I should have known I would have a day like this. I should have known, because my mom is on vacation, and this is what happens when she leaves. I have forbidden her from taking any future vacations; but she ignored me the last time I tried that and I am sure she will ignore me again.
The girls have been back in day care for one full week, when I get the Phone Call. "Hello, this is Shelley, Juliette's teacher? She has a fever. And she is complaining that her ear hurts."
Sigh. Germ factories, those daycares are. Also, Juliette always gets sick when my mom goes on vacation. I should point out that she gets sick on other occasions too, and believes that the "sick routine" is to go to Nonna's house where Nonna makes broken spaghetti soup and takes care of you. Is that a poor reflection on me? Nah- because that is the "sick routine". My sister, brother and I still haven't outgrown that.
So I stayed home with her this morning, and kept Cosette with me as well. The nanny showed up at noon as scheduled, and I left. I decided, since it was so late, to get the pedicure first, that way I wouldn't miss out this week. And it was worth the wait.
As I am sitting, drying, my cell phone rings. It is my loving husband who has called to ask me what are the colors? The painters are at the house and just about ready to start putting on the color coats! So off I go to the new house with my list and samples. The painters are hard at work, the house is coated with a thick layer of fine dust, and there is a peculiar burnt chemical smell coming from the house. All in the name of refinishing! I am pleased that the hideous cat and ivy wall paper is gone from the laundry room. I kind of wish I had photographic evidence of the wall paper, because words can not adequately describe the overwhelming hideousness of the paper.
I chat with the painter and satisfied that he understands what color goes where, I depart for my parents house, to clean the skimmers in the pool. I have a funny feeling as I am walking- and realize there is a thick layer of fine dust coating my newly pedicured feet. I splash them off in the pool and look closely; I think the polish was dry enough that the dust didn't stick. Oh well, it is getting cold now anyway, so there are very few open-toed-shoe days left. I empty the first skimmer of the leaves, insects and debris that are choking it full and walk to the second. I open the lid and peer in... and see a frog floating in there. Poor froggie. I imagine it struggling to jump out of the skimmer, not knowing how to swim out of the opening back into the pool, getting weaker and weaker. Did it drown? Can frog's drown? Or did it get slowly poisoned by the chlorine in the water? I brace myself to reach in and pull out the basket... but my arm just will not move. I leave the frog there and call Greg and ask him to stop by and do it.
A few minutes later I pull into my parking lot at work. I glance at the dash clock. 4:14. Late start today. I am walking down the sidewalk and casually glance at my watch again. 3:45 on the nose.
Wait. What? I look at my cell phone. 4:15. I look at my watch. 3:45... but wait. I am wearing my watch upside down. I take it off, flip it over, and buckle it on in the correct orientation. I cannot believe I have been wearing it all day like that and just now noticed.
At 4:20 I enter the lab. Ahh. At last I can relax. I settle down to get my presentation ready for lab meeting which is at 9:30 tomorrow morning. This is my main purpose for even coming to work today; it is my turn to present and I haven't put any of my data together. As I sit down and plug in my laptop, Kathy asks "So, did you see that David moved our lab meeting to Friday because of the holiday?"
Grrrr.
What does a girl do now?
Why, post this on her blog, of course.
