If there’s one thing I did not have on my book release week Bingo card, it was “spend over $2,000 on random essentials that bring you very little joy”. My whole life, I’ve thought to myself that, when it finally happens that I publish a book – a book! by me! out in the world! – I’ll buy myself something really special to celebrate. A Chanel bag, maybe, or a beautiful piece of jewellery.
Instead, I am spending $800 on a 50-minute flight for myself and Brandin to take at the end of September and, er, treating myself to 200 bees that come with their own little house. Totally normal behaviour.
(Also: my book is out in the world! Please read it and, if you have read it, please review it!)
Monday
I wake up in St Joseph after, honestly, one of the worst nights sleep I’ve had in a while. Atlas would not settle in his crib so I ended up taking him out and trying to nurse him to sleep next to me, with the result that he slept right beside me as I teetered on the edge of the bed. (Once you’ve had the thrill of waking up to your baby rolling off the bed next to you, you’ll never take the risk again…)
Fox slept in the middle – until almost 10am, I might add, the dote – and Bea, who was meant to sleep with me, took one look at the three of us and absconded to sleep with Chance instead.
Anyway, we get up and make approximately 72 slices of toast, which very much reminds me of mornings in my cousins’ house in Rathmines, while we wait for Fox to wake from his slumbers so we can head downtown for a few hours.
I’ve decided that, rather than stay the night again tonight and risk losing more hours of precious sleep – it’s book launch week and I’m feeling very stressed about all the things I have to do – I’m going to head back home later this afternoon, after lunch, so I’m all packed up (bar my Apple mouse, several items of clothing, a baby blanket and a pair of sunglasses… #efficient, thankfully Bea was there to find and bring them home for me later in the week!) and bring my bags down to the car on our way.
It takes us a while to get parking – the week of July 4th is a pretty busy one in these seaside resort towns (yes, we consider Lake Michigan the sea, more or less, it has a tide and everything!) – but we finally manage it and head straight to get ice-creams. I pay, which feels like a crap contribution seeing as Bea paid for the hotel and dinner last night. ($39.74)
After ice-creams, we wander around the town for a little bit, perusing the aisles of the local souvenir T-shirt shop – “what’s a master bator?” asks one of the innocents – and petting all the dogs we come across before we walk down towards the splash pad by the beach.
En route, we put our names down for a table at Silver Beach Pizza – it’s going to be an hour and a half wait, so it’s a good thing we did! – and the boys then have the best time running around in the spray. (We find this particularly gratifying as they were all complaining that they didn’t want to go to the splash pad – look at them now!)
It’s Atlas’ first splash pad experience and he is gas, running around shouting at everyone and no one, pausing every 10 minutes or so to burst into tears when he gets water on his head, then running back to me and, just as I’m about to pick him up, turning tail and launching himself back into the fray.
When we see that we’re about third in line (on the app), we get the boys dried and into their clothes and head back towards the restaurant, where we have a lovely lunch of frickles (lol! fried pickles), fries and pizzas – and, thank God, Diet Cokes! (Until now I’ve only seen Pepsi everywhere and it is patently inferior.)
After lunch, which Bea pays for, I head back up to the car with Atlas, who has been falling asleep on and off since around 1pm, as he’s totally missed his nap today. I have very high hopes that he’ll sleep for the full two-hour journey, but of course that would be far too much to hope for. He sleeps for about 45 minutes, cries for another 45 and kind of sniffles for the final 30.
While I’m driving, I’m charged for my Ipsy subscription ($21.94), and when I get home I remember that I need to pay Robin for last week’s babysitting. ($50)
Brandin and the boys are having pizza for dinner, so we join them and then have bath time and bedtime and I get everything unpacked. If I thought I brought too much for two nights in Michigan, it’s safe to say I definitely brought too much for one.
Daily total: $111.68
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