Get Ready, Get Set, Don't Go

Obviously I stole that.

Not because it's terribly clever, but because Billy Ray Cyrus and his nubile offspring are belting it out on Fourth Grader's boom box right now. Which, in the spirit of sharing, is set up in the hall. This way we can all enjoy a little Miley while we go about the business of preparing for the Tornadoes' imminent departure.

That's a half-truth. True, today is packing day. But let's talk about yesterday, better known as Cram Half of Summer Into Twenty-Four Hours day.

The plan for CHOSITH day was as follows:

1. Sleep until 8 a.m.; breakfast on the road; beach by 10 a.m.

2. 10 a.m. - Noon: Boogie Board

3. Noon - Several Hours Later: Leisurely lunch on the upper deck of our favorite beach restaurant. Steamed clams for them, cocktails for me, live music and heaps of french fries all around.

4. Back to the beach for a few more hours of waves before cleaning up and heading to:

5. Fisher Cats game at 7:05. (non-New Hampshirites: Fisher Cats are our minor league baseball team. We go to 2-3 games every summer simply because it's fun to go, even if you don't know - or care - about the players' stats. Or, quite frankly, their names.)

If it wasn't obvious, CHOSITH day was planned by me for me, along the lines of "These are some of the things we love to do together. Now please shower me with love." Except the tornadoes choseth to break into a million pieces until I allowed them to each bring along a friend.

So here's how it went really:

1. Wake up at 6, damnit, even though the alarm was shut off. Wait for Second Grader's friend to be dropped off. Drive across two towns to pick up Fourth Grader's friend, finally get on the road to beach at 10:30.

2. Buy two more boogie boards so nobody has to share.

3. 11:30 - 12:30 boogie away.

4. 12:30 - 2:00 Beachside Bagels and Sub Shack for lunch. Fourth Grader and her friend chose to sit inside at the counter, while Second Grader and Co. ate outside at plastic patio table with me.

5. 2:00 - 3:00 girls boogie some more while I pack up car then sit on rock by myself.

6. 3:00 - 6:15 bring everyone to our house to shower and change. Empty and vacuum car in effort to keep my wits about me. Internally freak out a little when it starts to downpour and thunder outside. Spend at least an hour basically staring out the window and willing the Fisher Cats not to call a rainout. (Again, not because I am any kind of fan, but because the alternative is four girls standing on my last nerve on a rainy Friday night). Fortunately, storm passes and we go to game.

7. Fairly pleasant night at baseball game only costs $80 in burgers, sodas, sno cones and fried dough, plus one Sam Adams draft. Leave after eighth inning - no need to go all fanatic on the experience.

8. All tucked in by midnight.

Their friends were picked up by noon today, Packing Day. I spent the morning doing laundry, which now sits in three heaps of white, dark, and pink on my bed. Nothing left to do but pack.

Unless I insist that the girls clean their rooms top to bottom before we get started, while I fold the laundry. Unless, instead of folding the laundry, I turn on my laptop. Unless, when I go to check on the room cleaning progress, I find that Second Grader chose to first alphabetize her bookshelf and Fourth Grader is looking at old math papers from first grade that she keeps in a box under her bed.

If those things were to happen, the packing might take a little longer. It might not even get done at all.

Unfortunately, we can probably squeeze it in tomorrow.