After the Road Trip

At the end of all my Rotarian travel, I was mighty tired Sunday, but knew I would get no rest.  I had to work on a grant, which I did Sunday morning and then, realizing that the Girls would be showing up round 3, decided that I either needed to take a nap or eat. Neither won, because I decided to make cookies for the Girls, who decided to come at 2. They come earlier and earlier, wanting to stay longer and longer. There are three of them now and I realize my house is a haven with indoor plumbing, electricity, cooking facilities and other treats.

We dove into the cookies and they made themselves hot chocolate using about 1 ½ cups of sugar and the same amount of the powdered milk I keep on hand.  They opted for a couple rounds of three way solitaire, which I had to watch because I only have three sets of cards. I helped the new girl learn the ropes while I also tried to keep an eye on the other two, who play a very creative form of the game, to be sure.  I mean, how many 10 of diamonds should they be putting on a 9, and probably those two Ace of Hearts shouldn’t have been in the same pile, either. But they have fun.  As I really just want to fade into a quick nap, they decide to play hide and seek in the house, which I thought was pretty funny because, well, there just aren’t that many places to hide.

They were very respectful of my closet, and didn’t hide in it at all, but every other closet or cupboard was fair game.  One girl did hide on the side of my bed, but learned that the cats, who were sleeping on the bed, totally gave her up.  They both sat straight up and started staring very obviously in her direction. She didn’t have a chance. 

I decided a nap was out, so maybe I would sweep the floors. Just to keep awake. So they are running around the house, Sisi has long since taken up residence under my bed, as a permanent player of the “hide” side of things, and I am sweeping.  At one point I opened the cupboard under the sink to throw out what I had swept up, only to find one of the Girls squeezed in there. Oops, I guess I will, uh, throw this out uh, oh, somewhere  else and try not to give her away with my laughter. 

Then there was the time one Girl decided to stay in the kitchen and close the door, thereby finding herself locked in the kitchen, waiting to be found for sure. They finally tired of this, and having used up all the hiding spots decided they were thirsty. So out came the wine glasses, which they like to fill with my ginger drink concentrate and the Emergen-C calcium/Vit D packets my Mom sent me.  They didn’t like these packets with plain old water, but with the ginger drink, in wine glasses, it is absolutely festive. I pulled out some ice cube popsicle from the freezer and they dunked those in the glasses.

As they continue with their antics, still so childlike yet with bodies of young women, I realize that giving them a place to be kids still, away from the men who might want to try to entice these poor girls with gifts, is something that is worth giving up any number of Sunday afternoon naps for.  I just need to buy larger bags of sugar, flour, powdered milk and cocoa to entice them to stay childlike for as long as possible.  Hopefully I will offer adequate competition to the threats on the other side of my fence, but I just don’ t know.