Madalyn and I just returned from her class field trip to find Robert and the younger two kids gone. At first I thought that he'd gone barmy and assumed Johnny had soccer practice, despite its having rained here most of today. But then I found a message on our phone from JZ's coach saying practice was cancelled, and the message had been listened to. I had called home from about 45 minutes away, so Robert knew we'd be in around 6:00. I can't call him because his cell phone is here, charging.

So what's my first course of action pursuant to all these tidbits of information? Why, to start imagining the very worst, of course! Hello, have you been reading my blog long? So far the best scenario I've been able to come up with is that he had to take one of the kids to the emergency room and has been so busy dealing with his/her life-threatening injuries that he hasn't thought to ask to use the phone there to call me. Just as worrying, though less likely theories include a home invasion/kidnapping. Madalyn's suggestions were that they have gone to get dinner either out or possibly at Robert's dad's house. Here's the path of "logic" my mind follows, however: It's a school night. He was expecting us home shortly. Then why would he take them to, say, eat, or to his dad's house, when he knew we were on our way, when Madalyn was going to need dinner, too?

Unfortunately even after 12+ years, my logic and his logic rarely jive. Just because I think something doesn't make sense doesn't mean it's not going to happen. A lot of times I'm cool with this. Other times I'm left teetering on the edge of the precipice over Crazy Town. In this particular case I'm at a midway point. I'm not really stressing over their whereabouts but I do find it a bit odd.

Ah....speak of the devils. Guess who just walked in the front door? Off to give the hairy eyeball.

When I was a kid I had a faded red canvas drawstring bag with the words "Misc. Catchall" lettered on the front in fabric paint. My mom had picked it up somewhere - thrift shop, or yard sale, maybe, and then it came into my possession. It was, indeed, exactly what its slogan advertised. I used that bag for all manner of things over the course of many years. Sometimes, in blogging, circumstances (such as dire neglect by the blogger) necessitate a post that serves as a sort of visual miscellaneous catchall. This would be one of those posts. Feel free to go grab a cup of coffee, throw in a load of laundry, negotiate peace in the Middle East, whatever - I'll be done here shortly.

1) Plans for California are coming along nicely, or, at least, as nicely as they can possibly come along without actually securing transportation there. I am not sure when we'll be able to get our plane tickets but I hope to heck it's soon. I'd like to have some options for times/dates rather than being stuck with whatever is still available at the last minute. I'm going gangbusters on the theoretical plans, though. My intention (much to the horror of my father, when he finds out) is to try to stay four weeks. We've done three-and-a-half before but never a full four. Hand in hand with planning that long a stay goes planning some times when the kids and I can depart for a night or two to give my dad a break and prevent a possible stroke on his part. Of course just where we go and for how long depends on the bank account situation so, again, it's all theoretical at this point. I do have a friend lined up who is willing to take us in for a night, should I need to beat a hasty retreat, but I really would like to also take them....somewhere. Perhaps to the beach for a night or two. Another option, for when Robert is there with us, is Disneyland. Monterey has also been mentioned. Nothing will be decided until closer to time to leave, if not after we actually get out there, but it's good to have some sort of idea ahead of time.

Also in the crossing-our-fingers-and-hoping-really-hard category is my and Robert's brief trip up to Vegas. Since it opened two years ago we have been trying to formulate a plan to go see Cirque du Soleil's Beatles tribute show, LOVE. We wanted to meet some friends from Milwaukee there and all see it together but it just has not worked out and doesn't look like it will any time soon. With the economy being how it is and travel and tourism being down, along with everything else, I don't feel like I can gamble any longer that the show will still be open when we finally get around to coordinating our schedules. So our current plan now is for me and Robert to make a quick dash up to Vegas from California, leaving the kids with my parents. It's only a six hour drive from my parents' house and we only plan to be gone one night. We'll go up one morning, see the show that night, stay over and come back the next day. While we'd both always love to stay longer, the brevity of the visit makes it both financially feasible and ensures that my poor mother will survive babysitting the trio.

2) Plans for Abbey Road on the River are also moving along. As I may have mentioned last year after returning I plan to take Madalyn this time. She's really looking forward to it and I am, too. I think I'm definitely ready to have some company for the weekend. It's not that I've lost my penchant for spending time alone; it's just that the appeal for this particular activity seems to have worn off somewhat. Plus the kid works hard and does well in school, not to mention helping me out immensely around the house, so she deserves a trip just for herself; a little something extra that the younger kids don't get to do.

3) In the even more immediate future is Madalyn's G&T class field trip next week. I have volunteered to help chaperone and, I have to say, am looking forward to it as much as (if not more than) she is. We will be going first to the Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art at St. Gregory's University. They have a collection of Egyptian antiquities and the G&T classes have been studying ancient Egypt all month (they are currently mummifying a fish - the teacher is a brave soul, indeed!) The museum is even going to bring out some items which aren't usually on display for the kids to see, which is most lovely of them. From there we head up to the city and Science Museum Oklahoma (formerly the Omniplex). That promises to be a good time. I'm especially looking forward to the special pirate exhibit. We will be eating lunch at the museum's cafe. It's going to be a long day - we leave the school around 8:15 a.m. and don't return until at least 6:30 p.m. - but I'm really looking forward to it.

4) Even more immediately than that is a trip up to Norman/Moore this weekend. We have an errand to run and then, at the very least, Madalyn, Johnny and myself will go see the Hannah Montana movie at the snazzy Warren theater. (It's yet to be determined whether Robert and Eliza will suffer through it or go find something else to do for a couple of hours.) While there we also plan to do a little summer clothes shopping, mostly for Madalyn as she has, typically, outgrown 90% of the warm-weather things she was wearing just six months ago.

5) That clothes shopping, by the way, should be interesting. I plan to, for the first time ever, let Madalyn pick out most of her own things. This is a huge step for me in letting go of some control. Everyone knows my especial fondness for children's clothing and I've always been very picky about what she wears. Not only that but any time there's a choice between several similar items, the one I would choose is never the one she would choose. Her taste is quite different from mine. So big step for mama, here. (Yes, I know she's 8.5 years old and probably should've been doing this before now. If you'd like to be the one to pay to completely outfit Ginormica every six months or so, then you can also be the one who decides how much freedom she gets. Otherwise, feel free to bite me.)

6) There's some other stuff going on of which I'm not at liberty to speak at this time. It's not bad or anything; it's just one of those things where I could go on and on for pages about it only to have it not happen and make me look like an overly-excitable idiot (not that that isn't the truth; it's just best not to have proof on the interwebs for everyone to see). It's our typical we-have-no-clue-what's-going-to-happen-a-month-or-two-from-now business. Hopefully we will have it hammered out in the next week or so (in terms of figuring out, for certain, what will be our plan of action) and then I can explain all.

That vague enough for you? :)

I could probably continue this exercise in pointless verbosity but it's late and the alarm rings awfully early on weekdays (especially the ones where hubby isn't home to lend a hand with the morning routine). Therefore I'll pull the plug on this entry and endeavour to keep on top of things a bit better around here.

Despite halfhearted enthusiasm on my part, we had a good Easter today.

My first complaint was that we were going to Robert's dad's house for the Easter meal. It's nothing against Frank, or John (Robert's brother, who also lives there); it's just easier on the actual day of the meal to have it at our house because it saves me having to get everyone ready and presentable and then schlep all the food across town, especially if I've spent an unconscionable amount of time in the kitchen that day like I did last time we did a special dinner. What's not easier, however, is the housecleaning involved leading up to the day, and that's how I ended up there rather than here. I wasn't really excited about spending half the day there, either. Again, no insult meant to the company but my idea of a fun afternoon is not watching The Masters tournament and, really, how many people are more comfortable in someone else's house than their own? Let's just say it wasn't exactly what I'd pick as my optimum scenario, given the choice (and a maid to come in and make my house decent for me).

My second complaint was that I was completely unmotivated to do any sort of baskets or treats for the kids. We don't really 'do' the Easter Bunny here. It's not out of any moral objection; more like I feel sort of uncomfortable fibbing to the kids about fictional characters being real and it takes all of my energy to keep from feeling guilty about pulling the wool over their eyes on the Santa thing. Therefore the Easter Bunny (and the Tooth Fairy) have been cut from the program. Call it downsizing on my part. At any rate, in the weeks leading up to today, I didn't feel as though it was terribly important for me to have something for them, and then a shortage of funds eliminated the option of doing a big blowout as I'd occasionally done for Easters past.

Despite this, last night I got to feeling a bit badly about not having anything for them and began rethinking my plan. When we moved we did a lot of paring down of our junk and one of the things I tossed was our collection of plastic eggs. Additionally their Easter baskets seem to have gone missing since last year, so there wasn't a chance of my staging baskets and an egg hunt with things we already had in the house. And so 9:30 p.m. found me running out to Walmart (I needed some marjoram for one of my appetizers, anyway) and browsing the Easter aisle. At first I grabbed three chocolate bunnies, three cheap baskets, some plastic eggs, Easter grass and candy to fill the eggs but then I spotted some cute stuffed bunnies that were pretty inexpensive. The kids do love candy but they also love stuffed animals and they'd been eyeballing the Easter ones last time we were there. So I wavered for a good ten minutes - baskets, bunnies, baskets, bunnies. In the end I went with the stuffed bunnies and also kept the (small) chocolate bunnies to go along with the theme. My reasoning was that, really, one chocolate bunny is more processed sugar than a human being needs to eat, anyway, plus they have access to no less than eight hundred other types of candy at Frank's house, so why waste money on more?

Well, it turned out to be the right decision. All three loved their bunnies, which are identical except for color. I like them because their stuffing is made out of recycled plastic bottles. The kids carried them around all day, taking them over to Frank's for the meal. They seemed totally happy and content with their two small items (which, all told, set me back less than twenty bucks) and it was a lesson to this mama about restraint and less being more. Now if I can just remember that when the next birthday comes around we'll be in good shape!

As for the first complaint, well, that turned out okay, too. The appetizers I planned to take were fairly easy to make. I did spend some time in the kitchen this morning preparing things but it was manageable; I didn't overextend myself like I did for Super Bowl Sunday, when I spent about five hours fixing food. We headed over to Frank's around 2:00 and Eliza took a nap as soon as we got there, which left me some free time to do some reading and ignore the golf on t.v. The appetizers went down a treat and the meal was very good. It was a nice time and we got out of there around 7:00, with me not feeling like the day had dragged or been longer than it really was. As we drove home with the kids chattering in the back of the van, each holding his/her bunny, okay, I admit it - I kind of got the warm fuzzies. Especially when John-Zachary piped up, "I wish it could be Easter every day!" Now if that's not a frigging Hallmark Channel moment I don't know what is.

I was flashing back to a message-board conversation I was involved in a couple years ago regarding a celebrity and her poor fashion choices. That lead me to think of the show "What Not To Wear" which I used to watch regularly. (In case you haven't seen it, people nominate their friends to be on the show. The nominees often dress oddly or poorly for their body types. The nominees' friends provide secret video footage of the person in various outfits and the hosts of the show watch and go on and on about how awful the clothing is.)

I know that I, myself, have been guilty, often, of critiquing what people are wearing (mostly in my own head, but it's there, nonetheless). Then I got to thinking.....why? What business of mine is it what someone wears? So it's unflattering on them. So what? Isn't the real question whether s/he feels comfortable and/or attractive in the outfit? Because, if that's so, then what is it to me? It's not hurting me in any way, except maybe bruising my sense of aesthetics, but isn't that subjective, anyhow? Say my friend is wearing something that emphasizes her rear end and makes it look larger than it really is, but she truly adores the outfit. That should be the end of the story. It's not my rear end, nor is it my responsibility to make it look a certain way or appeal to the opposite sex. If she feels good what right have I, or anyone else, to feel sorry for her? And yet people persist in shaking their heads and clucking pityingly about So-and-so who "just doesn't dress attractively."

In picking apart the subject it seems to me to boil down to how much you care what other people think about you. If I don't care what people think about me then why would I give a fig if someone likes my outfit or not? What's really almost unforgivable is that I *am* one of those people. I wear what I like. I don't dress for other people. I know the hosts of "What Not To Wear" would be horrified, for example, at my rainbow-striped knee socks, which I wear with cropped lounge pants around the house (and, okay, when I go out of the house to make a school run). But I think they are cute and I am comfortable in them, so why is it anyone else's concern? After all, it's my body. No one else has to claim responsibility for dressing me. I'm not trying to impress anyone. I guess I could see being more concerned with fashion if you're out on the dating scene. On the other hand, I don't understand dressing in a way that's completely out of your comfort zone just to snag a mate. Personally, I'd rather have someone who loves me for all my quirks and uniqueness and not because I conform to the accepted fashions.

But I digress. Back to my original point: What really matters when considering one's wardrobe? Other people's opinions, or the opinion of the person in question? And why do we really criticize and give advice and bemoan people's fashion choices? Is it because we truly have their best interests at heart and are doing it unselfishly? Or are we giving voice to our own prejudices and taste and simply cloaking it in the mantle of concern? Why does it matter to us what someone else is wearing if it makes him or her happy?