Toadstools & Umbrellas

I know this is the stress of the end of a semester, but I could do with it being a little less stressful. This whole semester has just been ridiculous. I need to come up with a new word because I've used that one so often, but I don't even think I can without resorting to just flat out cursing. I looked forward to Thanksgiving Break, but it was hellish too, because as I heard once on TV somewhere, life is a horrible bitch goddess.

My great-grandmother died about a week beforehand, which wasn't entirely unexpected but still sad. She was 98. I wasn't able to go to the funeral because of school, so I stayed up here until Wednesday, when my Dad drove me down for Thanksgiving. At the funeral, my Mom was told by a well-meaning cousin that my grandmother's breast cancer spread to her lungs a year ago. And when I got home, my friend who had promised to come feed and change the litter box for my cats hadn't come over once in three days. I called and snapped at her, and my Mom left a cold, teary voice message on her cell phone (my friend wouldn't pick up after I called her).

I haven't talked to this friend in months, but for some reason this left me more stricken than even my great-grandmother's death. I've known the friend since middle school, and I know this was probably just a mistake, but my cats could have died. When she texted me an apology and I told her about my holiday, she apologized, and then immediately started telling me about how she, her brother and her boyfriend went all over town on Friday to find a video game. I did not text her back.

And I caught a cold just in time to come back and work super hard for school.

But my Mom found this poem that my great-grandmother remembered and wrote down from her school days. It made me happy.

The Toadstool

Under a toadstool crept a wee elf out of the rain

To shelter himself under the toadstool sound asleep

Sat a big dormouse all in a heap

Suddenly the wee elf smiled a wee smile

And tugged till the toadstool toppled and holding

It over him gaily he flew

Soon woke the dormouse

"Good Gracious me where is my toadstool?"

Loudly he lamented

And that is how umbrellas were first invented