Beating Hearts Baby.

Jason and I are watching ’28 Weeks Later’ (well, he’s watching and I’m peeking), and I paused to look around– at our glass front door and glass back doors and windows made of GLASS instead of lead– why didn’t I chose someplace safer in the event of an apocalyptic virus? This is the most zombie-friendly home in America.

Today was busy. Woke up at a reasonable hour, cleaned the house, bathed the kids. Jason came home for lunch. I took the car and went to the bank, where I was supposed to argue some fees we incurred during the mortgage loss. I had this great plan, which was: curl my hair. In my mind, if you have Bo Peep style curly hair, banks can’t help but love you on sight. It sort of worked. The worker there DID love me, but she couldn’t return more than a hundred dollars to our account per day. Boo. Get gas, come home, get J and kids to take him back off at work. Elias walks down the stairs: “Turn your head and see me, Mommy!”

I do. HIS HAIR. It’s ALL GONE. He looks like he just joined the Marines. “You look so– cute,” I gasp; which he does, but at that second all I can think is “–bald”. Eli is lucky because he could have no eyebrows and wear a paper sack and still be better looking than most of the population, but his hair is all gone.

“We had a little accident,” J says, coming down the stairs behind me.

Get in the car, fill Jason in on banking news. Drop him at the office. We need food, desperately, and I make the mistake of shopping while I’m starving. I also make the mistake of buying almost entirely supplies to make nachos. Drive home. Make nachos. Mine consist of Doritos Collisions Zesty Taco/Chipotle Ranch, refried beans, sour cream, and grated cheddar cheese. I try to make Elias eat some, and he screams like I cut off his arm. “It’s HOWWIBLE!” he wails on the ground. “It BUWNS MY MOUTH!”

“Fine, more for me,” I answer. I eat all his nachos too. He has some fruits and bread (everyone thinks my kids eat terribly unhealthy because I do, but for the most part they request nutritious fare).

Elias and Addie want to go to the library, and I never have to be asked twice about a trip there. Haul all our books back. It’s an entire messenger PLUS grocery bag full. Books are returned. Check that off my to-do list. Eli wants to become a magician, so we find two cool magic books. Well, one is cool. It’s called ‘The Book of Wizard Magic‘, and it has awesome illustrations and crafts and tricks inside. The other one is called something like ‘Razzle-Dazzle Magic Spazzle’ and was made in the 70′s. It’s all ugly fonts, boring instructions, and few pictures. It’s just– blah. But Elias loves the Magic Spazzle. I don’t get it. He reads it from front to back several times the rest of the afternoon.

Addie gets her typical book set: something that pops up, something where you lift flaps, something about ducks, and something about living on a farm. She knows what she likes.

Stop by my cousin’s. Hang out for about an hour. Most of the visit is spent breaking up more fights between Eli and Riley, or intercepting flying balls. Golf balls, basketball, baseballs: you name it, it was being chucked at someone oblivious.

We’re an hour early to pick Jason up, but Addie is already asleep in the car, full of bananas and Goldfish. Eli and I hang out in the car in J’s office parking lot. I read him some of the books we got. We listen to music. Finally, we get the bright idea to take pictures of each other. “I’ll take some of YOU!” Elias offers, holding his hands out for my camera. I hand it over. He shouts instructions: “Now, make a face! Put your lips out! Oh, dat’s PEWRFECT. You look beyuwtiful.” Snap, snap. Flash.

“Let me see! Let me see!” I beg.

“O-kay,” he sighs after four minutes.

I turn on the camera, expecting mediocre shots. (I’m NOT photogenic. At all. Nobody try to be nice and argue: it’s true.) I’m totally taken aback. “Elias!” I gasp. “These are so pretty! You did such a good job, little friend… Thank you for taking such beautiful pictures of me.”

Elias: “It was my PWEAJURE.”

(Yes, verbatim. It was my pleasure. I wrote it down so I wouldn’t forget it because OH MY GOSH. He rocks my world.)

Home again. Elias and Jason play ‘Zelda’, Addie slumbers, I go to video store to return and rent (zombie) movies. Fold laundry while watching movies, then open my laptop to type this up. Full circle.

(Okay, I left out the dinner I made, which I actually took step-by-step pictures of but am too lazy to post here now. It wasn’t even really worth mentioning. It’s not even a recipe. I have some bona fide chefs who read this, and I think they’d be insulted by my excuse for a meal. It was sort of like a cooked sandwich.)

This whole weekend is just finishing up Ali’s theme, uploading pictures, fixing site errors, and hopefully knocking out a bit more novel. And reading. I got ‘Thunderstruck’ today, which is by Erik Larson– Erik Larson of ‘The Devil In the White City‘ fame. I hardly ever pick up historical nonfiction, but this looks amazing.