THE SIMPSONS NEWS

This week started out crazy.  I hadn’t quite recovered from Mother’s Day weekend (more on that below) and I went to work tired and groggy to finish up the work I need to do.  My deadline to finish everything for this crew was Tuesday. Yet, that Monday, I was going to leave work at 12:30 pm and I wasn’t gonna come back that day (more about that below).  Knowing that would happen I had stayed late the week before to make up the hours I would miss. This still didn’t help me get over how stressed out I was.

I finished what I could that day and left. The next day I drove myself to work and was even more tired, stressed and groggy than the day before but I kept moving on.  Late last week we had gotten some help from other crew members when production realized that three people wasn’t really enough to get the reel looking as good as it could. I still had my chunk of work to do and I had also found a “Post It” note on my computer, when I got in, telling me I had been given even more scenes to work on,  on top of the ones I had already.  I managed to finish all my work by midday and I was given more work to do as a reward for my effort (which I expected).  I had worked, without a break  (including a lunch break) all day and I was feeling pretty worn out so I decided to take a breather.  I went out to the parking lot, called Alesha and rode my skateboard around as I talked to her, for about 10 minutes.  This helped a little.  After getting back I managed to finish all the work I was given and even some work that wasn’t exactly assigned to me since I knew, no one would do it, so I took it upon myself to get it done. That was that. Once done, I was told what crew I was going to help out the next day and I packed my stuff and went home.

I was exhausted emotionally, mentally and physically. The last three days had really worn me out a ton.  I discovered from a text Alesha sent me, that we were out of diapers for Dante so I stopped off at the store.  While at the store, Alesha sent me another text telling me  that Munchkin refused to go to bed until I got home. The exact words of the text where: “Your daughter is waiting for you. She says she has to wait for daddy.”

I hurried with the shopping and got on my way home.   Finally pulling into the house I got out of the car without getting any of my things out and went inside.  When I opened the door Munchkin was standing there excitedly hopping from one foot to another, waiting for me with an enormous grin on her face.  I bent down and she came up to me and gave me a hug. I picked her up and I held her tight. Then she asked me:

And my day was worthwhile.

FAMILY

Mother’s day Alesha flew out the door to go to church and then came back for a few minutes before she flew out the door again to be with her mom.  Meanwhile the kids and I got ready to meet my parents, my brother, Deborah and Paolo at church.  We had plans to go to the Griffith Observatory that day.  After church, we had a quick snack and we were on our way.  We all had to take separate cars. The observatory parking was full and the kids and I had to park on a side road at the bottom of hill, quite a ways from the observatory.  It was a long hike up the hill with the two kids and a heavy diaper bag.  I regretted not bringing a stroller along.  After barely surviving the trip up with only some scrapes and bruises on Munchkin, we met up with everyone and went into the observatory.    I hadn’t known they had remodeled it since the last time I was there.  It was great. I had a fantastic time and so did the kids.  Munchkin was was really into it. Dante was a little under the weather but he started feeling better after a while.

After our day at the observatory was over, we headed back to my parent’s house for dinner where we were joined by Alesha, my cousin Carolina and her family.  Much playing was had by all the kids.  Later we all ate dinner and that was really fun too.  Unfortunately we had to leave fairly early because it was a Sunday and I had work the next day.  Munchkin went to bed late that day.  Alesha did also. She still had some last minute corrections to do on her thesis.  She need to turn it in the next day so she could graduate and get her Masters Degree. Especially since, her graduation WAS the next day.

I worked from 7 am to 12:30 pm Monday because Alesha dropped me off and was picking us up to take us to her graduation.  It took place in the amphitheater at Universal City Walk.  Tired and stressed, I was not looking forward to it.  Especially since I was going to be taking care of my very tired little kids who were still recovering from the day before, by myself (or at least till my parents showed up to the graduation).  Dante had the sniffles.

Having learned my lesson from the day before, I brought the double stroller with me this time.  I walked he kids around City Walk and Munchkin was fascinated. I couldn’t help wondering what she would think if I was to take her to an amusement park.  Dante was very sleepy and groggy.  We all ate some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches I had made for us as we walked around.

I was keeping in touch with my parents the whole time because I didn’t know if I’d be able to handle the kids by myself once we got in the theater.  I went in eventually, and I discovered that I couldn’t.  Once in the lobby, I took the kids out of the stroller and they were so happy to be free that they were running around everywhere, causing chaos, making people trip all over them and bumping into everyone.  Munchkin is now potty trained and when she needs to go, she lets you know.  Well, she needed to go, so off I went with the kids the diaper bag and Alesha’s purse (which she left me to look after) to the bathroom where I processed to help my daughter pee while making sure Dante didn’t get into any trouble.  It was darn crazy.  I wasn’t happy at all. Especially since, I needed to change Dante’s diaper because he had pooped and I needed to go to the bathroom myself.  Meanwhile I still hadn’t gotten a seat in the theater because I was waiting for my parents to show up.

Turns out they were in the theater sitting down, right around the corner from where I was at the lobby. After meeting them, I had some much  needed help and I went I got to change Dante and when to the potty.  Meanwhile the graduation had started and I was missing it all.  To make a long story short, half our time  was taken making sure the kids where okay and the other was taken trying to see bits of the graduation and listening to bits of the speeches.

We ended up meeting up with all the rest of Alesha’s family when it was all over and Alesha had made plans to go to the Cheesecake Factory restaurant in Pasadena.  I was not looking forward to doing that since the kids where already in pretty bad shape and the dinner was scheduled to take place at Dante’s bedtime.  Thankfully, my parents offered to take the kids home with them instead of going to the restaurant, which helped a ton.  We went to the restaurant and generally had a good time.  I say “generally” because around that time I checked my phone only to discover that the assistant director of the show I was on, had given me call and I had missed it. I called him back, only to get his voicemail, so I left a message.  The rest of the dinner I was worried about what the call was about and all kinds of horrible things were going through my head.  Later I found out that he was just wondering what scenes I was working on so he wouldn’t hand those out to someone else.

We got home late that night after picking up the kids at my parent’s house.  I was really beat and not looking forward to another long day, but as you read above, it turned out okay.

If you like what you read, please consider signing up to my rss feed.

Comments are appreciated as well.

I also have a store. Click Here and check it out.

If you would like to have a text ad on my site, click on the red BUY LINKS button under the Archives list.

And while you’re at it, please Digg me too.

Writing this blog is almost a part time job for me. Tips are most welcome.