Mmmm…a day off! A day off! As far as nanny jobs go, I have a pretty sweet deal. The parents of the kids I watch are both high school teachers so anytime their respective schools are closed, they stay home with their kids and I don’t have to work. It also means my hours are pretty decent (usually 7am-4pm M-F.) They are really involved parents and believe in raising very active kids which means lots of constructive playing and no tv or computer games. All of these are positive things, but what they do mean is that my day is about 9 hours of creatively entertaining a 3-year old and a 20-month old (5 year old is in kindergarten most of the day.) Sure, this is often more fun than any kind of desk job would be and it has tons of perks including good pay, but it’s exhausting in its own way and I always gladly welcome a day off.

Unfortunately, my day started with a trip to the mechanic to replace some valve cover in my car that was leaking oil on the engine. Two hours and $132 later I left feeling the need to cheer myself up a little. My email box claimed Old Navy was having an extra 50% clearance sale. I figured I might as well bum around there for a while since my husband was working and all that was awaiting me at home were two kittens who have lately decided to wreak ultimate havoc on anything nice I own. It was well worth the trip. I got 4 very cute tops for a grand total of $15 AND the best part…while in the checkout line I noticed a variety of less-popular candies stocked along with flavored tubes of chapstick and useless gadgets. Among them was one of my all-time favorite candies, Fun Dip. I love everything about Fun Dip–it’s delicious, it’s fun to eat, you get two candy sticks with it, and your tongue turns that fun blue/green color–but apparently the rest of America does not hold it in such high esteem because I have the hardest time finding them anywhere. Needless to say, I was elated. I added several packets to my purchase and have already consumed my first one. Every bit as delicious as I remember. I was so excited about the Fun Dip I brought one to my husband at work. He even politely pretended like this was an event that warranted my showing up in person while he was working. It also made me feel so happy that I didn’t even want to kill my kitten when I arrived home to find she had eaten the beautiful bouquet of tulips I got yesterday and taken all of the trash out of the trashcan and strewn it decoratively around the bathroom. Instead, I calmly settled down on the couch and ate some delicious colored sugar with an equally delicious candy stick.

In conclusion–go to Old Navy. Very cheap clothes. Very yummy candies.  Very yummy.