Oops.  I just traumatized Willow by going through one of those drive-in car washes at the gas station.  I thought with her sense of adventure and love of being a daredevil that she’d be into it.  Uh, NO!!  Poor thing.  At least Lex and Nate were on either side of her.  She kept pulling Lexy’s hand over her eyes.  I feel so bad.

Oh I’m going to have to save this and come back later on. . .

And now it’s morning of the next day!  Told you I was busy. 

I will tell the story of the army guy I met, (which now is not seeming so much like it needs to be told, but oh well) but first there’s my trip to Fremont. 

I had to drive to Fremont from my secret location in the south bay, which is known only to GraceD and Nina,
but thanks to my crappy directions, I’m sure neither of them could find
it again!  Anyhow, I had to drive to Fremont, which means I had to
drive on interstate 880.  If you haven’t driven that road, let me tell you about
it.  There are parts that are all fine and well, but there are parts
that are not fine and well.  Especially for people like me, who were
biologically made to walk or pedal a bicycle, but most certainly
not to drive an automobile.  At it’s worst, the road has narrow (like
you could easily roll down the window and touch the car next to you
narrow) lanes which are chunky and potholed and unevenly graded.
Flanking the right lane, the slow lane, MY LANE, is one of those two or
three feet high concrete dividers.  Basically it’s like driving on a
slot car track, minus the slots.

Did I mention I hate to drive? 

While I was in all this traffic, on this bad stretch of road, I got a sort of panic attack.  Not with the false heart attack symptoms, but more of a weird, spacey feeling, like when you have a bad reaction to cold medicine.  It was sunny, but I couldn’t wear my sunglasses, because that made me want to close my eyes and it threw my perspective off.  I felt really disconnected, like I was in a dream.  I got the shakes a little and found it really hard to think clearly.  Does this ever happen to anyone else??  Or am I just losing it?

So, the army guy.

I was at the tea party birthday party on Sunday.  How cute was it to see the girls, dressed up in long strands of "pearls" with pink hats and white lace gloves, eating grapes and tiny sandwiches, drinking out of teeny little teacups?? 

My kids were playing all over the park, and particularly with one little girl who was not quite two.  I started talking to the dad, and discovered that he’d retired from the military after serving 20 years as a medic.  Now he is staying home to raise his daughter.  He said that it was easier to be in charge of a hundred guys in the army than it was to be in charge of her.   "Because those guys did what I told them to!" he said.  Heh.  He also expressed frustration over the whole situation in Iraq and Afganistan.  He went to Afganistan more than once and said that although he was a medic, he had to kill people.  He chose to retire earlier than he’d originally planned, because he did not want to be sent back there. 

I’m probably not expressing this too well, because Sophie is standing at my elbow chattering away and really distracting me.  But, I just thought it was a strange thing to meet someone (on September 11th, at that) who had wanted to devote his career to the military and find out that even he thinks the US is wrong.  It seems to me like most people think US policy stinks, so why isn’t it changing??

Gotta run take Soph to preschool.  Sorry for errors, spellcheck won’t load!