Technical Difficulties

On Tuesday of last week, Daulton was sick. When he came in to work, he told me this. I let him go work on a puzzle in the Community Room. Five minutes later I heard him rush to the bathroom and was then treated to the sound of him vomiting for awhile.
Anna got sick at work on Wednesday, but she said she felt better after she puked. I know I often feel better after puking.
It has snowed a decent amount the past week. Schools were cancelled last Monday. Some were cancelled last Tuesday, and those that weren't had two-hour delays. Snow was cancelled again on Thursday, and if it weren't for finals, I'm sure it would have been cancelled on Friday as well. The kids at church definitely wanted the snow day on Friday. I know at least one of them was indignant that they didn't cancel school on Friday, and thus she went into school completely unprepared for the finals that awaited her.
I had to clear the sidewalks a few times.
Anna's Christmas presents arrived today.
Anna's friend Chelsey decided to have a Christmas concert/fundraiser thing that featured herself. She asked Anna to sing a couple of songs with her. It was Friday night. Anna and Chelsey actually sound very good together, but on her own, I'm tempted to hit Chelsey with a brick (it's impossible to make you understand what she does when she sings without you actually hearing her, so I won't even try). They sang Christmas songs. People were impressed (naturally).
On our way home, the window on the driver's side door got stuck half-way down. It stubbornly refused to shut. I ended up driving it out to Anna's parents so I could borrow their car while we left the Explorer in their garage.
Anna had to work Saturday until one, and at two, we had one last practice scheduled for the Christmas program. While Anna was at work, I went in search of fog machine liquid to use as an effect in the program. I figured my best bet was checking party stores. Google Maps told me there was a Party City in the outlets in Edinburgh, but it lied. I wasted quite awhile circling the building, making sure I hadn't missed it. By the time I realized Google maps had lied to me, I also realized I had an hour and a half to find fog liquid before I had to be back to pick up Anna from work. The next closest party stores were in Greenwood, which is a 40 minute drive. I floored it. Except, I was driving an thirty year old diesel BMW, and it had a horrible time trying to reach highway speed. When I reached Greenwood, I realized every person in Indiana and all of their out-of-state relatives were Christmas shopping, and the roads were insane. I finally made my way into Party City. I located the fog machines. I located the empty space above the fog machine liquid label. I looked at the clock and figured that if I headed back to Columbus at that moment, I would be on time to pick up Anna. I checked Google Maps, and it told me there was a USA Party Supply up the road a couple miles. I hopped in the car, cussed at traffic, and finally made it. Fortunately, they did have the liquid I needed. I floored it all the way back to Columbus, and I ended up getting Anna fifteen minutes late. She didn't kill me though, so that was good.
Cade kept doing jigs and yelling the songs during practice. He didn't know his lines, and he gave Anna a constant narration of his train-of-thought even while she was trying to have everyone act like it was the actually performance. We were terrified of what would happen on Sunday. (Remember, this is the same kid who threw a bell during a song at Easter)
Anna promised the kids pizza after play practice. Cade had been told by his father that he couldn't have any pizza since he was going to a party afterwards and shouldn't ruin his appetite. Anna knew this, so she didn't give Cade any pizza. Cade sat and cried. One of the other adults didn't know about the party and gave Cade some pizza. Cade was happy again. I felt bad when Cade wasn't eating pizza. I know I would have probably cried too when I was his age. Heck, I probably would have punched someone.
Sunday was the day of the program. To sum it up, everything we thought would go wrong didn't, and everything we were sure about went wrong, or I could shorten that to "technical difficulties." In the space between the first and the second songs, some of the kids were supposed to be changing while others continued to act. When the time for the second song came, I called the kids who had changed back onto the stage. During the song, I heard a noise behind me and turned to find three of the kids who were supposed to be out on stage singing telling me they hadn't realized they were supposed to be out there yet. I just had them sit still. The fog machine didn't work when the time came to use it (that was especially painful to me, considering my adventure to get the fog liquid). For one scene, we wanted to project a video depicting the manger scene. When the time came for that, I went to hit "Play" and realized someone had unplugged the projector. It took a couple minutes for the thing to heat up and be ready to play. Anna actually got to announce to the congregation that we were having technical difficulties. Perhaps the most annoying incident though was during out black-light hands performance (We had on white gloves, had the sanctuary dark, and made shapes with our hands in front of black-lights. I think it was pretty cool.) Partway through the song, the speakers started cutting in and out and crackling badly. We were using a stereo connected to the bigger sound system. Sometimes the sound would come out of the system, sometimes it would come out of half the system, sometimes it only came out of the smaller stereo speakers, and sometimes it even cut out completely. We still aren't sure what happened to cause it, but it was super distracting. The kids held it together though. Then when it was all said and done, we found out that the video camera we had purchased for the purpose of being able to record this program had quit shortly into the performance.
Technical difficulties.
Tebow didn't get killed on Sunday. I was wrong. Now they are saying he will start the last two games. At least the stands won't be empty.
I think the Broncos best bet is to trade their top five draft pick for some second round picks in the draft and build up their defense. Oh enver Broncos, you've taken the "D" out of Denver.
Sunday night was the family Christmas for Anna's mother's side. Anna's mother has something like 10 siblings (I'm really not sure), and there were at least thirty people at Anna's parent's house for this party. Anna and I tried to hide downstairs with her cousins, Scott and Rachel and play Wii. Unfortunately, Daulton showed up, along with a couple other midget relatives, so we had to pretend we would rather watch Christmas movies on TV in order to keep them from playing with the Wii. Even so, Daulton kept asking if he could play Wii.
Toward the end of the evening, everyone was forced together for a family picture. When it was done, Daulton kept saying that he wanted "a photo of that picture." He, honest to goodness, used that exact phrase multiple times. I told Anna and Rachel, I would like to make sure he does get a photo of that picture. I'll just make sure it's taken from far far away.
A little girl kept following Daulton around and calling him Justin Bieber. This was hilarious. But you know, if you put freckles on Justin Bieber and gave her darker hair, she might look an awful lot like Daulton. Poor Daulton, as a pre-pubescent boy, he looks like a pre-pubescent girl.
Yesterday morning, I took Anna to work and then picked up the Explorer and took it into the shop. The shop is a mile from our apartment, so I figured I'd just walk back after I dropped off the car, but when one of the employees at the shop saw me walking they hopped in a car and offered to drive me. When the car was finished though, I didn't have someone to take to get it, so I walked. This would be fine normally, except it turns out I had to walk the majority of the way through very dense snow that was beginning to crust over. I definitely rolled my ankle a little. And my shoes, which were finally starting to dry out from clearing all the snow last week, are still wet as I write this. But the window is no longer stuck.
Daulton's last day was today. It is now Christmas break of the kids. Maybe this time Daulton will stay out of trouble, and I won't ever have to see him again. Except I'll probably have to see him on Christmas day when we go to Anna's grandmother's (the nice one) Christmas party. And then of course, I'll have to see him next Christmas as well. That is providing he doesn't actually end up in jail by that time.
Now that I think about it, I think we do have some wrapping paper here. This means I can wrap Anna's present without having to worry about sneaking it over to her parent's without her seeing it.
People who read this blog: Jana
You all knew Jana read this blog, but this time she is doing it from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This is exciting because it adds another country to those that have visited this blog. Have fun riding elephants and eating monkey brains, Jana.
Happy Kwanzaa, everyone.