The Village People

I’ll dispense with the self criticism about how long it has been since I have written here, and instead confess that the impetus for starting again is the guest post I wrote for my friend Kristi’s new blog that will be accompanied by a link to this one when it is published sometime soon.

The timing couldn’t be worse, really, because I don’t like to be a whiner. But I am sick. And in my still-newish life as a sole parent, few things get me down more than being sick. A pox on the houses of my coworkers who have been coming to the office and spreading their filthy upper respiratory crud.

My eyes are burny and watery and twitchy, I’m hot and cold all at once, my head is pounding and I want my mom to make me some soft-boiled eggs. I want to lay on the couch and watch the televised results of paternity tests. I want another adult living here, because although I boldly declared myself off-mom-duty three hours ago, I eventually took pity on Critter and boiled some frozen ravioli for dinner.

Yet for all of my whining, I’m really not alone. A friend’s offer to go to the drug store or pick up groceries or just visit brought tears to my eyes. When I told Critter she was on her own tonight and she asked me how she’d get dinner, I told her that calling Kristi was probably her best bet. I was kidding, but it’s true – with one call, she could have been eating a far better dinner with far better company. In fact, she could knock on the doors of several neighbors and easily scrounge up dinner on any given day.

I am so grateful for the family of friends we have found here in Tampa. I’ve been using the term “sole parent” because “single parent” sounds more like a marital status than a state of being. I think, though, that I need to come up with something new, something that involves the word “village.”