Ce Matin

Yesterday evening, I was in a somewhat foul mood. (I know, right? That hasn't happened since the last time!)

Part of it was the weather -- grey and drizzling. At night, the headlights reflected on the road, making it tricky to know where the road was and where, um, Bill, you're about to drive onto someone's grass. That kind of driving reminds me that older people shouldn't drive at night...and where, in the age spectrum, I fall. (Ugh. Hate that word fall, for some reason. )

Part of it was my glasses, which decided to break. Not the lenses, but one of the arms. I don't know about you, but our local opticians always treat questions like can you put a new pair of arms on this as if you're asking can you graft an elephant onto this?

Part of it was the dinner. I had made home made pizza, four days ago, and it was really good. Tonight, I did it again, and it was terrible. I know why, too -- the pizza stone hadn't heated enough, I used too much of the basil oil (I thought there was just enough to work into the dough, and it turned out there was actually quite a lot), and I used too much mozzarella (my wife really likes cheese, so I figured use it up...only it turned out there was more in the bag than I thought). I hate it when I bake something and it turns out badly.

But most of it was colleges. My daughter got a scholarship from the school she wants to attend (yay) but it wasn't very much (boo). It was five thousand dollars, which is about enough to pay for one quarter of one semester per year. It's nice to have, but still. Plus, it turns out, we found that the college I'd like her to at least consider is less expensive than her preferred one, to the tune of nine thousand dollars a year. Wow. But this morning, it occurred to me that I had told her that I would not reject a school out of hand just because it was somewhat more expensive. Two or three thousand dollars a year, say. What with the scholarship, the one she wants is four thousand dollars a year more than the other one. Huh. Still a lot, but with other scholarships....maybe. Not allowed to change the rules because I don't like the result.

Right?