Skipping!

I am skipping, as in playing hooky or skivving off. I'm supposed to be at "African-American Parent Involvement Day" at Mason's school. (Yes, even though I'm not African-American... it's supposed to be for all parents, with special emphasis for parents of color.) At any rate, I started out with good intentions. I walked Mason to class as usual, talked a bit to his teacher, and then headed over to check out the coffee and treats situation. The treats were actually first-rate. Brugger's donated a bunch of bagels and cream cheese (and brought their costumed mascot to school for free advertisment). The coffee was... industrial. But, still, I hung out and chatted with a few strangers, which normally I have no problem with, but for some reason this morning I was feeling sort of like I had to be more "on" than I wanted to be. Then, when I looked over the programming for the day, I broke. I did NOT want to sit through a concert. Mason's class wasn't going to be participating, so it wasn't like I was going to miss out on a precious Kodak moment. Plus, as the minutes ticked onward I realized that all the usual suspects were showing up... all the parents I already knew so very well from hanging out with them every day after school at pick-up time.

I bailed.

I at least went back to let Mason know I wasn't going to stay. Luckily, today is reading camp for his class, so he has his books to keep him company. He wanted to me to hang out, but I explained that if I did, we'd still end up seperated, since I couldn't sit with the class through the concert and that was pretty much the bulk of the day. He took that pretty well. Anyway, I had already spent the entire afternoon at Crossroads -- first in Mr. G's classroom and then at chess club. I was feeling pretty Crossroads full-up.

My plan is to make a pot of decent coffee, do a few dishes and a bit of other housework, and then maybe... just maybe get started on a Garnet Lacey e-book.

Oh, speaking of writing, Wyrdsmiths is looking for a new venue. Our old coffee shop, the Black Dog has decided that they really want to have loud (annoying) music on Thursday nights. We'd like to keep meeting on Thursdays at 7:30 pm, so we're trying to find a good coffee shop (preferably in St. Paul since the majority of us are St. Paulies) that's open until at least 10:00 pm. This is proving surprisingly difficult.

If you know of any place, let me know!!