5 on a Friday: Notes from the first “week” of school (36/52)

 

1. Dorothy and Coop’s playground is really fun at pickup time, but they might die of embarrassment if they see us playing. 

Also! It is not possible in horrible Madison traffic to get Dorothy and Cooper where they need to be after school when they need to be there. I feel just incredible rage about this for a couple of reasons.

 First, our terrible mayor (who cannot even make sure the snow gets plowed) is pushing a rapid transit bus line. I get how EVENTUALLY this might make traffic better, but right now? It is HORRIBLE. Every road is clogged. No one can figure out bus only lanes. It took me 35 minutes to drive 3 miles yesterday to test our after school route. Mass transit is not yet reliable enough for me to take it to work with 4 kids in 3 schools and an out of town spouse, and I cannot be alone in this situation- so there are TONS OF CARS and less space for us. It’s awful and SO PREVENTABLE. 

Second, the kids have a ridiculous school schedule. HOW CAN KIDS BE IN SCHOOL UNTIL 4:25??? It is bananas. All of the neighboring districts get out a normal time, so activities are on their schedule (WHICH I GET), so only Maddison school kids are getting squeezed out of their club sports. SO STOOOPID. And! THE MORNING BUS is not even RUNNING ON TIME and part of the reason for the dumb bell schedule is shared bussing. 

And! MMSD wants big bucks for a referendum and is threatening austerity if they don’t get their money, as is the city who wants a huge property tax increase. And yet! I look at a district who’s got big problems managing funds and large contracts — like for the BUSSES— and a city that has made my life noticeably WORSE in terms of roads and traffic, and I just… don’t want to give them my money.

 If only I weren’t trapped by the housing market in a house with an inflated value that seems awesome until you try to buy a new house in a city whose roads are drivable THAT IS EVEN MORE INFLATED and also I’d have to drive to Madison from there anyway (but maybe AN HOUR EARLIER IN THE AFTERNOON). 

It’s a major frustration/happiness stumbling block. 

I can be zen about my shitty morning drive because it is just me in the car, and I have entertainment and solitude. But the witching hour drive with all the kids who are hungry and so much traffic and GAHHHH. I cannot imagine doing this 5 days a week for the next 10 months, especially in snow and rain.

2. I forgot how delightful Minnie is 1:1. We are having so much fun!! I do need to figure out how to be ready in all ways for our evening slog, especially knowing that she is really touchy that time of day…

3.  THESE granola bars are delish, but I seem to be the only one who thinks so **eye roll**.

4. Jack!! Just **drives away** by himself in the morning. He even ran to Target to collect my pick up order the other night. WHEN DID HE GROW UP???? 

5. Oh my gosh! I have had horrible redness around my nose/between my nose and my lip lately, and all moisturizer with sunscreen aggravates the hell out of it (Augustinus Bader cream is fine at night but has no sunscreen). I assumed it was a rosacea flair and bought some green SPF primer from Clinique. But then! I thought maaaaaybe it is actually an eczema flair because it looks like Minnie's sometimes does. SO! I have been putting Cereve ointment (the Vaseline looking kind in the huge tub) that I have used on Minnie every day of her life since she was 3 weeks old (seh is a SEAL you guys-- so buttery) on it with the Bader cream at night and before the Clinique stuff in the daytime, and I look ALMOST NORMAL AGAIN, which is good because I love my Tarte SPF tinted moisturizer, but it irritates my face something fierce. No I go lube, primer, Tarte, and it looks pretty good. Which is to say it looks how I used to look at the time with no effort when I was younger **head desk**