Mad as a Hatter

The Drama club at our elementary school used to be called MADD Hatters. I think it's just "Drama Club" now, but my son still calls it by the old name. As I redid the week's calendar to include "MADD Hatters" meeting, I reflected briefly on just how applicable the title is not only to drama club but the 21st - century whirlwind that is our life.

**Disclaimer: any hint of complaint to follow qualifies merely as a champagne problem.  Not to be confused with real issues of chronic illness, or trying to get to school through an obstacle course of Mafia hit men.**

My first-world issue: I don't have time to THINK.  In my Reader's Digest, which I skimmed briefly while searching the backyard for our runaway cat, I read that the habits of geniuses include keeping a partner or mate to manage distractions for them. Geniuses keep a rigid schedule, protect their productive mental time from the slings and arrows of gossip, current events, or household necessities, and employ the significant other to arrange calendars, meals, clothing, and children.

No wonder I can't even write a blog post!  I am that significant other - not the genius but the manager for a whole house of budding genii. I can drive to baseball, answer an algebra II question, cook dinner, and re-make the bed, but there are no brilliant thoughts emerging from the mental fog in my head - only crickets, getting louder as late summer progresses to fall.

I'd feel more resigned to my mental state if parts of my body were not also making a last curtain call: the eyes need new glasses (bifocals - already?!), the left rotator cuff is on a tear (literally), the face is breaking out (thirty years after puberty, people), and the grey hairs proliferate.

But I do have all of my teeth, and there are no Mafia or otherwise armed men blocking my kid's path to school. Despite my lack of brilliance I still plan to get my Masters in December, and my family loves me despite my being as mad as a hatter (the play this year is ironically "Alice in Wonderland". They should take the old name back.)