Bees & the Kidness of Strangers

Funny story.....

Last week, I was grocery shopping with the kids. It was a beautiful day. I mean gorgeous. It was about 70 degrees outside with a slight breeze and no clouds. The perfect day to be outdoors. Apparently the bees thought so too.

As we were leaving the grocery store, a bee flew up to my cart and starting buzzing around the bag that had all my bread in it. Normally, I would expect the bee the quickly decide he had no interest in my bread and fly away. Not this time. Instead, the bee actually flew into the bag and stayed there. This posed a problem since I didn't want to load the bag into the car with the bee in it, and the bag was in such a position that if I moved the bags around it, I was afraid I would disturb the bee and he would come flying out and sting me. My solution was to get the kids settled in the car, by which time the bee should have lost interest in the bag and gone about his business irritating someone else.

By the time the kids were in their seats and buckled up, I checked the bag to find that that bee was still in there. I tried a couple of things to get him to come out, including swatting a rolled up newspaper at the bag and shaking the bag a little bit. Nothing. He didn't want to come out. Finally, the bee flew out of the bag but he went right into the car. The kids freaked out since they were bucked in and couldn't escape him. I was totally helpless. I wanted to get him, but was afraid he would sting. And since my mother and her mother are deathly allergic to bee stings, its just easier for me to say I am too rather than admit I act like a three year old when a bee gets close to me. I've never been stung, and I don't want to know what it feels like to have my throat swell shut and an epi-pen jabbed into my butt. A nice motorist, seeing our distress, stopped to offer some assistance. I calmly explained that we were having trouble with a bee and that I was allergic. He looked very amused at this and got out of his car to help. With one swift move, he maneuvered the bee out of the car and slapped his hands together with the bee inside. Once the bee fell to the ground, he stepped on it for good measure. Problem solved, we have a hero. And a dead bee.

Whoops, spoke to soon. No sooner than our good Samaritan had driven off, two more bees appeared in our cart. Seriously?? This was unreal. They didn't hang around the cart too long, though; they just went straight into the car, sending the kids into another panic. This time, the kids didn't want to stay in their seats. The girls were huddled in the front holding on to each other for deal life and poor KC wasn't able to get his seat belt off. I really think that he was panicked because the girls were, and he had no idea this whole ordeal was because of the bee. But I digress. I unbuckled my son and let the kids out of the van, while trying to keep my eyes on the two new bees flying around. I could see one had flown in between the back seat and passenger's side wall. My solution was to encourage it to come out by throwing little boxes of raisins at it. Didn't work. Swatting newspapers, didn't work.

Now there are more bees in the cart. Oh jeez! The kids are screaming, running into the parking lot, people are staring, I am desperately trying to look calm and collected while not conveying my fear of a stupid bee sting. Finally I asked a store employee who was out collecting carts if he could help us. This poor 16 year old kids had no idea what the problem was and why this crazy lady with the hysterical kids couldn't handle the bees. But he went inside to get some bug spray and said he would load the bags into my car. Meanwhile, I am trying to hold onto my son so he doesn't get hit by a car, which even I admit would be worse than me getting stung by the bee or bees.

At last, a man came up to us and offered to help. I'm sure we were quite the sight, and I wouldn't blame him if he stood from a distance and chuckled a bit before coming over. But it was clear he could see our frenzy and wanted to lend a hand. Again, I calmly explained that we had been overrun by bees, the kids were panicking and I was allergic. Would he mind disposing of the remaining bees and loading my bags? My hero, my saint, my knight in shining armor did just that. He checked out the van, declared it bee free and loaded my bags. He explained that he had kids too and understood they freak out sometimes. Finally, we could be on our way.

Go ahead, get your laughs in.

When I told my husband about our trip to the store, he just shook his head. He has a crazy wife, crazy kids and shame in the neighborhood. He'll get over it. And I escaped without being stung by the bee.

I Have Everything I Always Wanted

.....And it totally sucks. Sorry, this post is going to be a downer, so if you want happy smiles and pixie dust, this is not it.

Do you ever feel that way? OK, not everything sucks, but one thing in particular sucks. I have the job I have wanted for a really long time. I started wanting it in college and I worked really hard to get it. I started at the bottom and learned everything I could so that when I finally landed my dream job two years ago, I would be ready. And for the first year, I was. I rocked. I was awesome. I had a great project that had a lot of impact and everyone was happy with my work. Then the second year slowed down and things became a little bit repetitive. In fact, I would have told you I loved my job up until Christmas. The the rug got pulled out from under me.

Most of this started after I made a mistake. Not a careless one. Just an honest mistake. But it was pretty serious and I deserved what I got for it. I didn't get fired or suspended but I got the dreaded lecture from the boss. But part of that conversation was about how I had lost my passion for what I do. At first, I didn't agree with her. I loved my job, after all, so how could I have lost my passion. Then as I spent time reflecting on the last year, I realized she was right. I had lost my passion. The reasons were varied and not really my fault, but I don't have the first clue where to go from here.

So what do you do when the only thing you've ever known turns out to be not for you? I am daunted by the possibility of starting over. ((((Sigh))). This sucks.

All I Want for Christmas

Yes, yes, yes. I know it has been 2 1/2 months since I last posted. I am a bad blogger. A lot has happened since October. I went to Rome for work (very cool), Thanksgiving has come and gone, Christmas has come and gone and it's now 2010. All I can say is: THANK GOD. 2009 was not a great year, despite the aforementioned trip to Rome, so here's hoping for a better year.

Christmas was wonderful. Money has been tight, but we always manage to enjoy the holidays without going overboard and we try really hard not to tell the kids when we can't afford things. Not things like I new car; I have no problem telling them we don't have enough money for that. They are still at the age when $25,000 sounds like all the money in the world. But when the want things like a new soccer ball because the old one is deflated and it's halfway in between paydays and I wonder if I have enough gas to make it to work and three bucks for a soccer ball is completely out of reach. I hate saying I can't afford it for that kind of stuff. But I digress...

One of the girls really wanted an iPod for Christmas. I mean, really, really wanted one. It was all she talked about. She wanted to have music to listen to on the airplane and when she goes to sleep. And I had no problem with that. The Shuffle models aren't terribly expensive and as long as I know what music she has on there, I didn't have an issue with giving her an iPod. Except there was one problem.

If you have an iPod or any other commercially made mp3 player, they usually come with headphones. I think when Apple designed the iPod, they modeled the headphones on the heads of the linebackers playing for the the Chicago Bears. The ear buds are enormous! They are like the size of my thumb and I can't even get the headphones that came with my iPod in my ears. They are just too big. No biggie, right? I just buy different headphones. Mine are these cool pink ones with squishy foamy things over the speaker, so they smush into my ear and gradually expand, and it's a perfect fit to my ear. That was my plan for the Christmas iPod. Then, BAM - problem! Several months ago, Apple changed the design of the iPod Shuffle so the volume control is on the headphones and not on the player. Sure, you can buy additional headphones, but not the cool smushy kind. Only their kind. And that's when the guilt set in.

Up to now, I haven't had a lot of mom guilt. Some, but not a lot. I don't feel guilty about requiring homework before tv and clean rooms before play dates. I don't feel guilty that my kids have chores, that they might get grounded if they get overly mouthy or that have to get shots at the doctor's office. All of that falls into the category of "I did it for their own good". But when your child wants something, you don't have any objection to them having it, and you can't get it for them, then a new kind of guilt creeps in. I know it certainly won't be the end of the world for her if she doesn't get and iPod for Christmas. But to not be able to get it for her because of the stupid headphones is just silly. What kind of mother am I? I searched the Internet looking for an older model, but they were selling for twice their original value (sorry, don't feel that guilty). No stores carried them. What's a mom to do?

In the end, I improvised. She got an iPod that looks exactly like Daddy's. Same color and everything (wink, wink). Plus a new pair of headphones with the cool ear buds. I won't be able to pull this trick again, but for now it's a good solution.

But if you work for Apple and you are reading this: Change the headphones on the Shuffle so the volume control isn't on the headphones, and make the ear buds smaller for heaven sakes. Not everyone in this world has an orifice in the ear the size of a nickel!

There.....guilt gone.