev'. And this is the same sister who chided me for learning German in college because it "wasn't applicable." Yeah, because non-deaf people use sign language to talk to each other all the time! Guess Baby A will have a jump start on "All Done!" and "More" because Mommy used to be in Happy Hands.

If you're not laughing, I guess it's just an in-joke. Or you just need to get a sense of humor.