Bad Day 329--Girls' night outside

The good news is we now own two sets of jumper cables. I will get to the bad news later on. Here is how my day went.

1. Got the girls up, walked the dog, showered and left for work all before 6:45am.
2. Stayed at work for 2 1/2 hours, but managed to make all the final edits on my paper during that time.
3. Met Child 3 and her entire 5th grade at the Smithsonian for a field trip/parent teacher conference which is either a really good idea or the worst idea ever depending on if you really need to talk to the teacher and whether or not you think shepherding 5th grade girls around the American History Museum is fun. Since I was able to spend a little time with Child 3 and got to explain what a corset is and why Dolly Madison was such a fashion icon, I'm going with good idea.
4. Left the field trip early to go see Child 2 receive an award. Skyped Husband during the ceremony so he could see it.
5. Went grocery shopping. And then Skyped Husband again so we could talk. Got frappuchinos for most of the children.
6. Picked up Child 3 and took her to the Science Night so she could present her Beluga Whale project to the entire 5th grade. Got all my friends to stuff the ballot box and vote for her for best project. Went outside and read in the car for the last 90 minutes of Science Night.
7. Tried to start the car and the battery was dead. Call Child 1 to come give us a jump. Realize neither of us have jumper cables and walk with Child 3 to go get them. Bought 2 sets--one for each car.
8. Child 1 arrives and we can't find her battery, but we do discover one thing that looks like a battery cable that has a + sign on it. But now there is much cursing under breath at stupid foreign battery in our minivan that does not label the positive and negative sides of the battery at all. 
9. Call Child  2 and tell her to walk to clarinet lessons because we can't start the car.
10. Finally locate the positive sign under the stupid battery cable which is an idiotic place to put the label, by the way. Jump start the car. Yay! Drop off Child 3 at home with instructions to help start dinner--very specific instructions.
11. Pick up Child 2 from clarinet. Pay for the lessons, apologize to the teacher that Child 2 lost her lesson book a month ago. Explain to Child 2 that it is not my responsibility to keep track of her book and she had better find it.
12. Get home to find no instructions followed and dinner not even remotely ready. A little drama and complaining that I shouldn't have to do absolutely everything.
13. Put together the foil dinners, roast them in the fire pit. Eat them after 30 minutes (and they were cooked perfectly) top it off with a few roasted marshmallows and a completed work sheet for Child 3.
14. Fall into bed exhausted for 6 hours before I have to get up and do it all over again.
15. Oh, and my back hurts and there is no Advil in the house because Husband took the last of it to Afghanistan without telling me.

This high school graduate in Alabama is having a worse day than me. See if you can tell why from this picture.

That is an eagle feather she is wearing next to her tassel because she is a member of the Poarch Creek Indian tribe. It's very unobtrusive and a symbol of her heritage, much like when Polynesian students wear leis over their gowns like some did at my university. However, her school did not approve and has fined her $1000 and is holding her diploma hostage until they receive it which I think is more like extortion and is a ridiculous practice. She is a lovely girl and it's not like she is wearing earrings that look like pot leaves or a T-shirt with obscenities on it or something rude and disruptive. She is wearing a feather. Since when are feathers offensive? Other than in unfortunate fashion mistakes like this one. I find this dress highly offensive. Also her ugly hair fascinator thingy.

So thank you, Principal Nasty, for sticking to your guns and showing everyone just how mean spirited and graceless you are. You have denied this girl her rightfully earned diploma because you are being petty. And thank you, Ms. Graduate for putting things in perspective. She said that her heritage is worth every penny and I agree with her. Now I'm going to go look on Reddit to see if someone has crowd-sourced her fine because I'd like to contribute something myself.