Hello, August.

Tomorrow I have a ridiculous day, which could go in a multitude of directions. Below I shall list two.

Scenario 1:

Get out the door by 8:15 a.m. with girls and Slinky cat in tow. Drive to cat grooming place and drop off Slinky to get full fur shave. Then drive across town to drop girls at school around 9. Then get down to work by 9:30. Then work till 12:20. Then drive to chiropractor’s office. Then come back to work till 2:30, and depending on whether or not the cat is done, collect cat, then collect girls. Or vice versa. Then go home to lock the door behind the dudes who are replacing our ancient, asbestos covered oil burner. This is the good scenario.

Scenario 2:

Sometime during the night, Mimi will wake up screaming that her tummy hurts and she will be burning up with fever. Or, this will happen closer to morning time. Then I will either drop Beenie off at school (I would find the possibility almost impossible to believe, tho, if her sister was going to a hospital) and take Mimi to the ER at our hospital to figure out if she’s having an appendicitis attack. Then cancel all the other bullshit that’s lined up for tomorrow and hang with the girls at the hospital to see what’s what.

Earlier this evening, before the doctor on-call called me back to discuss symptoms, I was already packing a bag to haul arse to the hospital with Mimi, who was barely feverish and was complaining of sensitivity and pain in her lower right abdomen, and wouldn’t eat. The doctor asked me excellent questions:

• is she vomiting?
• is she constipated?
• can she jump?

The answer to the first two questions, to the best of my knowledge is NO. The jumping question was asked to Mimi directly–her face lit up and she started hopping up and down on the couch. But then she grabbed her side and said her tummy hurt. But the fact that she was able to jump was all the doctor needed to hear to set me straight from driving her to the ER. He said kids who are in the throes of an appendicitis attack can’t jump. However, I am to keep an eye on her (duh) and if there’s more trouble, give him a call.

I had informed both Mimi and Beenie that we were probably going to head out to have a doctor look at Mimi’s belly after dinner. And when I changed plans after speaking with the doc, Mimi was angry because she could see I’d already packed a bag and she had prepared herself, along with her sister, to go out. Instead we stayed in, took baths, brushed teeth, read one book and they both passed out. At ten.

I would like to put a little prayer/mindful thought out into the universe for tonight… Please have Mimi scream very loud if something terrible is happening in her gut, but if she’s okay and is just stopped up or what-have-you, please let her sleep through the night so we can all get up an hour early and complete an utterly silly day tomorrow. And world peace. And vast riches without all the problems that accompany extreme wealth.

Amen.