I never mentioned last week that a fairly miraculous thing happened. As long as you don’t believe that I mean that literally.
My iPhone has been brought back to life.
You may remember that I mentioned over a month ago that my phone died constantly. I mean it would show that I had 78% battery life left and then just die. Usually in the middle of a fascinating text conversation between Gulley and me about my quest to find a new purse.
Needless to say, it was desperate times.
It got to the point that I basically had to have my phone plugged in at all times or it would die. As you can imagine, this was terribly convenient and also reminiscent of the dark days of the 1980s when you could only move as far as the twisty cord on your phone would allow.
And I just never took the time to go to the Apple store to get help with my phone. Why you ask? Because I’m an idiot with no sense of proper priorities. Need a new purse? MUST GET IMMEDIATELY. Unreliable phone that dies at the drop of a hat? Let’s wait a few months on that to see how annoying it can be to me and everyone around me as I constantly complain about it and yet do nothing.
On Thursday morning I finally pulled myself together, made an appointment at the Genius Bar, and took my phone in, mentally preparing for the worst. By which I don’t mean an Apocalypse. I mean I might have to upgrade to a new phone and there would go my new purse budget. But they ran a quick diagnostic test, determined I had a defective battery (You don’t say?) and gave me a new battery free of charge.
It has changed my life. I am once again walking in phone freedom and had no idea how much I’d taken it for granted. I can text extensively and talk for hours and check email and never have to charge my phone. And this could have happened months ago if I had any sense of urgency regarding things that actually matter.
I’m the worst.
Anyway, I just wanted you to know about my phone because I walked around most of the weekend feeling this huge sense of accomplishment regarding my phone that now works the way it’s supposed to. Imagine if I did something that actually took real effort.
So on Friday Caroline’s class hosted their annual Mother’s Day tea. She’s had the same teacher for first, third and now fourth grade and the tea is something they’ve done every year. It’s one of my favorite things ever. They work so hard to make it special and her teacher puts a slideshow together from the school year and you’re basically guaranteed to get a little teary unless you’re dead inside.
Friday night we picked up barbecue which was a departure from our usual Mexican food, but we like to play it fast and loose over here. Predictable? Not us.
Truthfully I was just excited because we had nothing planned for Saturday. No soccer, no basketball, no macrame’ classes even though we’ve never taken a macrame’ class. I can’t really explain how lovely it felt to sleep in Saturday morning and know we had a day of absolutely nothing we had to do ahead of us.
So P headed down to the ranch and Caroline and I went to watch Will’s baseball game. Then the kids put the hard sell on Gulley and me to take them to the pool for the first outing of the season. We agreed to it as long as they realized we weren’t even wearing our swimsuits to the pool. That’s how committed we were to not getting in the freezing water.
Honestly, we didn’t think they’d last more than an hour because we’ve had a lot of rain and not a ton of super warm days and it’s not like any of them are gunning for Polar Bear Club membership. But they proved us wrong and we ended up staying at the pool for four hours.
And here’s the beauty of having an eleven, nine and eight year old, they were totally self-sufficient. They got their own snacks, they performed elaborate routines off the diving board and Gulley and I were able to sit and visit for four hours about everything from hair to football.
The only low point came when I made a trip to the concession stand to order Gulley and me a couple of beers and some chips and salsa. First of all, they were out of tortilla chips. I don’t even understand how this is possible, but I feel it doesn’t bode well for the rest of the summer. May is too early to be out of chips. That’s the kind of thing that happens in August when everyone is over the pool and only there because what else do you do when it’s 106 degrees outside? I’m a little ashamed to say that I resorted to buying a bag of Nacho Cheese Doritos to fulfill my chip craving.
(On a related note, the purchase of the Nacho Cheese Doritos caused me to confess to Gulley that my favorite after school snack when I was in high school was Doritos with Cheez Whiz melted on top of them. There are so many health issues regarding this snack even if you don’t factor in that I was basically eating my proper dietary sodium allowance for the month in one sitting.)
The other low was the conversation between the high school boys working in the concession stand. I’m going to write it out for you to do it justice.
Boy 1: “Dude, have you seen Shawshank Redemption?”
Boy 2: “Yes, that’s an awesome movie. What’s that guy’s name that plays Red?”
Boy 1: “Oh yeah, I think his name is Nelson Mandela.”
Y’all.
I don’t even know.
Hope you had a good weekend.