Day-Hay commented today that she hates not knowing from minute to minute where she stands and that she wishes that crises would peak quickly so that she knew the worst that she was dealing with. From her mouth to God�s ears�metaphorically at least because I am not sure God has ears in the earthly sense. After yesterday�s euphoria, we are back to square one. The swelling in my grandniece�s brain has begun again.

And the day was going so nicely up until then. The sky was partly sunny and my drive to the prison I had to visit was nice and uneventful. I even passed a state trooper�s car (because he was going 55 mph in a 65 mph zone) and he had not even blinked in my direction. I was going to meet with what I expected to be a difficult client and he had turned out to be pleasant, intelligent, and reasonable. He�s a drug addict so there was some posturing and pretending but it was relatively charming posturing and pretending. I�ve encountered such problems many times before and feel equal to handling them.

I came home to a message that things were looking up with the baby. My niece�s voice was cheerful and she was thanking us for our support and wondering at all the love she was feeling wrapped around her. I began walking around singing.

Then I got a call from the airlines. It seemed they had a problem with their booking for our upcoming trip to Phoenix. Would I be willing to leave an hour earlier in exchange for a voucher for $600 ($150 per ticket)? Would I? Here�s the flight money for Day-Hay and I to go see Maxiegirl, her husband, Sister, and Brother in August. Texas, here we come! (Kat will be away at camp when we are planning on going.) With this development, I now am holding four tickets from Milwaukee to Phoenix for a cost of $112 round trip. How lucky can a girl get?

The perfect day continued when Kat came home. She�s getting a higher grade in World History than either of us thought. I�ve looked at the sheet and I�m still not sure how we got there given her test grades but so be it. Because the teacher tests on different things than she says she is testing on, I was prepared to accept a C. There�ll be no C, although Kat�s evaluation of the teacher has not changed.

And then, THUD! From the heights to the depths. I felt like Michael, a guy I knew from law school, when we were on the roller coaster at Coney Island and the roller coaster just paused at the top of the hill and then, so suddenly that he flew forward and suffered a bloody nose, the roller coaster cars let loose and plunged. I don�t know about Michael but that was my first and last time on a roller coaster. I�ll do rides that spin but not roller coasters�not physical roller coasters. One telephone call changed everything.

So now we are on wait and see again. It looks like the baby is facing surgery and I�m expecting no quick resolutions. I�ve tooled up the communication network again. It�s so nice to be able to use cell phones on a roller coaster. I could sit outside Day-Hay�s school in the pick-up line and man the network. Hey, look, I�m multi-tasking! (Don�t be impressed. All moms multi-task. We have to or nothing would get accomplished.)

So I�m checking the seatbelt in the car on this roller coaster and warning Day-Hay that one can�t exit until the car comes to a complete stop. But I�m with her. Stop this ride. I want to get off.

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