My First Grey Hair

I've thought about ending my blog.  It seems kind of redundant to me at times to keep writing the same ole, same ole.  I think I was trying to hard to come up with "material" that would be interesting.  Well, to tell you the truth this writing stuff is like therapy to me and I am pleased to announce to myself, and whom ever else reads this stuff, that I am not ending my blog.  I know my Dad, for one, will be happy about that.  So read on and some of this will get pretty juicy. 

I feel like I've lived 10 years in the past one month.  I ended my job on October 17th for 5 weeks because that's what the restaurant does.  It shuts down to regroup for the next season.  Winter.  Which equals snow, skiing/riding, tourists, holidays, busy.  I don't know how I can get any busier.  During our break I scheduled every appointment known to Mom.  Dentist, doctors, ortho, therapist, you  name it we've been.  And that is not to mention the extra curricular activities that are involved in this schedule. 
Oh, and did I mention I threw in a trip to MN in there too?  With a side trip to Madison?  Here's how my break has been so far. 
Like I said, on October 17th I worked the last night of the restaurant being opened until Thanksgiving.  A little cleaning and putting away stuff and we were good to go.  That week I had a crown on a tooth and my annual check up.  We drove to Denver and spent the night with my cousins on Friday night and drove home on Saturday so I could work a fancy, schmancy wine function for Keystone.  It was not worth it but I had fun and was out of there by 10.  Sunday was my rest day which consisted of watching the Vikings get beat by the Packers.  End of week one of my break.  Week two consisted of more appointments, violin practice, meetings at school and getting ready for Halloween which is always a huge thing.   Halloween came and went and now I'm starting my 3rd week of break so I get on a plane and head for MN, by myself, no kids.  MN was another whirlwind of packing it all in, seeing friends, not seeing friends, you bastards, and then we threw in a quick trip to Madison for the weekend to see my older brother and his family which was definitely the highlight of my trip.  I love that family because they are perfect in every way, the bastards.  Back in the car for the 5 hour drive to Mpls and I'm all energetic and pumped up and rejuvenated and motivated to change my family to be just like my brothers' family.  I've got a great plan and I am prepared.  MN gave me another day to do stuff and off to my mountain home by Tuesday.  I'm now in my 4th week of break and I feel as if I need a vacation.  I get home on Tuesday night and Jordan has to let me know how pissed off she is at me for abandoning her for a week and goes into a rage like no other.  She is throwing things and cussing and smashes a lamp with glass all over and finally breaks down into an exhausted sleep and I am now realizing that my plan to be like my brothers' family is just not going to happen.  Time for more appointments the following day,  the biggie being an ortho appointment only to be told that Jordan needs braces to the tune of 3 years and $5100.  Yippy skippy,  So I'm trying to figure out how to tell Jack this because he is going to have a cow.  Jordan is now wearing a retainer which is giving her a huge headache and she can't stop playing with it, hence a new thing to fight about.  Friday comes too quickly and I'm off again for an overnight to Jordan's speech and debate tournament in downtown Denver.  18 kids, the coach and me.  Now, I'm new at the speech and debate thing and it's actually pretty amazing to see.  It's a whole new academic world, one that I'm not so sure we belong in.  I was thrown to the wolves and was made a judge and we spent 20 hours at a school for this incredible tournament.   Jordan was a complete train wreck and I was walking around like I was lost in a corn maze, which is how I felt.  But to say the least we survived and I had fun.  The drive home was stressful as there was a huge storm in the mountains which we knew we were driving straight into, Jordan had the biggest meltdown in the car with other school passengers present and had to witness what one of her meltdowns looks like.  She ended up getting herself so worked up that by the time we got up to the tunnel it was a blizzard outside, she got sicker than a dog and  vomited her entire weekend out of her system into the Tokyo Joe's bag I thankfully had.  Now, I have the white knuckle drive down from the tunnel, windows down,  in a blizzard, with 2 highchool girls in the back seat wondering WTF, and a bag full of vomit,  with Jordan still dry heaving in the bag.  We were all exhausted.  We get to the school with a side trip to the gas station so J can clean up a bit, and I said goodbye and sorry to the two girls who had the misfortune of having to ride home with us but in return we got a new passenger because I told his parents I would drive him home.  Well, we get to his neighborhood and Jordan has to barf again but we have no bag so I stopped in the middle of the road in the middle of the blizzard and she had to heave out the door.  Poor guy in the back was horrified.   I gave him a look and told him he is a true friend.  We get home finally at 11 or so and I can't wait to curl up with my cat and my blanket in my comfy clothes and veg in front of the TV with a glass of wine.  I do and BOOM!!.  Power outage.  No problem, I'll just go to bed. 
We woke up the next day with no power, a freezing house and no water.  No problem, these things get fixed within a matter of a few hours.  Not today.  5pm came and it is now getting pretty dark.  I get candles and light them and we wait.  And wait.  Jack finally takes the girls to dinner down the hill and half the town of Montezuma is there too.  I opted not to go because I had now come down with the nasty cold my Dad gave to me in MN.  They got home and had full bellies and Jordan was worried about her hair the next morning if we didn't have power.  She still hadn't washed it and had barfed a little in it but washed it out at the gas station.  I told her we'll deal with it the next morning if we still don't have power.  Well, the next morning came and we were still without power.  Hannah was raring to go and I gave J the option.  She opted not to get out of her warm bed only to face a freezing house.  I don't blame her nor did I make her get up.  She had a huge weekend and was not in a good place.  She did get up at 7 though and realized that staying home in a cold house with no power or water was not going to be fun so I drove her to school at 8 and they let her have an excused absence.  We did get our power back, finally that afternoon as I was packing an overnight bag to stay elsewhere.
I had invited some friends over about 2 months ago for the Monday night football game, Vikings/Packers.  I bought football food and cleaned the house, took a vacuum to the floor which hadn't been done in about a month.  I called my friends to let them know that unbeknownst to me Jordan started swim team this night and I'd be home at 7:30 so start without me.  I get a call from my daughter and she tell me, "Mom, we have a slight problem.   Kurtis and Tracy aren't coming up anymore."  I ask why, concerned and she tells me it's because we don't get the channel that the football game is on.  I ask how is that possible and she tells me Monday night football is on ESPN, which we DO NOT GET!!  Can you say embarrassing.  So we politely invite ourselves up to their house and watch a huge ass kicking done by the Packers.  But, we ate our football food and had fun. 
Now I'm in my 5th week of break and tonight we are driving down to Denver to see The Lion King at The Buell Theatre and it's snowing.  It's going to be a late night and I'm sick.  I'm going anyway.  I'll bring my NyQuil and my cough drops and a good attitude, dammit.  I'll finish my break with another trip to Denver to see my hormone doctor followed by a dentist appointment for Jordan rounding that up with a physical check up for Jordan on Saturday.  I'll go back to work on Tuesday not rested and cranky. 
This story brings me to the title of my post.  While we were down in Denver I was getting ready for bed after a huge long day at the speech and debate tournament.  I was in my motel bathroom and the lighting was fluorescent lighting on my head and I see it.  A huge, protruding grey hair sticking straight out of the top of my head.  It was like it was calling for me to see it and I did.  I pulled that sucker out of my head and inspected it like I have inspected nothing else in my life.  I almost cried.  But I didn't, I laughed.  I threw the grey hair in the toilet like it was a dead gold fish and flushed the toilet. 
I guess I need to make an appointment to see my hair stylist.  I'll do that tomorrow.