lawmummy

I slept eight hours last night. This is significant for a lot of reasons, notwithstanding that it probably equals my total for all of last week.

It was a bad, bad week.

I had thought that when it was all over, I would take a moment to reflect on it and would put all my thoughts down on the blog.

But I’m not sure that’s going to happen.

I am so relieved that it’s over - and I may just put it behind me and move on. We’ll see.

For now, I have a little bit of a stomach ache and some grey hairs to show for it. That’s enough.

“Running is a big question mark that’s there each and every day. It asks you, ‘Are you going to be a wimp or are you going to be strong today?’” - Peter Maher

As much as I love my theme, it’s been giving readers fits for months now because the comments section doesn’t work properly. So I’ll be changing themes some time over the next few days. Don’t be alarmed if things appear wonky.

I have been having a problem lately with one of my daughter’s parents. And this is a silly reason but I’m saying it anyway: the woman cannot say no.

Let’s put aside for a moment how she allows her child to run all over her. While offputting, sure, that’s not my problem.

What IS my problem is that, since she lacks the strength to say “no” to anything, she and her daughter constantly lead my daughter to believe that they’ve scheduled a playdate. My daughter, with full blown enthusiasm, constantly invites her friend over for a playdate and often invites herself over for the same. I am content to work out the details with the friend’s mother. But the mother always says yes right on the spot - even when she doesn’t mean it.

Why, why, why.

It’s not difficult to say, “I have to check our schedule” or something similar. But she doesn’t. She smiles, says yes, and never calls.

After the first night of my daughter refusing to move off of the sofa, swearing that her friend’s mother would call at any second to come over (of course, she didn’t), I decided that I had to be the bad guy. My daughter had, of course, already decided that this was my fault. So the next time it happened and I said, “Well, I think we need to check the calendar, it’s a busy week,” I was annoyed when the friend’s mother said that they’d love a playdate that day. Of course, she never called. And when I tried to make arrangements at school, she was noncommittal.

So earlier this week, it happened again. And again, I was the bad guy. I am, quite frankly, tired of it. I am at the point that I want to look her in the eye and tell her what I think. Only I think she’ll smile and nod and change nothing.

Instead, I had to explain to my daughter (again) that I didn’t think a playdate was going to work out.

I don’t understand why I have to be the grown up for all of us.

I am finally at CHOP for Charlie’s (minor) surgery. They have assured me that I would be in and out… so I decided to forego coffee (!) in order to use one of the many computers provided for parents. I checked my blogs for comments and then headed over to tweet on twitter. I was surprised to find that CHOP has banned twitter on its computers for the damning reason: social media.

Gasp.

Cause you certainly wouldn’t want to have parents communicating with the outside world…

I don’t get it. Anyone?

You cry at your three year old’s “graduation” because you realize that she will someday graduate from high school and move out.

You already know that I am not a fan of big banks. But my current bank (Citizens) is pretty decent as behemoths go… They took over my little neighborhood bank a few years ago and have managed to retain the small bank feel nonetheless.

So imagine my surprise when they acted like a big bank on yesterday.

I went to out to lunch on yesterday and decided to pay with my debit card. We went to a local restaurant where we go tons of times. The owner of the restaurant came out and said, “Um, Kelly, your card came back ‘Declined’.” I took the card back and gave her another card.

I knew there was plenty of money in the account so I called to verify the balance. The automated system said that my account number and PIN did not match. In full panic mode now (I have twice had accounts cleared out by thieves), I went to the office to verify the balance over the internet. There were more than sufficient funds to cover the charge.

I called the bank to find out what, if anything was going on. They couldn’t see anything wrong with the account and called the card services folks for me.

As it turns out, my information had been “compromised” - someone else had access to my card number and expiration date. They believe that a purchase had been attempted but was not successful. The card had been canceled and a new one overnighted to me.

Which is kind of nice in theory - that they were so proactive. But no notice? What if, instead of down the street, I had been out of town? That would have meant no access to my account via my debit card AND no way of picking up the new card (this has happened to me before when I was in Rome).

But that didn’t happen.

At the end of the day, no harm, no foul. But it does bother me that it happened. MasterCard needs to get on the stick about protecting its information better!

From Parents United for Public Education:

Call-in campaign Thursday, May 29, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Want to avoid steep school budget cuts this fall?

Let your state legislators know you need them to support the Governor’s education budget.

Parents United for Public Education endorses the Pennsylvania School Funding Campaign, which advocates for a better funding formula for schools. This month we have a historic opportunity to improve school funding for Philadelphia (as well as statewide). Our schools are counting on more than $87 million in new state money if the Governor’s budget passes in its entirety.

Join us on Thursday, May 29 as we campaign for our schools - call your Philadelphia State Representative and Senator!

Follow these steps:
introduce yourself;
give your address;
request that your elected official support the Governor’s budget;
request that your elected official support the six-year plan.

Every office needs to receive at least 10 calls! All Philadelphia legislators’ numbers are listed below. Don’t know who in the General Assembly represents you? It’s easy to find out by typing your zip code and address into CAPWIZ!

Senators

Vincent J. Fumo 215.468.3866
Vincent J. Hughes (19146) 215.471.0490
Shirley M. Kitchen 215.227.6161
Michael J. Stack (19154) 215.281.2539
Christine M. Tartaglione 215.533.0440

LeAnna Washington 215.242.0472
Anthony H. Williams 215.492.2980

Representatives
Thomas W. Blackwell 215.748.7808

Mark B. Cohen 215.924.0895
Angel Cruz 215.291.5643
Lawrence Curry 215.572.5210
Robert C. Donatucci 215.468.1515
Dwight Evans 215.549.0220
Harold James 215.462.3308
Babette Josephs 215.893.1515
William F. Keller 215.271.9190
George T. Kenney, Jr. 215.934.5144
Kathy M. Manderino 215.482.8726
Michael P. McGeehan 215.333.9760

John Myers 215.849.6896
Dennis O’Brien (Speaker) 215.632.5150

Michael H. O’Brien 215.503.3245

Frank L. Oliver 215.684.3738
Cherelle L. Parker 215.242.7300
Tony Payton, Jr. 215.744.7901
John M. Perzel 215.331.2600
James R. Roebuck, Jr. 215.724.2227

John P. Sabatina, Jr. 215.342.6204
John J. Taylor 215.425.0901
W. Curtis Thomas 215.232.1210
Ronald G. Waters 215.748.6712
Jewell Williams 215.763.2559
Louise Williams Bishop 215.879.6625
Rosita C. Youngblood 215.849.6426

“There is no more important priority this spring than for the General Assembly to enact a permanent school funding formula and fully fund it in no more than six years.” -The Pennsylvania School Funding Campaign

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(Hat Tip: Jay Cohen)

When I stepped on the scale this morning (yes, we have one now, blame the hubby), I got an ERR message. So I got off, got back on. Still.

I flipped over the scale where I got this message:

“ERR” indicates the maximum capacity of 330 lbs/150 kgs has been exceeded. Remove the weight immediately to prevent damage to the scale.

Okay, I know some of you have been arguing that my failed weight loss was due to muscle gain… but c’mon. 330 lbs? Yowza.

Methinks that Taylor Precision Products (scale maker) is not nearly as precise as they think they are.

** For those of you who have never met me in person, while I will admit to weighing more than I should, you can safely assume that I do not, in fact, weigh anywhere near 330 lbs. Hence my confusion. And alarm.