Fat Tuesday

SO, being that I am now Catholic, I have to "give up something for Lent". I will be giving up S-O-D-A. For you "pop" people, I mean anything with the words "Coke" or "Pepsi" on the can. And call it soda for crying out loud!! Those of you who work with me, start a pool because traditionally my "give up for Lent" gives out before the Mardi Gras revelers sober up, and one of you WILL catch me drinking soda before long. Beads! Beads! I love beads. Well not THAT kind of bead, but whatever.

(I had about 3 sodas today, as a farewell. Not good. I'll be up a lonnnnng time.)

Tonight I went down to a local hospital. Of course, I was running late because Mr. C had to have his dinner, there were homework issues, yadda yadda. I am always running late when I escape to do my fun stuff, like choir. It is VERY hard to carve out time to be me, the adult person with hobbies/ volunteering I'd like to pursue. Sometimes I joke about needing to apply for parole just to leave the house alone.

So I ran out of the house, got me some fries and coke at Mc Donalds, and listened to Lenny Kravitz while I cut through the baaaaaaaaad, what are you doing here white bitch, part of town. Mr. Cab driver....

Via my sister who is a nurse in the NICU, I found out about a new March of Dimes program where Moms of babies in the NICU (usually the babies are preemies, born too early, but sometimes they are full term born to diabetic moms, or have other health problems...) anyway - they get a free scrapbook. It's a nice big 12 x 12 album and they get free stickers and paper and all that. I go down about once a month (they're just starting up the program) to help with the workshops. I show the people some of the stuff they can use in their books, how the cutting tools work, and so on.

One of the most bittersweet moments was a Mom showing Dad a photo that the M.O.D. liason took that day. He's been out all day (working, trying to keep from getting fired, was my guess) and she's showing him "look, this picture is from today, and her hair is getting blonde" and he stroked HER blonde hair and said "of course it is" and there was something in his voice, I wanted to go somewhere and cry. This baby is literally as "tall" as a pencil. They had a photo of her WITH a pencil along side her. A regular, #2 pencil.