One Day

Cough. Cough cough cough. Must get out of bed to get to water. Resist urge to open eyes. FEEL my way into the bathroom without opening my eyes. Find my cup. Drink water. Good? Cough. Darn. Feel my way back to bed. It FEELS like it’s midnight. I should have plenty of time to fall asleep and sleep. Cough. Toss. Turn. Cough cough. Alarm goes off. Tell it I hate it. Again.

Grab clean clothes from dryer and pile them on my bed. Move clothes from washer into dryer. Iron my clothes for presentation today. Wake up Lu. She pleads for 5 more minutes. Wake up Nat. She pleads for 5 more minutes. I hop in the shower. Close my eyes. Positive I could actually fall asleep while standing up if just given the chance. Shampoo in hair. Emi cries from her crib. I holler that I’m almost done. She cries louder.

Lu up. Can’t find her clothes that she set out the night before. Nat up and to the shower. Emi back in bed with a baba. (Yes I know she’s 3 and shouldn't have a baba, but I don’t care right now. It’s not liquor and it’s not meth. Deal with it people. It’s milk from a cow. And cows are cute, and so that makes it ok. OK?) Lu also can’t find any of her shoes or any of her socks. She sits down to pout. Knock at the door. Her ride is here. And they are waiting. Lu can’t find her homework. Or her PE clothes or her sweatshirt. Somethings are found and others are not. I grab her a sweatshirt as she runs out the door. She refuses to take the sweatshirt. She says it’s ugly. I say it's 29 degrees outside. She leaves without a sweatshirt.

Nat out of shower and half dressed. Brings me a stack of papers I need to look through, initial, sign, stare at, I don’t know. But I’m trying to remember what it was that I HAD to remember this morning… and I can’t remember. Tell Nat to put pants on first and then I’ll look at the papers. She can’t find her pants, and therefore bursts into tears, and falls dramatically to the hallway floor. And she says she can’t get the knot out of her shoe laces to put on her shoe either, and so she just can’t deal. (What 9 year old says she ‘just can’t deal’ ?)

Slip on slippers and run to car to warm it up. Handles on car doors frozen. Grab yesterday’s Starbucks coffee cup and other garbage missives to throw away in the house. Slippers don’t have good traction, fyi. Especially on cold mornings with ice on the ground. Concentrate. Just gotta stay upright to the front door. Front door success! Forgot to put garbage out. Which was the real reason I started to grab the garbage from the car. Back out to garage. Cans hauled up the driveway.

Nat finds her almost dried pants in the dryer. She’s almost happy. But not really. She brings the stack of papers back. I put her off again, because now I need to get Emi up. Because I need to leave in the next 10 minutes to make it to the meeting I’m presenting in this morning. Emi is pee-pee’d (from the baba I gave her. Yes I already know that too. Thank you very much) and MUST take a bath. She shivers her little naked body while I try to eek out some warm water, but know there’s not much left after Natalie and I both took showers this morning. Dunk her just long enough to scrub and sanitize.

Phone rings. It’s Grampy. Ready to pick up Nat and Emi since I need to get to work early for the meeting, and he’s waiting at the top of the driveway. Find Emi warm clothes, but she insists on wearing the guitar undies and guitar shirt so she can be just like Auntie B. I remind her Auntie B PLAYS the guitar, and does not condone wearing ONLY guitar undies and shirt when it’s this cold outside. She must wear pants, and socks, and shoes, and a sweatshirt too. Emi very miffed that she doesn’t get her way. Kids to Grampy.

Run to car, pull out of driveway. STOP! Remember what I MUST remember! My notes for today’s meeting are in the truck! Aha! I run/skid down icy driveway to truck. Which is locked. Oh for the love of Peet, people.

Today’s trip to Starbucks a bit more rushed that usual. I may actually be late if I stop. But must caffeinate. So I stop. Loooonnnng line. Get to counter. “Good morning, Chai.” Yes, they call me chai. It’s just far more efficient than using my name. And then he hands me my chai, which was made before I ever placed my order. I tell him I love him, which to others must be awkward, especially in a coffee shop. But it’s true. This is my saving grace for the day.

Slide into meeting with a minute to spare. Very consciously slow my breathing so I’m not out of breath. Projecting an image of cool, calm, and confident cannot be accomplished if I’m out of breath. And then I notice the missing button on my blouse. Pull jacket tighter and let this presentation rip like I OWN this place =D

Meeting done. Run down the hallway to beloved Stacie for a kiss and hug and then back UP the mountain I go, because I forgot that TODAY was the day that I am meeting with the home owner’s insurance people from Farmers… in 30 minutes. And I shudder thinking about the wreckage of 3 kids and mommy getting ready this morning and what the house must look like to an outsider.

Once back at the office, I realize I haven’t eaten yet today. Forgot my oatmeal in the may lay this morning. But don’t have time to run and get something, ‘cause I’m due on a conference call in 4 minutes. Dad calls my cell, but I can’t take the call. He calls back again a few minutes later. And I assume he must have left a message that was lengthy and so needed to call back and leave the rest of the message. After meeting, I call dad back. Cannot call him directly as he does not like to use his cell phone that way. Must call his voicemail #, which will page him, which will tell him he has a message waiting to be picked up. And then once he uses his cell to call into the VM he will then hear my return message. Incredibly inefficient, for an fabulously brilliant man.

Can’t for the life of me remember if today is Wednesday or Thursday? The kids’ school schedule is a little wacky this week… or is that next week? Pretty sure it’s Wednesday which means Emi will be with Grandma, Lu will go with Robin after school, and I think I’m supposed to get Nat from homework club. Now if I can just remember to get milk and toilet paper on the way home, make sure I not only pay my bills, but also stamp AND mail them, be sure Lu is coming along in her Egyptian Warrior project, check on Natalie’s Mission report, reconcile dad’s medical expenses, pay his help, fill up the car with gas, remember the truck has an appt tomorrow, sign Natalie’s field trip permission slip and pay the money, quiz Natalie on her division facts, remind Lu (again) that she still may NOT have a facebook, sign the kids up for camp before the end of the week when the early bird discount expires, make my eye appointment, schedule Lu for her follow up at Stanford, check in on the life insurance claim, remember to make my kids’ dentists appointments, and remember that Monday is a holiday for only my children but never for me… I should be fine.