Little bit of Rosalind on my mind

A few random thoughts, nothing enough to write an entire post about....

The Stratford trip is coming up in a week -- ONE WEEK -- and I am flying around getting things ready for the group and for my own family. Must not, on any account, forget to call the bank and tell them we plan to use our debit cards internationally. Also would be a good idea to remember to bring passports. And I need to get the mail stopped. Wondering about As You Like It and if the actress playing Rosalind will also be able to pull off her role as Ganymede.

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In my city, tattoo places are springing up EVERYWHERE. As the recession grows worse, other businesses fail -- a small used car lot, a former dry cleaner's establishment, a Midas muffler place, a Mom-n-Pop donut shop -- and abandon their premises, leaving them open for these awful tattoo place to move in. The one in the picture above is the nicest place of all, the one place out of all of them that doesn't look you could get a free case of hepatitis B thrown in with your new ink.

One of the others, sadly, is near my house in the historic district, in a building that used to be the office for the used car lot I mentioned. The car lot was small and cute and there were always flowers planted outside in tubs and in the tiny yard. But now? Ugh. The building has been painted black and the name of the joint is painted on the outdoor sign, unprofessionally. It looks like the kind of place that might send you off with the added bonus of typhus with your hep B.

How many tattoo businesses can one city of 60,000 people support?

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Today is our first day of school. I have a junior and a sophomore. PSATs are coming up next month, SATs in February. This is our tenth year of homeschooling. The dining room table is piled nearly up to the ceiling with school books. Meelyn is doing geometry and Aisling is working on French. I am trying to summon the will to soldier through the next hour until 5:00 p.m. when I will legitimately be able to have a glass of wine. I should go fold some towels. The only problem is that the refrigerator where the wine lives is on the way to the laundry room.

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Today is Nanny and Poppy's 48th wedding anniversary -- two more years 'til the Big one. It will take at least that long to convince Poppy that Pat, Angie, my husband and I should throw them a party. It may take that long for him to agree to having a nice little write-up in the Courier-Times. I should get started on this, like, yesterday.

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The girls are practicing saying "à tout à l'heure" really fast so that it won't sound like saying, in English, "I'LL.....SEE.....YOU.....LATER!" They were laughing and laughing, but both of them stopped when I said, "I hope you'll be able to use this admittedly limited French when you're in college; it would be so wonderful if you could both go abroad to study for a semester." They both looked at me like a couple of owls. "Wow, that would be really far from home," said Meelyn, a worried look on her face. "Sacré bleu!" Aisling breathed solemnly. Awwww....they are mes petits choux, alors.