Car Grease and Perfume, Hairy Dolls and Printer Paper

Today was quite a day at work.

First off, Marie was in an amazing mood and we had our most fun day yet, goofing off on the walk home and making silly jokes. We had to stop by the parking garage in order to pick up something and the workers were supposed to bring the car up from the deep down below where it's parked. However, it wasn't on the upper level but they told us we just needed to go down a little and it was right there. Marie was like, "I'll just go down and get it, real fast," and since I've never been there, I asked, "Wait, are you sure you can go alone? Where is it?" Both she and the worker replied that it was right below and was totally okay, and since I was holding my stuff and Marie's amazingly heavy books (I refuse to carry her backpack for her, but sometimes I carry a few of the books because it really is too heavy...even a few books made my arms hurt!), I figured it was fine.

Well, ten minutes later, Marie finally appears with car grease stains all over her school uniform. Apparently she went down many levels and had to squeeze between three cars to even get to hers. When we got home, she called her mom, who was very upset with the garage men and wanted to speak to me about the situation. When she found out I let Marie go alone, she got a little angry and said, "That is not a safe place for children to go alone! They have to climb over lifts and everything!" (Which wasn't true, but I totally see her point.) I explained the situation, that I was given the impression by both Marie and the worker that it was safe and quick, and apologized for my role in all of it. She was very nice, telling me it wasn't my fault, and that she was going to "call the garage and give them a piece of my mind." And, "Could you please put stain remover on those clothes? I have no idea how we're going to get it out and her new uniforms aren't coming for another week!"

The next hour was me scrubbing grease stains out of a skirt, while Marie, thankfully, zipped through her homework. But when she was taking a break and I was still scrubbing, she got an idea in her head that their adorable dog needed to smell better, and that her mom's perfume was just the remedy. All the way from the laundry room across the house I could smell the overwhelming odor of fake flowers, so I knew something was up and walked to the living room. I was struck with an immediate headache from the amount of perfume she had sprayed, and while she was explaining just why this had happened, the dog started licking herself! Marie flipped out, worried that her dog would get sick from ingesting perfume, and scrubbed her fur with a wet washcloth. But even later that night when I took the pup out for a walk, she still smelled like gross fake flowers.

Despite these stressors, Marie was in awesome spirits and we honestly had a really good time together. Once she finished up the work, we went to this really fun store and picked out a present for her friend's upcoming bday party. I was looking through these funny dolls called "Ugly Dolls," and came across an octopus with little threads on his head and chin. I picked it off the rack when Marie came over, so I told her I was thinking about giving it to my boyfriend. She started squealing, "Because he's so hairy!" So I got it, and then when I called him later to arrange plans for meeting up that night (he came to visit me!!!!), she took the phone and rambled to him about how I got him an ugly doll because I thought he was ugly and the doll had hair because he has too much hair and hee hee hee hee hee! Dave's a good man.

Anyway, Angela came home later after sports practice practice and we all ate soup and sandwiches (I am now a PRO at making grilled cheese sandwiches). Marie has introduced me to popcorn with salsa, which is actually very yummy, so we had a bit of that, too. Then Linda came home and didn't bring up the grease, so I was in the clear.

But in the clear for only a minute. After putting Marie to bed, she asked me, "Did you remember to pick up the printer paper? I have to do some more work from my home office tonight."

SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT! She asked me to get paper four days ago (I run errands and do the shopping for the family) and I totally forgot. So, I spent the next 25 minutes running around the Upper East Side with my boyfriend who had come to greet me after work, having no idea he walked into a crisis and would be racing all around with his girlfriend who was freaking out. We went to five stores, three which were closed and two that didn't have it. I kept exclaiming that I was too spacey, and why did this have to happen the same day as the grease?

When I got back to the house and explained my empty hands, Linda was a little annoyed but really sweet about it and appreciative I had put in effort, even if it was a little late. I scavenged the house and came up with enough paper for her to complete the work left for the night, and promised an armload for the next day. But you know what? She smiled, cracked a joke about it, and told me not to worry. Turns out, my Upper East Side employer is more chilled out than me!

And it also turns out that my boyfriend didn't care, either. He made fun of me as we walked through Central Park, pointing out the tops of beautiful buildings we could see above the trees. A raccoon ran down a tree trunk beside us, the autumn leaves trickled onto our heads, the full moon shone brightly on the path in front of us, and I started giggling, just from happiness.

Oh New York, New York.