Started the Week Exhausted, BUT I’M ON VACATION NOW!

So, yeah, I’d had plans for last weekend, including Epcot’s Festival of the Arts, because I really want another print from my favorite artist. But…

So, the family drama is something that doesn’t really involve me and my daughter doesn’t care, so I don’t see why I can’t say what it is. My daughter’s ex is going away for 30 days to a place that is not jail, and I assume his mommy is paying, but whatever. I hope he learns to grow up there, he’s nearly 50. (Expectations are low.) He let my daughter know about this at 6 p.m. on Friday, when he was supposed to be picking The Kid up for his week of shared custody.

To be clear, we are entirely in favor of his 30 day stay at “camp” because maybe it will take, and that would be good, but he announced this to her when he was supposed to show up to collect his Kid. My daughter and her boyfriend had weekend plans, including tickets, reservations, etc.

So my daughter called me cursing a blue streak and asked if The Kid could spend the weekend, because her boyfriend had planned this and had invested money in tickets and had a room and it was the last minute and OMG!!! I had plans, but mine were free and Epcot isn’t going anywhere, so yeah, sure.

The Kid and I decided to go shopping for fun stuff for the cruise. And here is where living in FL is even weirder than you’d thought: national stores stock like we are Up North.

We are not rich, so we can’t hit a fancy department store for Cruise Wear. The Kid just needs new shorts, because she’s now 5’3+” and is filling out into juniors clothes, not little girl clothes, and while t-shirts are forgiving, shorts are not quite so. All those years of dance have given her enviable butt muscles, and I really don’t want her getting ogled or worse at 11. She needs non-booty shorts, STAT.

So, we made it our mission to go get her more shorts. We drove the county. Super Target, Old Navy, H&M, we struck out at all of them. If we wanted jeans and hoodies and fleecy things, they had us covered. (heh-heh) It’ll be 85 tomorrow, AND we are going to the Bahamas. This is Florida. Target thinks we need sweatshirts. (Target did have bathing suits and teeny-tiny shorts to wear over them, IOW, more booty shorts.) Old Navy thinks we needs sweatshirts and jeans.

So, we came home with no fun new stuff for the cruise. (I had a moment of “DUH!!” the next morning when I realized where we need to go: Bealls!

I am not a big Bealls fan, but it IS a Florida based chain and you can get shorts in Junior sizes for cheap pretty much year round, and we will hit it after school tomorrow, because Grandma’s on vacation now. My first full week off in 5 years, and my first paid week off in 10 years.

I did buy a new inflatable mattress at Target for her sleepover, because my old one went visiting years ago and never came home. Inflatable mattresses have gone upscale since I last bought one! The new one is an 18-in tall queen size bed for $70, with an internal pump. Quite posh and comfortable, and I swear I paid over $50 for the last one, which was half as deep. We both wished we could take it on the cruise, but she’ll just have to flail around on the sleeper sofa in our cabin.

I will not share a bed with The Kid. Her BEST FRIEND knows better, when Kid sleeps over they break out the trundle bed, because she’s a violent sleeper. I’ve already told her she’s getting the sleeper sofa in our stateroom, because I’m paying and I plan to sleep. That is non-negotiable, because did I mention that this is my first real vacation in FIVE years?

Anyway, I’m actually on vacation, and it feel surreal.