Why the world hates me:
Today was one of those days where you just ask the world, "Like, REALLY? Are you kidding me?? Why are you trying so very hard to work against me??" Ahem. Let me explain.
How it began:
I realized over the weekend, that, although I had tried to plan ahead well the day to have to take my kids with me to my annual pediatrician check-up, it might be a squeeze. But I planned it well enough that everything would work out okay. Here was my plan:
8:00am Ian gets up and has breakfast; Anne-Claire goes to work with her mom and gets dropped off at friends' house on the way.
8:45am grocery store for this week's dinners. Also stop to get gas (because we're going with Anne-Claire's swim team to Water Country tomorrow) and stop at bank to get out cash from last week's paycheck (for parking tomorrow, and to have in case of emergency.)
10:30am return home, make cookies, make Ian an early lunch, gather everything needed for rest of day, swim meet, and dinner.
12:00pm drive over to my house (25ish minutes away) to give Ian a chance to play with John (which I had formerly promised him--before I learned of John's morning tennis clinic, Anne-Claire's playdate, or the fact that her swim meet was going to be on Monday rather than Tuesday. Phew.)
1:45pm leave to go pick up Anne-Claire
2:00pm stop and grab sandwiches for their family's dinner (at swim meet) from a sandwich shop before returning home to my house.
2:45pm depart home for pediatrician; plan on getting there 15 minutes early so hopefully they'll take me early and we'll have more time to get to swim meet (which is WAYY on Southside; we're talking 40 minutes' drive, here.)
3:00/3:15pm check-up.
4:00pm (at the lastest) leave for swim meet (Anne-Claire's supposed to be there at 4:30)
4:30pm get to swim meet. Take a deep breath.
But there would be no breathing today. AHEM. Here's how things REALLY went:
First off, Ian, who is normally a VERY early riser (and whom I normally would prefer would sleep late so I could get some morning quiet time) stayed up until 11pm last night playing Wii with his dad. Translation? Ian didn't get up until almost 10 on the one morning I was counting on his normal habits. Gahh.
So we leave a little late for the grocery store than I had planned. No biggie. Grocery store and gas-up and bank excursion is executed properly, and we return home at approximately 11:00am. We take care of cookie baking, lunch, etc. and leave at a little before 1pm for my house. An hour late, but no problem. We have the time.On the way to my house, I stop and think, "Hey! I know! To cut further back on time, I'll call-in the order to the sandwich shop! Excellent. Aren't I smart?!??"
After letting Ian and John play around for about 20 minutes while I check my email and call the sandwich place, it's time to go get Anne-Claire. I take John with us because I feel bad Ian didn't get as long with John as we'd hoped, and I leave the fruit, etc. for their dinner in its cooler in my refrigerator to stay cold. We'll have enough time to come back later.
Lie.
After driving through the most RIDICULOUS neighborhood you've ever seen in your life (see picture below), weaving through the backside of U of R, picking up Anne-Claire, and finally managing to escape back to Patterson Avenue, it's nearly 2:30. Time to get sub sandwiches.
When I walk up to the door of the shop, however, I notice a flimsy little sign announcing that their credit card machine is down. I'll have to pay with cash. Well, that's annoying; for two reasons: 1. The family I nanny for just lets me use one of their credit cards for the summer so I don't have to worry about reimbursement. Wonderful thing, too, because I absolutely HATE asking people to give me money. It's embarrassing; it's no fun; it always makes me feel terrible, and I just really can't stand it. 2. The cash I have? Oh, wait--that's right. I got out just enough this morning to have for Water Country tomorrow. Good-bye $15 of $30. Now I don't even have enough for parking. Spec-tacular.
So we go in, and I pay with my cash, and then they hand me the bag of sandwiches, which, I suddenly realize, is short by half. In other words, I had ordered four, and they gave me two. Crapola. I have to get them to do two more, and pay for them; ultimately rending my efforts at pre-calling in an order fruitless. By the time we get out of there, it's 2:45, and there's no longer time to drop off my brother and pick up the dinner stuff from my fridge. I'll have to stop after my check-up. But that's going to be okay, because I get there at 2:50. 25 minutes early. They're bound to take me back early, and we'll get out of there with plenty of time to stop back home before driving to the Midlothian YMCA. Except that's not what happens.
They don't call me back until 3:31. Fifteen minutes late. Urghh. My patience, at this point, is wearing thin. I have to have Anne-Claire all the way across town at a swim meet in an hour. My check-up is finally over at 4:15. We race back to my house, I grab the cooler, stuff ice in it, and leave my brother behind. We get to the pool at 4:50ish, about 20 minutes after warm-ups started, but since Anne-Claire's on the visiting team, they're second to warm-up, she actually makes it with a few minutes to spare. We even manage to find a decent place to sit (if you've ever been to a summer swim meet, you'll understand that finding even ONE open chair in the shade is a mean feat.) I think that maybe my hectic day is finally coming to a close. But, again, I am foiled by the wicked stupidness of the world.
Anne-Claire comes back from the bathroom, opens her swim bag, and begins fumbling through anxiously. She can't find her goggles. And when I look, neither can I. She had taken them to the pool with her on Saturday and put them in the communal family pool bag. But she had never put them back.
So Ian and I race home, get her goggles, and return as the national anthem is being sung. I.e. since Anne-Claire is in Relay Event #1, she's next to the pool, ready to jump in. We get her goggles to her just as the whistle blows and kid #1 in her lane kicks off. Anne-Claire relieves him as relay person #2, and manages to get her goggles on with just moments to spare before diving.
Phew. What a day.
Please note that the red 'X' is the location of the little girl's house. Also please note that there is only one way to get there, and it's by taking fifty thousand other windy roads. Yikes.
Update, 10:26pm: I just got off the phone with the mom. They kids, she says, aren't entirely overjoyed for Water Country tomorrow. So, after a lot of planning on my part for the last half-hour, we're not going. Instead, Anne-Claire wants to go to Belle Isle for a picnic. [I've only ever been to Belle Isle once, when I was like five. I've no idea how to get there, or where to go, or what to do there.] My gosh, I feel like this has been the final nail in my coffin for how much the world wants to bury me. That's it; I give in. No more planning. Plans don't work. I'm going to bed. Goodnight, everyone.
How it began:
I realized over the weekend, that, although I had tried to plan ahead well the day to have to take my kids with me to my annual pediatrician check-up, it might be a squeeze. But I planned it well enough that everything would work out okay. Here was my plan:
8:00am Ian gets up and has breakfast; Anne-Claire goes to work with her mom and gets dropped off at friends' house on the way.
8:45am grocery store for this week's dinners. Also stop to get gas (because we're going with Anne-Claire's swim team to Water Country tomorrow) and stop at bank to get out cash from last week's paycheck (for parking tomorrow, and to have in case of emergency.)
10:30am return home, make cookies, make Ian an early lunch, gather everything needed for rest of day, swim meet, and dinner.
12:00pm drive over to my house (25ish minutes away) to give Ian a chance to play with John (which I had formerly promised him--before I learned of John's morning tennis clinic, Anne-Claire's playdate, or the fact that her swim meet was going to be on Monday rather than Tuesday. Phew.)
1:45pm leave to go pick up Anne-Claire
2:00pm stop and grab sandwiches for their family's dinner (at swim meet) from a sandwich shop before returning home to my house.
2:45pm depart home for pediatrician; plan on getting there 15 minutes early so hopefully they'll take me early and we'll have more time to get to swim meet (which is WAYY on Southside; we're talking 40 minutes' drive, here.)
3:00/3:15pm check-up.
4:00pm (at the lastest) leave for swim meet (Anne-Claire's supposed to be there at 4:30)
4:30pm get to swim meet. Take a deep breath.
But there would be no breathing today. AHEM. Here's how things REALLY went:
First off, Ian, who is normally a VERY early riser (and whom I normally would prefer would sleep late so I could get some morning quiet time) stayed up until 11pm last night playing Wii with his dad. Translation? Ian didn't get up until almost 10 on the one morning I was counting on his normal habits. Gahh.
So we leave a little late for the grocery store than I had planned. No biggie. Grocery store and gas-up and bank excursion is executed properly, and we return home at approximately 11:00am. We take care of cookie baking, lunch, etc. and leave at a little before 1pm for my house. An hour late, but no problem. We have the time.On the way to my house, I stop and think, "Hey! I know! To cut further back on time, I'll call-in the order to the sandwich shop! Excellent. Aren't I smart?!??"
After letting Ian and John play around for about 20 minutes while I check my email and call the sandwich place, it's time to go get Anne-Claire. I take John with us because I feel bad Ian didn't get as long with John as we'd hoped, and I leave the fruit, etc. for their dinner in its cooler in my refrigerator to stay cold. We'll have enough time to come back later.
Lie.
After driving through the most RIDICULOUS neighborhood you've ever seen in your life (see picture below), weaving through the backside of U of R, picking up Anne-Claire, and finally managing to escape back to Patterson Avenue, it's nearly 2:30. Time to get sub sandwiches.
When I walk up to the door of the shop, however, I notice a flimsy little sign announcing that their credit card machine is down. I'll have to pay with cash. Well, that's annoying; for two reasons: 1. The family I nanny for just lets me use one of their credit cards for the summer so I don't have to worry about reimbursement. Wonderful thing, too, because I absolutely HATE asking people to give me money. It's embarrassing; it's no fun; it always makes me feel terrible, and I just really can't stand it. 2. The cash I have? Oh, wait--that's right. I got out just enough this morning to have for Water Country tomorrow. Good-bye $15 of $30. Now I don't even have enough for parking. Spec-tacular.
So we go in, and I pay with my cash, and then they hand me the bag of sandwiches, which, I suddenly realize, is short by half. In other words, I had ordered four, and they gave me two. Crapola. I have to get them to do two more, and pay for them; ultimately rending my efforts at pre-calling in an order fruitless. By the time we get out of there, it's 2:45, and there's no longer time to drop off my brother and pick up the dinner stuff from my fridge. I'll have to stop after my check-up. But that's going to be okay, because I get there at 2:50. 25 minutes early. They're bound to take me back early, and we'll get out of there with plenty of time to stop back home before driving to the Midlothian YMCA. Except that's not what happens.
They don't call me back until 3:31. Fifteen minutes late. Urghh. My patience, at this point, is wearing thin. I have to have Anne-Claire all the way across town at a swim meet in an hour. My check-up is finally over at 4:15. We race back to my house, I grab the cooler, stuff ice in it, and leave my brother behind. We get to the pool at 4:50ish, about 20 minutes after warm-ups started, but since Anne-Claire's on the visiting team, they're second to warm-up, she actually makes it with a few minutes to spare. We even manage to find a decent place to sit (if you've ever been to a summer swim meet, you'll understand that finding even ONE open chair in the shade is a mean feat.) I think that maybe my hectic day is finally coming to a close. But, again, I am foiled by the wicked stupidness of the world.
Anne-Claire comes back from the bathroom, opens her swim bag, and begins fumbling through anxiously. She can't find her goggles. And when I look, neither can I. She had taken them to the pool with her on Saturday and put them in the communal family pool bag. But she had never put them back.
So Ian and I race home, get her goggles, and return as the national anthem is being sung. I.e. since Anne-Claire is in Relay Event #1, she's next to the pool, ready to jump in. We get her goggles to her just as the whistle blows and kid #1 in her lane kicks off. Anne-Claire relieves him as relay person #2, and manages to get her goggles on with just moments to spare before diving.
Phew. What a day.
Please note that the red 'X' is the location of the little girl's house. Also please note that there is only one way to get there, and it's by taking fifty thousand other windy roads. Yikes.Update, 10:26pm: I just got off the phone with the mom. They kids, she says, aren't entirely overjoyed for Water Country tomorrow. So, after a lot of planning on my part for the last half-hour, we're not going. Instead, Anne-Claire wants to go to Belle Isle for a picnic. [I've only ever been to Belle Isle once, when I was like five. I've no idea how to get there, or where to go, or what to do there.] My gosh, I feel like this has been the final nail in my coffin for how much the world wants to bury me. That's it; I give in. No more planning. Plans don't work. I'm going to bed. Goodnight, everyone.
i actually read through this entire entry holding my breath. HAHA. oy girl, you are one super woman. you are definitely going to be taking care of my kids. hehe. love you! be strong! praying for you sista<3 and going to read the rest of your entries soon..man you wrote a lot while i was gone!
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