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The Bow Thayer concert was rockin' indeed. Did some good dancing. It was great to see everyone, and what a nice surprise to see Grandma for thirty seconds at the train station! Renee and I had a nice ride back together. She proved to me that there are more quality items available in the cafe car than individual pizzas, and bought me a cheese and cracker platter, which was just as gourmet as it sounds.

While VT was getting snowed in, NY was getting heavy rain: we got into Penn station about an hour and a half behind schedule due to flooding on the tracks. But I arrived home in Brooklyn by 11:30 and was pleasantly surprised to find that both Rob and Spencer had vacated the premises. I listened to music without my earphones in. Boy, I was really livin'.

This morning I had to be at Simon and Charlotte's at 8:00. We were all having a grand old time when their grandmother showed up around 10:30. I had no idea that she was coming over but she watches the kids on some days so I thought she might have had the schedule confused. She speaks barely any English, only Arabic, but I was able to understand through a lot of angry gestures that she wanted me out of the house. So I got Simon in his jacket and took him out for a walk (she refused to relinquish Charlotte, she had snatched her out of my hands upon arrival) and called Dawn (their mother).

"Hi Dawn, everything's fine, it's just that your mother-in-law is at the house."

"She's WHAT?"

"She just stopped by."

"Oh my god, that woman is so strange. I'm sure you figured that out by now. She's crazy. Did she say what she was doing there?"

"No, she just showed up and sent me outside."

"This is unbelievable. I'm so sorry, I'll call my husband."

Meanwhile I took Simon back to the house cause it was almost time for his nap and he hadn't had lunch yet, and we get there and the place is SPOTLESS. Like, an institution. Furniture is stacked up against the walls and the grandmother is on her hands and knees with a bucket of soapy water scrubbing every surface. Things were being dismantled so as to reach the nooks and crannies. I was trying to make Simon's lunch and she was following me around with a sponge wiping up every crumb. Simon wanted a hot dog and I'm trying to boil it in water and she keeps removing the pot from the stove and saying, "Simon, eat," and shoving this bread in his face that she had brought with her. Finally I got Simon upstairs for his nap, and I was hoping that since both kids were in bed she would leave. Not a chance. She goes upstairs to Simon's room (I had JUST got him to fall asleep) and starts talking to him (he has a monitor in his room so I can hear everything), and is talking and talking and talking in Arabic and then she starts chanting to him and I'm just sitting there downstairs on the other end of the baby monitor wondering how much I should report Gabe (Simon and Charlotte's father) when he gets home.

Finally at 1:45 there was a lot of honking from the street and she says, "my husband, I go now." and she left.

I got a call from Dawn about an hour after I had left and she was like, "Please please don't quit, I hope you weren't uncomfortable, Gabe called his mother and told her that she was forbidden from coming over to the house on mondays and thursday afternoons when you are there, we are so so sorry."

So that was an interesting experience. Also Charlotte has had diarrhea since friday and the doctor said it could go on for a good two weeks. Awesome.