When I went to school for the first time, my parents spent weeks preparing me for my first day, telling me how great I was going to be, pumping me up. By the time the actual day came, I was ready to go, happy to be heading out to a new frontier. My family dropped me off at school and returned home, only to find my brother, mournfully staring out the window for a glimpse of me. I had been his daily playmate for his entire life. They had prepared me for school, but they had forgotten to prepare my brother for me going to school.

Today, I feel very much like my brother did. I have been waiting for Marlena to “get out of the house and let me work” for the last month. I have been looking forward to school like you would not believe, but now, on the morning of her first day, I am sitting mournfully at my desk, surrounded by work. My house is just too quiet, and my normal playmate isn’t here. Sniff.

We went to a birthday party at Club Libby Lu in the Menlo Park Mall last night for a friend’s daughter’s 8th birthday party.

We were at the mall until about eight thirty or so before retreating to the Mom’s house for beer, wine coolers, and recovery. A few minutes after we left, there was a shooting just outside the children’s place, very close to where we were. Very close. A man shot a woman in the store, and then killed himself. Obviously my angels are working overtime in making sure that the 15 or so children, 8 parents, and baby got the heck out of there before this all went down. Thank you angels, Thank you so much.

The party itself was fun, in that ultra-girly, make-up and glitter, high squeaky girl music kind of way. The girls were brought into the store and given rock star outfits to change into. This consisted of black sparkly bell bottom pants and a black tee with a large silver star on it. No bare midriff, no thumb-skirt. I was impressed that the outfits were not modeled after the Hooker Dolls, as my first impression of the store indicated they would be. (There was pink everywhere!)

After changing clothes, the girls had their hair twisted into fun little rows and pinned up. Fake kinked hair pieces shot through with long hot pink strips were attached via clips. Then the girls were covered head to toe in glitter and make up, were allowed to pick out 5 accessories, and make their own lip gloss, lotion or perfume. (It turns out I am allergic to the smell of the lip gloss Marlena made. Horribly allergic. Eyes tearing up, nose instantly stuffed, headache pounding allergic.)

After they were made all “pretty”, the girls danced to two songs with the teens in charge of the party and were sent on their way. The teens didn’t know the words to the songs, and neither did the girls, but the moms, including me, had no problem jamming out. Why? Because the first song was “I love rock and roll” by Joan Jett.

I mean really, this was an 8 year old’s birthday party and they played Joan Jett?

Afterwards there was present opening, and then the aforementioned alcohol eased recovery for us moms. I have pictures coming in the email soon, as I forgot my camera. Marlena had a blast though, and says she wants to do the same thing for her birthday. Hmmm…. either we will get her to change her mind or we will create a make-over session at home. We have the dress ups, it would be less expensive, and we have better music.

Marlena begins school on Monday, and I begin work. I need to finish up this complaint, file it, along with a motion to appear Pro Hac Vice, and get moving on the cases. I look back at this summer and can’t imagine why I am not finished with this filing already. What did I do with my summer? Why does caring for a newborn and a six year old take all the hours in a day? Ack! I haven’t even played World of Warcraft, or crocheted three hundred scarves, or scrapbooked. There is nothing to show for three months of time, except for the fact that the children are still alive, the pets are still alive, and the house isn’t a complete disaster. (Although, I still haven’t finished unpacking boxes.)

Well, I am off to bed. I still have a smidgen of a cold, and I intend on being well enough to work my tushie off all week so I can get this case up and running.

Marlena was upset about not being able to start school the first day, so she was mopey yesterday. It didn’t help that I woke up with a cold, so instead of being able to visit the park and run around, she was pretty much left to her own devices at home all day.

Luckily, Daddy saved the day with a special gift when he got home from work.

Suddenly, not being able to start school for a few days simply didn’t matter.

(No, I have no idea what the lawnmower like noise in the background is, might be our air conditioner, or it might be coming from a neighbors yard. Whatever it is, I apologize for it’s incessant drone.)

Boy was she happy to be scooting. She is getting really good at it. She is already able to ride several feet with both feet on the board, and is happy to show off her growing talent to anyone who will watch her!

As a paranoid mommy, I did park my car between the driveway and the street before letting her scoot. We live on the main street in and out of town, and it is always busy. I am so nervous about her playing on anything with wheels anywhere near the street. I think having a roadblock weighing several thousands of pounds might protect her from entering oncoming traffic. It wouldn’t stop her if she chose to intentionally go around it, but it will prevent her from accidentally shooting into the street. Of course my neighbors thought I was nuts when I pulled the car around and proceeded to parallel park it in my driveway, but so what? (I am nuts, though not about this, I feel this particular paranoia is based solidly in common sense.)