Laundry Day

Jane's Journal Page Notes:
More small writing, so no Jane's journal.

Journal entry:
I was up this morning at 8:30 -- Sparky made it to 8:10! Almost unheard of; he’s obviously tired. Beast got up at 9:35 and Jesse stayed in bed till after 11. Typical young man. Laundry didn’t really get going until later than I'd expected--around 10:00--but I’m on load two with the first load already hung out and half-dried. It’s a lovely day. I’m sitting on the bench in the back garden in the sun while the boys--Beast, Sparky, Jesse--get lunch things together. It’s nice being waited on; and it’s wonderful to have a "down" day of just hanging out. No pun intended.

The downside is that it is almost 1:00 and I’ve only finished two loads. The machine takes about 90 minutes per load to wash. Oh, well. Better on the clothes, I hear...woops, there goes the timer for load three.

Long pause while I hung the wet clothes, took down dry ones, and attempted to get organized. HAH!

So now it’s 3:50. I also ate lunch since I wrote last, and did a couple of crosswords. Most of the clothes are dry, or nearly so. I checked email this morning and set a tentative time to meet A. in London on Tuesday.

Jesse will be doing a variety of church-related camps for the next three weeks. At one he is responsible for at least one lesson, so he has been working on something for it all day. At one point, he came into the living room and scanned through parts of the video of "The Last Temptation of Christ" with the thought that he might use a scene as a visual aid. I kept quiet, but he eventually realized that perhaps showing 13-year-old "newbies" Willem DaFoe as Christ having vaguely drug-induced visions might not work out very well. I love this movie, but I think his kids might need something a little more concrete.

Sparky--surprise surprise--has spent the day engrossed in his GameBoy. Beast is reading his book. I think his idea is to finish it before we get to London.

I should look in the freezer for dinner ideas. Ugh -- this is not a fun day. Part of the reason I go on vacation is to avoid cooking! I’m having a nervy day anyway, full of worries about "things that could go wrong in London." Anxiety about Beast hating it, the hotel sucking, the general cost of the hotel (astronomical), finding places to eat... I worry too much!

We did "discover" that Shrody was accidentally trapped in Jesse's room for an hour or so earlier in the week, which accounts for the catty smell. He has clearly left his calling card somewhere. I don’t seem to be having a huge problem up there, but I’m glad we’re leaving in the morning before it becomes an issue for me. The living room here is much worse, and my hands are getting very chapped from prophylacticly washing them every 20 minutes.

Another delay while I scrounged for food...

Jesse and I made spaghetti and meat sauce for dinner. After eating and doing the dishes, we drove over to Rosellen's house because she had told Jesse he could borrow her swimsuit for one of his camps. She had not realized he meant to wear it, so she refused him ultimately. He has to do something like "weird swimwear" so he'll have to come up with something else.

We had a chance to say goodbye properly to Rosellen anyway, after watching about 15 minutes of a "Friends" episode in her living room. She claims to have housemates, but they are all gone. So, "Friends" in England, with a giant poster from their most recent pub-karaoke contest among 17 nationalities. A bit surreal.

Early to bed, but we are in no rush to leave in the morning. We can’t check into our hotel in London till afternoon, so we’ll have a leisurely drive to Heathrow to turn Daphne and the car in (sniff). We’ll probably catch the regular tube into Central London rather than trying to do the express thingy. Too complicated with suitcases and so forth. I’ll be sad to say goodbye to our very good car. And Daphne. :-(