How I Spent, Part II

So then I decided we’d just stay at home because on a day when the universe just has it in for you it’s best not to tempt it. And then Klara decided it would be fun to dump all her food on the floor and mix it up, and I saw it and was so taken aback that I bumped against the toy stand and a huge box of Play-Doh supplies fell out and scattered, and Klara thought this was a fun new game we were playing and grabbed her building blocks and threw them around, and in the midst of that typical toddler moment special agents knocked on the door and wanted to come in and have a talk.

Every parent dreads having governmental agents come into the house at the precise moment when it looks like an illustration for an article on neglectful parenting. But Klara loved the visitors. When I told her the gentlemen were leaving she declared that she wanted “more gentlemens” and ran after them with an endearing “gentlemens, come back!” I had to explain to her that “gentlemens” wanted their mommy and were going home to their mommy. She was incredulous but finally accepted it after a long story about the gentlemens and their mommy whose name is the United States government.

Of course, I also had an article rejected but at that point I was like, “what just one?” The day is not over, and I’m not discounting a possibility of a terrorist attack, a volcano eruption, or an invasion by Russian troops.