From the Nanny Files - June 14, 1984

It is raining today. I wanted to go down to the beach - instead, I am watching TV. I watch a lot of music videos.

I hope Jolene can get tonight off - I want to do something different.

Chestnut, the inside cat, keeps walking around on the newspaper and on me too. She is a pest.

Jolene just called. We are going to go to the show in Rockland tonight. Rockland is about 15 or 20 minutes away. She is bringing Tammy's car. I hope we don't get lost!

Susan said that I will have a car next week. It is in the shop. So until then I am stuck in the house or hoofing it.

Susan just called. I am supposed to clean out the bird cage and water the plants. I haven't really cleaned out a bird cage before...but how hard can it be?

LATER....

A terrible thing just happened.
When I took the bottom out of the bird cage Pierre, one of the parakeets, got out and Chestnut, the inside cat, jumped on him.
I screamed at Chestnut and Pierre got away but Chestnut kept chasing him around the kitchen and I was chasing them both, but they have wood flooring and I only had socks on so I couldn't get any traction to catch up.
Pierre just kept flying into and bouncing off the walls and Chestnut was leaping and lunging for him at every turn. She was so focused on him that when he flew over the steps to downstairs she leaped to catch him and dropped like a rock to the bottom of the stairs.
So, I thought everything was going to be okay but in the excitement Pierre must not have been watching where he was going and smacked hard into the wall and plopped into the corner and before I could get to him Chestnut had raced up the stairs and had him in her mouth!
I grabbed Chestnut and shook her hard until Pierre fell out of her mouth then I threw her outside. Pierre was still alive but very shook up. I was afraid he would have a heart attack!
I called Susan right away to tell her and she said "Oh! How disgusting! Is he dead?" I told her no, but that I thought he was in shock. She said not to worry about it and that he would probably be ok.
I am still mad at Chestnut anyway.

My upstairs TV went bad so I am watching the one in the basement family room. I like to play with the remote control anyway.

It is still raining and it is time to meet the girls at school to walk home. Susan said if that happened just to call her and she would pick them up. I think she is the head of her department...she seems to be able to be pretty flexible. Her job is Art director for a computer magazine. Carl is Vice-President of the publishing company that he works for.

The girls are home now and one of Chloe's friends came over. I made Chloe clean-up her room first - but I helped her. Morgan has to pick hers up too. She got very jealous when Chloe got a walkman so I let her listen to mine. They are both too cute to resist.

I had called Susan in order for her to have time to get to the school and 5 minutes later the clouds broke and when she got them the sun was shining. She probably thinks I am a nerd!
The dumb bird is fine.

Jolene called again and she is coming over early. We have to wait for Carl to get home before we can leave though. Jo had lobster the other night and didn't like it at all! So far I haven't had to choke down any seafood. We've had ham and cheese, roast beef, spaghetti, lasagne and tonight Jo and I ate at McDonald's.

Jolene is not doing well in the driving department. She almost killed us tonight by pulling into a ONE WAY going the WRONG WAY with a car coming the RIGHTWAY!!! There are a lot of oneway streets here and they are all pretty narrow. It could be a scary summer if Jo drives all the time.

The movie was good. We were 15 minutes late and missed the first part. It was in a theatre. I have only seen one Drive Inn - it is between Rockport and Rockland so it is real close by but so far they have only advertised Triple X movies. I doubt we go to any of those. :)

The fog is really bad tonight and I can hear the fog horn blowing. It is a very sad and lonely sound. Tonight is the first night I have cried since I have been here....and I was doing so well!

There was a lady named Mona here tonight to visit Carl and Susan. When I got home I talked to her for a while. She asked if we had running water and electricity in Nebraska. People here think Nebraska is so primitive. She wanted to know how far away the nearest 100,000 plus town was. When I said 3 1/2 hours she almost choked! She said "Well, you dress fashionably" and she sounded really surprised about that. I think she expected a gunny sack! I wonder if the whole nation has a warped view of Nebraska! Hopefully I got her straightened out!

Jo and I were messing around before the show tonight and took a road out of Rockland just to see where it would take us and that is where we saw our first 55 mph sign. Mostly it is 25 -30 mph. The roads are called routes, pop is called soda, the ocean is the sea and no one answers how far with miles - they answer in minutes.

Susan told me the one thing she wants me to accomplish this summer is to teach the girls to pick up after themselves. GREAT!!! That is going to be virtually impossible! She said before she started to work that they were to young to learn and after she started working she felt guilty about it and did everything for them. Now she says she doesn't have time and they have to learn.

My least favorite thing to do is to put the girls to bed at night. The are so cute and funny. Chloe is very mature for her age and she's very smart too. I french braided Morgan's hair today. She liked it and says she wants it that way everyday. I better get faster at braiding!

Ever since I got sick on the plane coming here I have been getting sick in cars too. If I have to ride more that 15 or 20 minutes I think I am going to lose it. I don't think the winding roads and the trees blocking my view help...although they are truly beautiful.

I hope it is nice tomorrow and I can go to the beach awhile before the girls get home from school.