Goosey Night, and other oddities of the day

It's been an odd sort of day. Not bad, by any means, but just the sort of day that you go through in chunks. The first chunk came my way this morning at 7:30 a.m. (yes, a.m.!) when my friend dropped her son off to hang out with us (I refuse to use the words "play date" because then I am bound to purchase a mini-van) -- she had to work and her husband is out of town. Her son is a year younger than Aidan and they get along well. They played with cars from the CARS movie, they watched Super Why on PBS, and they generally tried to do "big boy" things in order to keep little Grace away (oh, like that would deter my little keeper-upper). One funny thing I overheard was their conversation during a game of mini-basketball:

"What grade are you in?" asked Aidan.
"First grade," replied our friend (who is really in preschool).
"Really?" said Aidan, with excitement. "ME TOO!" Then he paused briefly. "I'm in kindergarten first grade." Yes, like there's a difference ...

At mid-morning (which by then felt like I needed to start thinking about making supper) I left with Aidan and his friend for my big guy's dental appointment. On the drive over, we had to pass our church. Aidan exclaimed, "Look! There's our church!" Our little friend responded (it's his church too -- thank goodness they didn't bicker about who has more ownership of it), there was some chit-chat in the back seat about it, and then suddenly Aidan burst out, "Praise God!" That cracked me up. Aidan absolutely loves going to the dentist and we were talking it up all morning, about how cool it is and the neat things you get, in order to convince our little friend that it truly is OK. I'll see if anything rubbed off when I talk to his mom later. $80 later (ouch!) my boy's teeth are spotless, but I was informed that orthodontic work is possibly imminent. Yippee.

This afternoon I took the kids to the dollar store to purchase a few items for his class's "Christmas Project" for underprivileged children. What is it about that dollar store?! Something always strange happens when I walk in there -- if it's not one thing, it's another. Usually it's just something bizarre that I've observed; this time it was closer to home. The store was packed with last-minute Halloween shoppers and my kids were antsy, so all I wanted to do was just get out of there. By the time it was my turn to be helped in line, I was so frazzled by all of the chaos and people and noise that I wasn't thinking. I paid for my stuff and charged out of the store. We then walked the length of the strip mall to the other end to purchase Halloween candy (the selection at the dollar store was awful), and just as we were about to enter the store, I realized that I left my dollar store goodies behind in my mad rush to leave. Man! What a pain. We quickly bought two bags of candy and then went all of the way back to get our forgotten bag.

It was gone. In those very few minutes, another customer must have picked up the bag and walked out with it. I couldn't believe it. Well, yes, I could ... but now what? I had no more cash left in my flimsy wallet, and these things are due at school tomorrow. Thankfully there are kind souls in our midst, and the manager told me to get the items that I had purchased and just take them. Thank you, dollar store people!

Now as I am sitting here typing, I hear the ice cream truck cruising up my street. In October?!

My mom called me a short time ago, having looked out her window and felt she should inform me that my children are playing in a garbage can. We have toys galore outside, plus a sandbox and a little cottage ... and they have to play in a garbage can? I guess it could be worse -- it's only the can that we use for yard clippings and grass cuttings. But still ... a garbage can??!!

Tonight is Goosey Night. Some folks call it "Mischief Night," but around here it's always been the former. Back in the 1970s, when I was a little kid and my older brothers were just that -- older -- I remember them dressing up like commandos, armed with soap and toilet paper and shaving cream, heading out under the cover of the October darkness, wreaking havoc on the neighborhood with their friends. Over the years that tradition had waned a bit, and by the time I got to be their age no one really did that sort of thing anymore. But there are those Chosen Few who probably still feel called to the task on this, the eve of Halloween so ... tonight I'm taking in my pumpkins and my scarecrow, just in case. Too bad I can't park my car in the garage for safekeeping. Bummer.

After dinner tonight we're hoping to carve the largest of our pumpkins and set it aglow with a stub of candle, or a tea-light (whichever I find first). Tomorrow will be a fun day for us all, trick-or-treating after school with our cousins and then later after dinner in our own neighborhood with Daddy, who doesn't want to feel left out. We're just going to pick out a few key houses -- our immediate neighbors, a few that we've walked by with over-the-top decorations (Aidan wants to see some close-ups), my aunt and uncle. We'll finish off the night with It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! and then (hopefully) head off to bed. We'll all need it.

What a day. I'm tempted to break open the new bag of fun-sized Snickers a day early ...