Why must the Redwood Middle School Pancake Breakfast and Tri-Band Concert Fundraiser begin at 8:00am on a Sunday morning?!

Am thoroughly cranky that after rising early to rouse the trumpeting troops and assist them in gathering their instruments and music (which I reminded the performers to do several times the night before), make last minute adjustments to the appropriate concert “uniform” and apply sunblock (because it is an outside venue), I am the parent chosen to stay at home and not hear my older children perform. (Actually, I was influential in coming to this decision with Scott last night, as we both agreed that there would be no way I could rise an hour earlier than the “7:30 am-performers-out-the-door” deadline to shower myself, dress, apply product to my hair so my curls would fall just so and not look too witchy and then put on a thin layer of makeup – light enough for an early morning event, but with enough coverage to mask the sleep lines. Just not possible!)

Instead, I will stay behind to oversee the Sunday morning ritual of playing referee during cartoon show arguments…this ritual now occurring much earlier than usual because the noisy commotion caused by the early morning performers as they slammed doors, voiced concerns and stomped up and down the stairs several times over, has caused the younger non-performers to stir, march downstairs themselves and demand the first of several bowls of sugar corn pop cereal. Another start of a Sunday morning at chez Bollinger….before I had a chance to read a few sections of the NY Times….sipping my coffee…in bed… alone…in peace.

The only thing for this cranky Mama to do: make a double batch of hazelnut chocolate chip scones as “Planet Hulk” booms in the background.