Last night, the Guv and I drove into NYC for a 9:30 dinner with some dear friends who recently relocated from NYC to Long Island. While many of the Guv's friends are real men's men -- you know, raunchy, foul and drunk -- this golf buddy of the Guv's is a class act, and his wife is terrific, too. Spending some time in their company made the four hours of sleep bearable. And, might I add, the meal and the wine were out of this world.
Fortunately, au pair Maria was able to get Dash to sleep. Surprisingly, it was Petunia who made trouble. My cell phone didn't ring in the restaurant, but, when we left at midnight, I had a voice mail from home, left at ten p.m. It was Petunia, whispering in Deep Throat fashion that she couldn't sleep. I am not a worrier, but, of course, I became a wee bit stressed out over this message: where was Maria? why was Petunia calling me about this? was everything okay at home? Also, I didn't know that Petunia knew how to call my cell phone. I knew she had a general idea of how to use the phone to call 9-1-1, but I have never taught her how to call using 1-area code-number. She had retrieved an "emergency" card from her school bag and figured it out. So, I texted Maria right away to ask: "Is everything okay? Petunia left me a strange message at 10. Why did she call me?" I received a quick reply indicating that everything was fine, both kids were asleep and that Maria had no idea that Petunia called me.
I don't want to make Petunia feel like she can't ring us when we're out, because, God forbid, there's a real emergency sometime and she really does need to call us. But this morning when we woke up, I calmly asked her why she called me last night. She said that Maria wasn't understanding that she couldn't fall asleep. When I asked Petunia what I was supposed to do about that from New York City, she giggled. I asked again. "Petunia, you have been to New York City many, many times. You know that it's almost two hours from here. Tell me, how was I supposed to get you, at age seven, to sleep, from NEW YORK CITY?" More giggles. "Sorry, mama, I didn't think about that. I think I fell asleep right after I left you that message, though."
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