Be careful what you wish for

Ever had one of those really bad days where you seemed to be late for everything and everything went wrong? Today was one of those days for me.

Lee got a job. This is actually wonderful news. He’s been looking for a job ever since he graduated last May (actually since before he graduated) and he just hadn’t found anything. It was getting to the point where he was applying for things like cashier at Menards. It was really bumming him out since he went to all this effort to get a college degree and everything. But now he found something almost in his field. It’s not quite as hands-on PC tech as he was hoping but it’s in the tech field…so better than cashier.

Although I’m thrilled he has a job and he’ll be bringing in some more money, I’m a little bummed about all the changes. I now have to get the kids to school in the morning. Which means I have to get up at 7:30 instead of my usual 8:30 or 9. And I have to pick them up from school in the afternoon which means I need to get a little creative at work. And this week is school conferences week. And extremely busy week for us, as you can imagine with a big house full of kids. I scheduled all their conferences around 4:30 because that’s usually easier for me and Lee didn’t work so he could make any time. But now he’s working. And he can’t come to conferences. So (1) I have to do them all myself and (2) I feel so bad he won’t get to be there to talk to the the teachers too. I’m going to have to try to take copious notes. Perhaps I should bring the video camera and just record it.

So this is a lot of changes for me. All BAM right in one week. And I’m a little overwhelmed.

Caleb had an eye appointment today. Because I really felt like I need one more thing to add to my already overfilling plate. Actually I scheduled it because Caleb has really been struggling with reading and we are starting to lean towards thinking he may have a learning disability. We want to start with the easiest solution. A vision problem. So I made the appointment to coincide with conferences.

His appointment was at 2:50. I told the school I’d be there at 2:30. I was about 5 or 6 minutes late. And they don’t call the kids down to the office until the parent gets there.

I’ve never fully understood this rule. Why can’t they just call my kid down when I tell them I’ll be there. Will it hurt him to miss that extra 5 minutes of class time? Really?!? I think not. But it sure would help me if he was ready to go the second I got there so I didn’t have to put on my “good mom” face and pretend like I was happy to help him get all his supplies together and make sure his shoe was tied when I really wanted to scream “HURRY THE FUCK UP.”

So by the time we got to the car it was after 2:40. This gave me less than 10 minutes to get to his appointment. Clear across town.

I tried to remain calm. But I think we all know I’m not really a calm person.

And just because God likes to get a good laugh at my expense, the traffic was ridiculous. For realz? It was 2:45. In Iowa. We don’t usually have traffic like that. But today? Traffic.

First a semi turned right in front of me to get on to the interstate. Caleb was in the car with me so I couldn’t yell “I HAD THE RIGHT OF WAY ASSHOLE” and flip him off like I really wanted to. Instead I just sat behind his slow ass, stewing, as he entered the interstate at around 35 mph.

The second I had the chance I slammed on the gas and sped around him. Only to be stopped by yet another semi. In the fast lane. Going 10 miles UNDER the speed limit. ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? I thought semi drivers were supposed to be lead foots. Where are all the lead foot semi drivers? Why aren’t they in Iowa?

We finally made it to the eye doctor. Ten minutes late. I was sure they were going to make us reschedule for being late. And I was sure I would burst in to tears if they did.

Luckily they didn’t. Although the girl at the desk did give me a snotty look. I’ll give her that one though. I was late.

Caleb’s appointment went well, I guess. The good news is his vision is 20/20. The bad news is we can’t blame his fluency issues on vision problems. Which means we are still thinking it might be a learning disability. It seems sad to think I was kind of hoping he’d need glasses. But I was.

We made a follow up visit for additional testing. This next testing will test his eyes while he’s reading to see if we can identify any abnormalities. We’ll see how that goes.

After we made the next appointment, I reached in to my purse to grab my checkbook to pay the co-pay. I got a hold of my checkbook and flung it out of my purse. Along with a sanitary pad.

So there I am. Standing in the middle of the eye doctor office. Kotex pad in hand. Two women at the counter. Several people looking at me from the waiting room. Good times. And oddly, she wouldn’t take a pad as payment. The nerve of her.

I quickly threw the pad back in my purse and opened my checkbook to write a check. But there were no checks. Go figure. Why would there be any checks? This is the day from hell. There are never any checks left on the day from hell.

I think by this point the girl behind the desk was starting to feel a little bad for me. Either that our my impending tears were starting to scare her. She said, “Sweetie that’s ok. You can just mail in a check.”

If this is how every day is going to go now that Lee has a job I may be begging him to quit before year-end.

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