sickly, stamps, sacrifices

i powered through all 110 invitation boxes last night and got them all done.

so. over. these. things.

but i really love this client - and i think they may need me to do the escort cards, programs, menus, etc. too. hey, i'm not going to turn down steady work. ;)

so this morning, i got up, left the bean with the hub (who was still home thanks to a 10:00 meeting) and took a sample to the post office to find out exactly how much postage to put on. of course, i got there a little early and ended up standing in the line that had already formed.

some dude walked in behind me and at first i did a double-take, because i thought he had a horrendously unfortunate birthmark on his forehead. and then i totally giggled my ass off at myself, because i realized it was ash wednesday, and he'd obviously been to early mass! duh, i'm such a doofus sometimes.

and as i looked around some more, i caught a glimpse of someone who looked...familiar. she turned around, we made eye contact, and it was rochelle, my new favorite hair stylist! ha!

"i tried to call you on saturday," she said. "i wanted to thank you for sending lilcee my way! she's so cute, and it was so much fun doing her hair."

such a small world. and now you have that song going through your head, don'tcha? you're welcome.

so the invitation ended up weighing four ounces - which came to $1.64. lucky for me, that divides evenly into four $.41 stamps - which meant that i could use the same ones i used on the RSVP envelopes. yippee! plus, the clerk suggested that i hand cancel the boxes in an effort to minimize the inevitable damage during transit. sweet!

i ended up taking their entire supply of wedding stamps, but they only had 9 sheets of 20. damn. i wasn't looking forward to carting the bean around to several more post offices.

i went home, the hub took off for his meeting, and then MIL arrived to help me get everything to the post office. she'd called me last night and offered to come down and help, and i'd gratefully accepted. and she was about to head out to a nearby post office to pick up more stamps when my phone rang, and it was the kid. she's with her dad this week, so i was really surprised to see that she was calling.

"mooooooom, can you pleeeeeeease pick me up? i feel like crap."

poor thing. she sounded like she'd been run over a few times by a mack truck. it's probably wrong to feel this way, but i was secretly uber excited to get some unexpected time with her. heh. i handed the bean to MIL, grabbed my keys, and ran out the door.

and promptly came back.

the cleaning crew had parked in the driveway and was blocking my car. i ended up taking MIL's car and sped off to the school to pick up my ailing child.

i got to the office, looked around, and the kid was nowhere to be found. and then i totally stuck my foot in my mouth when i told the nurse that she'd called me from her cell phone - which, apparently, is a huge no-no. "they can get their phone taken away for using it on campus," she said. oops.

they managed to find her (she was at lunch, of course), she came to the office, got read the riot act for using the cell, and the two of us slunk out like guilty 6-year-olds who'd gotten sent to the principal's office for shooting spitballs.

i called her dad and left him a voice mail to let him know what had happened. and when he called back five minutes later, my bubble of happiness at bonus time with the kid was blown to smithereens - he'd already called his girlfriend to come and pick her up. boo.

and as i handed the phone to the kid, the house phone rang, and it was the girlfriend, asking for directions.

"and can you tell her to turn her cell phone on? i want to be able to call her when i get there." in other words, "i don't want to have to get out of the car." ugh.

i said "sure, she's got her phone in her pocket right now."

"well [in a snotty ass tone], i just called her and she didn't answer."

then i got pissed. "that's because she's on MY phone, talking to her father." double ugh.

i made her a pb&j, which she munched on while we waited for her to get picked up. and when she left, i got started on stamping those envelopes with MIL's help. she'd also stopped at in-n-out and brought back delicious double-doubles for lunch. mmmmm. but i didn't get to have fries or a coke, because i gave up both of those items beginning today, for forty days. yes, that's normally a catholic thing, but our church encourages us to make some sort of sacrifice during this time of lent as well. and those are my sacrifices! it's gonna be a long 40 days. i hope i don't get too grumpy.

and now all of those invitations are off of my table, out of my house, and in the hands of the USPS! whee! the hub'll be thrilled.

at least, until i get started on my next order. [smirk]