stories from the road

I am on a respite - on Long Island. with the hochstedler fam. it's been really nice. although they roped me into painting - and seriously - they are SERIOUS about it.

I just finished three tours in a row - and i loved the second one. The first one of the three I liked because I liked the lady who organized it, although they had serious punctuality problems. The second one I LOVED because the Principal doesn't let the kids mess around. And then there was the third one... you KNOW you're in for it when the PRESIDENT of the company you work for says, "We're sorry. Really we are. Everyone has to do them once."

Generally, on a 7 day trip, I MAY call the office once - just to check in and let them know I'm ok. I called the office a MINIMUM of three times a day... everytime with another hassle... beyond exhausting. And the office was secretly LAUGHING... I KNOW they were... actually, they are what got me through it. Because they were fully sharing my pain - as best as can. But every morning I KNOW they were waiting for the heinous stories from the day before.

So, here's a VERY SMALL example of this trip. The teacher(s) have decided that their students CANNOT drink soda on the trip - so for every dinner the office was instructed to have the restaurants serve water or milk to our kids. Day Four this cute kid, Marcel, (and the kids were absolutely DARLING) is asked by someone else what's for dinner. He says, "Cheese. And butter. And milk." And I said, "Marcel, you like a nice big glass of MILK for dinner?" And he says, "Drinking milk straight makes me throw up."... poor thing...

And the really classy 55 year old female founder of the school walked up to me and YELLED in my face that "You and me are gonna get into it!" ... because I was walking her kids UP the gangplank away from the water before she TOLD me I could...

ok - deep breath... :)

I can't tell any more of the stories - there's no chiropractor near to take away the stress, and it's too early for a drink.