Back to Life, Back to Reality

God, I hate that song and now I'm going to have it in my head the rest of the day.

I'm here at work and the girls are hopefully on the road by now - when I left the house they were almost all packed up and that's saying a lot, considering all weekend we never made it out of the house before 1:30 in the p.m. Ah, thirteen-year-old girls. They could easily kill you if you're the weak sort. It didn't matter where we were going nor what we were doing, they had to primp there hair and make-up for a good hour before leaving the house. I remember those days, back when I cared. And I now sympathize with Grace and all mothers of female adolescents in a way that I never have before. Don't get me wrong; they're intelligent, very amusing and I love Elizabeth more than most people in this world, but GOOD GOD.

Saturday we went shopping at the Villages. For the non-SC people, this is a very nice and new shopping, I don't know - community? Area? I don't know. It's several square miles of recognizable and popular stores, restaurants, a movie theater and now some very expensive condos, where you can park your car (but make sure you remember where by repeating it out loud to yourself and others several times) and walk around all day shopping and eating. Which is what we did for six hours. It was perfect because as soon as we got there it was evident Grace and Elizabeth needed to be separated from each other or it was going to get ugly. And it did for a minute anyway, when Grace handed her $70 and she was like, "That's all? How am I supposed to get the purse I want plus other stuff when twenty of it is supposed to be for food?"

Um.

Grace almost beheaded her on the spot, which I wouldn't have blamed her at the time. There are so many things wrong with that, I can't even go into it here. I'll only say this. Grace is the kind of mother that has and always will go without so her daughter can have everything she wants. You can simplify it by calling it spoiling her, and Grace will be the first to admit she's done that. On the other hand, she's been a single mother for most of E's life and has at times struggled with the father who means well, but hasn't really participated in her life financially or otherwise on a consistent basis, besides the required-by-law child support. It's rough, and I know Grace has over-compensated because like all parents she wants her child to have it good. But damn. Elizabeth needs to learn the concept THINK BEFORE SPEAKING. See also: WHEN MOTHER HANDS YOU MONEY, NO MATTER HOW MUCH, ALWAYS SAY THANK YOU.

After that though, we went our separate ways for awhile and we all had a splendiferous shopping day. I love that place and knew they would as well.

Yesterday we ate lunch in the Vista, where we were accosted by two homeless men. Which means they got the entire Columbia experience. We hit Target, mostly to wash away the lingering stench of the Walmart experience of the other night and went home so I could make them at least one homemade dinner, the Sopranos Sauce, pasta and meatballs.

It was an amazing weekend and I'm so thankful they came. One last note, which is such a typical Kim/Grace experience, it was pre-destined to happen. The day she left to come up, she had thrown in one last load of laundry, only to find out her washing machine was no longer working. Irritating, but something to deal with next week, especially since I have a working washing machine and she would be able to wash their dirty clothes and more importantly, Elizabeth's cheerleading uniform which she'll need tomorrow at school. During dinner preparations, I first put a load of towels in since we'd used almost every one in my house. Only to take them out and find them soaking wet. I ran the "2nd rinse cycle." No. I stopped and listened for a minute to the spin cycle. It was making a strange humming noise, but it certainly wasn't spinning.

Two friends, two broken washing machines, within four days of each other. I'd really be interested in hearing the odds of that.