We Can Do It

At least that's what I keep telling myself as I look ahead to the second half of this most busy week. Lots and lots of driving. I realize things crank up during "the holidays," but is Halloween now considered the start of all that insanity? And poor Thanksgiving. What happened to Thanksgiving? The stores have been putting out Christmas stuff next to the Halloween stuff for weeks, leaving a little room for some headless pilgrims and sad looking gourds left over from last year. I'm not a big scarecrow fan, and since we don't actually have "fall" around here, I never really decorate for Thanksgiving, so whatever. But today? I actually half-considered buying a new Christmas tree. I'm such a sheep. Like I have TIME to obsess about the tree already. Por ejemplo:

• Monday - I got Olive's birthday picture made at the mall. Will I ever learn? Later, it was wear-your-Halloween-costume-to-dance-class for both of them, so poor Olive was changing in the car all day.
• Tuesday - I helped with Olive's Halloween party at school, to which I took delicious pumpkin chocolate chip muffins I made my owndamnself. Yeah, you read that right.
• Wednesday - Why, that's today! Happy Halloween, y'all! We started the morning with Ghosts of the Past at Peach's school. Each kid comes dressed as a notable figure in history, and they do a short presentation about that person for the whole school. Peach decided she wanted to be Rosie the Riveter, and we managed to find a real woman who was closely identified with the character because: a) she appeared in war bond promo films; b) she was a real riveter; and c) yep, her name was Rose. Anyway, Peach looked adorable, and she did very well with her presentation. Tonight, Karla May and the Geej will be here for tricks, treats, and pizza.
• Thursday - Olive is doing a little thing for chapel at school, so I'll be there with cameras at the ready. Plus, it's T-Bone's birthday! And my SIL's birthday! The one who's due any minute with her second girl, who we're hoping is born tomorrow so everybody in their family will have birthdays on the first of the month! Because we think about things like that! I'm going to encourage lots of Halloween sex to get the ball rolling, but something tells me, she may not be up for it.
• Friday - Nothing in particular on the schedule yet, just Baby Watch '07 and probably some yard work.
• Saturday - Peach has Nutcracker rehearsal, and this week, we're in charge of cleaning up the dressing room afterwards. Joy.
• Sunday - I'll be writing yet another Nutcracker-related check for pictures, which are supposed to take about THREE HOURS, what with all the group and individual combinations. Kinda like at your wedding. And we all know how fun that is.

That's all I've got for now. Except for this - at the gas station and at Whataburger today (I had to get my taquito on), I saw signs that asked people to remove their masks. This is a problem that warrants professionally printed signs? The Whataburger one kinda freaked me out because it was worded just like this:

For the Safety ... of our customers and our team members

Please remove ... your Halloween mask at this time

I'm so glad they clarified what we're supposed to remove because that poorly placed ellipsis had me thinking of all kinds of possibilities.

The gas station was pretty straightforward:

No MASKS in the store at any time. NO exceptions.

So, superheroes, Haz-Mat guys, astronauts - stay the hell out of the Shell station on Barton Springs.

Have fun tonight!