Cold

This morning, I ventured into the cold. They were giving H1N1 shots on campus, and though I don't quite believe that they work ("don't quite" being translated as "don't at all") I headed to the Wilk with Justin and our three little banshees.

(Speaking of banshees. This morning I needed to get them up and out of the house quite early. When did they wake up? E woke up at 7:20, and I had to wake the other two up. Wake them up. Are you serious? I'm sure they'll be up at 6:00 on Saturday to make up for their lapse.)

Moving on...

E and M had already got their doses, lucky little things. And GQ is too young to get his... hence my resignation to Justin and I braving sharp objects and doing our part to keep him healthy. (Justin thinks we already had the Swine flu. He's probably right. But I'm still crossing my t's and dotting my i's. It's a disorder I have.)

So, there we were... braving the cold. It was 8:00. We arrived on campus early to ensure that we found parking within the limit of a country mile. Lately they haven't been ticketing in the lots which means all those "undergraduates" (translation... "troublemakers") have been parking in the Graduate parking. We had about an hour before our appointment with pain, so I gathered up some bagels at the Twilight Zone and got the girls to eating.

Soon enough we noticed GQ was stinky. (GQ produces dirty diapers about once a week... so this was an event.) I gathered him up and headed to the restroom where I set to cleaning up his mess. In the process I offended the nose of some more of those undergraduates who gave me a look like, "Who's the crazy lady with the baby?"

Since we'd forgotten GQ's binky... excellent planning, folks... and since the campus bookstore doesn't sell binky's... Why, Why, I ask???... and since GQ was missing his normal morning nap... and since I had to wake him up besides... and since he didn't much like the cold... or his weekly dirty diaper...

he was screaming

More looks from passersby.

And I realized how odd I looked. Even on THIS campus, where children aren't so strange, I was braving frigid weather at 8:00 a.m. with three children, one of them screaming, and I looked 14. As usual.

Speaking of which, E does not quite believe me that girls go to school. Since I stay home, and Daddy goes, that seems odd to her. I pointed several girls out to her today. She still seemed unsure. She also doesn't believe that 12 is 12. She thinks it is 20. And she thinks a certain song she sings about Pocahontas discusses Pocahontas becoming a man (not her small son becoming a man) despite my best efforts to convince her otherwise.

But I am babbling.

My point is, my, what a way I have gone since I went their last. Funny what six years will do to you.

And while I spent two years in Vegas grieving the death of my schooling career... I find I am fine now...

...showing up on campus with three children, one of them screaming, and the other dangling her blanket in the snow.

I am fine that I am getting shots I don't believe in, in hopes that my four month old will stay healthy.

I am fine that it is Justin that has to freeze his ears off every day, wandering around campus, while I stay home and change dirty diapers in the comfort of my own home.

And I am fine, that it is now my job to teach E that 12 is 12, that Pocahontas did not become a man, and that girls do in fact go to school, and like it.

Because that is my job now.

And it is a good one.