Thursday

My wake up call came early today. In fact, I was issued two wake up calls...the first at around 2am by a soft stroking on my hand from Zelda and the second a loud scream calling for "mommy" at 4:58am. I decided to climb into Zeldas' loft bed, and sleep out my last hour with her before I actually had to get up. I was greeted with a strong hug and the words "I will never let you go", and for that hour,she kept her word. My day was already perfect.

At breakfast, Zelda was dressed in a princess costume with a red hooded silk cape. She was,  Princess Red Riding Hood. She ate her bagel with butter and cheese stick. Drank her strawberry milk and then had a bowl of blueberries. She changed into her school clothes, and despite the dressing up game, we left on time and were the first ones to arrive at school. A first for us, and a perfect way to get Zelda to see the positive side of being ready and on time. She was having a perfect day too! How do I know?,she told me so.

The usual coffee and trip into the center followed. So did my walk up the hill, down the hill, up the hill and down the hill to my house. I left the house it was raining, I started into town it was sunny, I walked home it was raining. I got home it was sunny. The weather today was psychotic, but I loved it. I got a free facial two times today and my skin looks radiant!

In France, it was very difficult to return things you buy. Some shops when asked "what is your return policy?" would look quizzically at you and say " Madame, I do not understand." They will ,sometimes tell you, you can return the item, on the same day, but no money will be refunded and you must buy something else. Now I know this is illegal and if I had had the energy, I would have contacted some consumer agency, but this would have consumed to much of my life!

Today, I went back to the British Home Store where I bought a pajama for Zelda that turned out to be too large. She had already tore off the tags, tried it on, (without anything on underneath) and practically slept in it! I picked out a smaller size, brought it to the cash register, took out the old one, gave the lady the receipt, the torn off tags and the crumpled Pajama, she exchanged it in less than 1 minute. Asked no questions, took no attitude, was happy to please me and whisked the old pajama away. I was stunned. I just had to explain to the woman that I had lived in France the past 10 years and never experienced such an easy transaction in all that time. She was unable to share my enthusiasm for such a simple exchange. I did not care. I was happy. I was over the moon. I was having, a perfect day.

From 3-4pm every Thursday is after school club at the church. Zelda plays for an hour while I sit and drink coffee and chat. It's fantastic and it's free. All of her classmates go and it is usually a full house. Today, I brought with me some organic cheese and pumpkin seed crisp bread crackers. The kind of food granola-y type people live on. One of the crackers somehow was abandoned and a young child found it. The mom, of this child, who had earlier been staring at the packet of these delicious crisp crackers sitting on my table, was now confronting me by handing over the found item with great disdain. I said, " you son can have it, its not a problem". She looked at me like I was nuts. She herself, one of the most "earthy" granola-y type women I have ever seen, was appalled that I would suggest her child eat food found somewhere, in this case in a church playroom, nibbled by my daughter only moments earlier, who has no known transferable germs. My friend and I looked at each other, and had difficulty keeping our laughter inside. Strange, very strange. Perfect even.

Time check, 10:06pm. Glass of wine in hand, husband, probably in bed reading. Extremely gusty outside. Me, I can't wait for tomorow!