My sukkos, etc etc etc

This is how I started my post Sunday night:

Here's how I know I'm growing up- it's 8 PM, I'm dead tired and craving my bed, I've been up since 7 am, it's chol hamoade and I have no interest in going to the simchas bais hashuava, or a concert, or an amusement park, and above all- I've dealt with kids all day and I've had enough. There is that niggling doubt every once in awhile that says 'hey, if you can't even deal with kids now, how are you going to have your own?' But these are not my kids, and I hope G-d will give me the strength when I have my own.

This is how I would have started it Monday night:

Oh what a day. Five kids, and some food, in a car, going on a chol hamoade trip to Fun Time America. I get to play Mommy for a day. We got lost and looped around the same highway three times until I realized we weren't lost and that was indeed the right way. Finally we got there only to see that the place was packed with.... Jews!!! Frum Jews of all sizes, with kids kids kids. Oh boy, but I was so not gonna stuff the kids back into the car to go find somewhere else to go. So we waited on line for half an hour, me having to hear that people were skipping us and not being able to do anything about it. Finally we paid and went inside...

Now I am watching only one kid, leaving the 2 younger ones to go around with the 2 older ones. So me and Child go to jungle gym, and I can't go with him cuz it says kids ages 2-12 only... He goes in by himself and a little while later I see Child crying his eyes out cuz he got lost inside the jungle gym and can't find his way out... my throat constricts with tears, and I feel anxious cuz I can't get to him. I look around for a kid, maybe to ask them to go help Child get out. I contemplate going in myself, but then Child comes down the slide. Trouble averted. I give him a sandwich and he is happy.

Some rides and arcades and lots of prize tickets later I am exhausted and ready to call it a day. Food, drinks, bathroom. Time to make our way to the prize counter, another hurdle I am not looking forward to. I leave it up to the oldest kid, who is 10. Tell him, make sure everyone gets a prize and no one cries. Finally, back to the car.

It is raining out, I realize I forgot to print directions back to the house, I don't have a GPS. Luckily, we figured out how to get home, in considerably less time then it took us to get there, and we didn't get lost.

Along the way: I have to hear how "how come she got 3 prizes and we only got one?" in a whiny voice. One kid unbuckles his seat belt, they are having a merry good time back there, I can't drive like this. I pull over, left him on the side of the road, demand that the kid put his seat belt back on, get back in the car, drive off.

I told the parents maybe I'll come back to visit in, oh, two years. Oh what a day.

(Disclaimer: I do love these kids and I love going there. Of course, I have to say that cuz if their mother or any of her sisters read this, they will call up the mother, ask her what she did to me that was so horrible, she will call me and I will never hear the end of it.)

Monday night I went to Simchas Bais Hashuava in Crown Heights, my first time this year. I stayed until 6 am, which was good because I didn't have a bed to sleep in at home, what with all the people there and all.

I was gonna go away for the second days of Yom Tov, but now I'm not, cuz the family I was going to is sick with strep. My family is going to Monsey to stay with my sister and bro-in-law and niece. So I am going to be home alone. I am quite looking forward. (My father already warned me: no parties, no people over, no guys or girls... I said, I'm gonna be anti-social, read, relax, sleep, you know.)

I have not done much with my Sukkos vacation, besides all of the above, plus chillin with my niece the first days. She is awfully cute. My whole plan for chol hamoade was to get glasses, and even that I didn't do. I go back to Connecticut on Sunday, and then I'll be there for about a month.

So there's a little update on my life. I felt you deserved to know since I haven't blogged in 2 weeks. Bet you missed me.

Have a good yom tov everyone, and watch the alcohol consumption on Simchas Torah. I don't need any guys bumping into me 'by accident' cuz they are inebriated.

Now raise your cup and say- lechaim.