Spring Fever

No, I wasn't dreaming about Mr. Darcy, small child, so go ahead and wake me in the middle of the night. Tell me all about how you disobeyed your mother and refused to get in your bed, thereby getting so cold at... 1:30 AM... that you need to cry great tears of unhappiness and scream at me until I make it all better.

Yep. That's what I'm here for.

My wish for spring has finally come true. Oh thank you, Fairy God Mother, Elementals, weather people, and God in Heaven. Who do I thank for head colds and allergies? Hmmm? Bad fairies and the genetic pool. So warmer weather is here and I might just send one of my little helpers out wash the winter grime from my car, except that it's now raining. Which means I need to keep a close eye on the umbrellas.

I'm not sure if watching Mary Poppins as child affected my view of umbrellas, or if my imagination was demented from the beginning, but there's magic to be had by a child holding one of those rain-deflecting devices. When I was much smaller, and much stupider, I would climb to the top of my parents' house with an umbrella in hand, and poise at the edge of the roof with the opened contraption held up and out--and leap.

I never, ever broke my leg, arm, or other appendage, though I can't prove that the umbrella helped. When all the umbrellas were mysteriously broken, my siblings and I would form parachutes out of blankets, sheets, and even plastic grocery bags, and jump again. Someone always ratted us out--well meaning neighbors, the postman, a passing cop... My parents would be told and then I was in for the beating of a lifetime--did I want to go to the hospital? Maybe. If you can imagine, my parents never took me anywhere, so maybe the hospital would be cool.

Fast-forward a bit. My own children are not so fortunate as to live in a single-story house with an easy-climb tree growing over the roof in the backyard. No, they must resort to their own stupi--I mean, ingenuity to devise ways of inflicting, or missing as the case may be, bodily injury. Trust me, they do have ample opportunity and the umbrellas in my house do randomly disintegrate. Go figure.


Recent reads include:

Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles--

Good enough, story wise, plot, writing and all the essentials... my only big complaint is in the language. I don't care much to read line after line of profanity, call me weird, but that's me.

Heist Society by Ally Carter--

I'm a big fan of the Gallagher Girls series, so reading this was no chore. Fast paced and fun, it's a book I can recommend to all my teen-reading friends.