Back in Maryland

Thanks to the NJ State Teachers' Convention, Micah's school is closed today and tomorrow, Thea's is closed Friday.  So I paroled her from school today and we drove down to Maryland last night.  Micah was in Manic Chatter Monkey mode for a good way down I-295 (or so it felt).  His new schtick is "Count the birthdays, Mommy."  So the litany goes something like, "Aunt Shannon's birthday is in January, Micah's birthday is in March (And Bunny Bear? And Tom-Tom (the stuffed cat)?), Donna's and Christine's birthdays are also in March, so is Uncle Ricky, Oma's birthday is in April, Mommy's and Aunt Mary's are in June, Aunt Pam's and Uncle Karl's are in July, Daddy is in August, Uncle Larry's is in September, Elise's, Thea's and Grandma's are in October, Willi's is in December."

And then he asks to have me do it again.

And again.

Thank you to the two children in his class who had  birthdays recently who got him started on this.  I am hoping for an early end to this obsession.

Thea played her Nintendo DS until we were just over the Delaware Memorial Bridge, and then she too fell asleep, so I was left with NPR until just past the Delaware tolls, and then an oldies station from Baltimore (and someone please tell me how songs from 1977 constitute 'oldies' - 102.7 did a "9 at 9" and featured songs from 1977.  It was NOT THAT long ago, thank you.

Anyway, our purpose, other than shattering the peace and quiet of my mother's world for about 48 hours, is to take her to her doctors' appointments today and tomorrow.  This morning was the surgeon, who remains the same charming person he was on the 26th.  Mom went back to get her staples and drains out, and then when he was done, my mother said I would like to talk with him, which was met with "I spoke to the family on the day of the surgery."  Charming.  Fortunately his itty-bitty personality is overshadowed by his clinical competency and surgical skills.  That, plus I saw him sending his own fax - my mother told him that she was seeing the oncologist tomorrow, so he wanted to make sure the pathology reports were sent for him to review prior to the appointment.

Mom is a happy camper now that the drains have been removed; Dr. Personality had to go and tell her that one of them went up eight inches below her skin, which has an 'eeeeewww' factor of significance for even me.  And she did not whine about the staples, whose removal she was dreading.  I made an offer to bring a staple remover from work and give her a demo so she knew what to expect, but the big chicken declined.

After the appointment we hit Wall's Bakery for the GIGANTIC eclairs, buying eight, but they are not all for us and then had lunch at the Town Mouse before going across the railroad tracks to play on the red caboose at the Historical Society of Charles County.  It used to be used on a train that went to the USN station at Indian Head and was painted dingy battleship grey, and then a dried blood sort of red, but recently someone bought a few buckets of fire engine red glossy and went to town.

So now I'm at Borders, Thea is in the kids' section lusting after Bakugan and Pokemon stuff while I cop a free Wi-Fi hit before going home to see if Micah survived his nap with Oma.  He was not pleased at being left, but he was also pretty near fried.

More later.