The Longest Day

Well, this day has not gone at all as I had planned.

Everything ran fairly smoothly at home in the morning, in spite of the fact that BJ's gone (scary dog reminder) so he can't wave coffee under my nose until I wake up. I have to get up with an alarm and make my own coffee! Primitive!

When I opened the garage door to go outside, the snow was blowing horizontally. I was a little concerned, because we had planned to drive up to Grammaland after school, but I had other fish to fry between that moment and the moment, 2.5 hours later, when we were supposed to leave, so I didn't worry about it.

I got to the school. Thanks to Grandpa Bob, I even remembered the dollar for Mary Grace's shopping day at school. I forgot to drop off a diaper with Claire. Whoops. As I was walking out of MG's class I connected with the other "room mom" over an issue I've been worrying about. Then I passed a usually-empty room and saw my friend Casey, who recruited me to help wrap the kids' gifts (which they'd be buying with the dollar that I remembered!). I ran out to the car to get Claire's diaper, dropped it off at her class (without being seen by Claire - I am ninja mom!), and ran back to help with the gifts.

I finally left the school at 10 am, and I remembered that it was recycling day so I ran back home to take out the recycling. We always have three times more recycling than trash. We put out a LOT of recycling. This will be important later.

I arrived at my office about an hour later than I'd planned to. BJ needed a couple pages of notes sent to him, but I couldn't find them. I finally ended up MMS'ing pictures of his desk to him so he could tell me which pile to look in! Meanwhile, I was also talking to my mom and my Facebook friends about the weather. We had planned to go up to Grammaland after school and help Gramma Denna with her tree until 4 or 5, and then go to Gramma Susan's for dinner. But those horizontal snowflakes had me a little nervous (especially after white knuckling all the way to Nowhere, Indiana last night, in the rain, to see the puppies).

Mom and I decided that it was safer if the girls and I stayed put (and thank goodness! This will be important later). I found BJ's papers and sent them to him, got the mail, left the office, and picked up the kids.

Mary Grace took it really well that we weren't going to see her Grandmas. She just wanted to watch a movie when she got home, which was fine with me, because my slight headache was developing into a serious headache. This will be important later.

When we pulled into our driveway, our recycling was gone. The truck hadn't been by, though, it had all blown away! I put the kids inside with a movie and spent 15 or 20 minutes picking up the trash from the yard across the street and the yard caddy-corner from us. I hardly found any cardboard (and one whole bin had been full of cardboard). I hardly found any glass. I found a lot of plastic and cans. I felt terrible, but the kids were alone in the house and I couldn't leave them while I went traipsing all over our town looking for my trash.

By the time I got inside, my head was really pounding. I let the kids make their own PB&J (a favorite activity) and I made soup and a grilled cheese for lunch. I let them watch a second movie, and then we all went upstairs for a nap.

When I woke up, my head was screaming. I couldn't open my eyes all the way, and I felt like I was going to throw up. It was a full on migraine, complete with light and sound sensitivity (which is FUN with two small kids in the house!). I tore up the house looking for my Imitrex, but couldn't find it anywhere. I had to make the difficult choice to drive on increasingly-icy roads with two kids in the car in order to go get my medicine.

I changed Claire, then put her snowsuit on her (because she insists on wearing ridiculous dresses when we're home - either dress up clothes or her "Nemo" dress, and I didn't want to fight her into changing), and put MG's coat on. I was just about to push them out the door when Mary Grace said, "Mommy, we forgot our shoes." Claire didn't even have socks on. Excellent mother I am, huh?

Properly shod and bundled, we made our way to the car. Our recycling was gone, again. No bins. No nothing. I was pretty sure the truck had been by since we'd gone to bed, which meant that our garbage collectors had probably tossed the bins up onto the yard, and they'd blown away. Terrific.

I was too sick to care. It was all that I could do to get the kids in the car without throwing up all over them. I turned on a movie so they'd be quiet. I got to the pharmacy (thank goodness for drive through pharmacies!) and said, "I need Imitrex," and gave them my name. She couldn't find my prescription! I started crying.

Finally she figured out that I hadn't called in the refill yet. She told me it would be 25 minutes (!!!). The kids and I parked at Taco Bell and I made a couple phone calls. I left a particularly desperate and weepy message on BJ's voicemail, telling him how much I love him and appreciate everything he does (from coffee waving to prescription fetching, and everything in between).

Gramma Susan convinced me, on the phone, that it was ok to feed the kids Happy Meals two nights in a row if I had a migraine, so I hit McDonald's drive through, too. I got myself an unsweetened tea to take my pill with. They gave me the sweet tea, full strength, which was a bit surprising. I tried not to hurl from the unexpected syrupyness, and from the smell of McFood in my car. I made my way back to the pharmacy drive through, got my pills (hallelujah!), and took one before I even put the car in drive and left.

Once home, I gave the kids their dinner and went to sit on the couch. I think I might have fallen asleep. Either that, or I hallucinated that there was a headless person walking toward me. It was disconcerting, but not as bad as the dream I had when I was napping earlier, that all my teeth fell out (I think I dreamed it because my migraine was bad enough to make my teeth hurt, too). I have that one fairly often, and I always wake up and count my teeth!

After about 60 minutes, I realized that I could open my eyes. After about 75 minutes, all the pain was gone, and after 90 minutes I wasn't nauseous anymore. Whoever invented Imitrex is a flipping genius, and should win the Nobel Prize. I made myself some eggs and a bagel, and surprisingly un-hideous Morningstar Farms veggie "sausage" patties. I sent my neighbors an e-mail apologizing for the trash, and asking them to return our bins if they happen to find them.

So, it was bad luck that we didn't get to go to Grammaland, but it was good luck that we weren't on the interstate when my head tried to explode, or in Grammaland where I didn't have any Imitrex and it would've been more difficult to get it. Mainly we're lucky that someone invented Imitrex, and that I can feel normal for the rest of the evening, rather than lying in bed crying with the pain, which is all I could do for the first 32 years of my life.

I seriously can't wait for BJ to get home. I don't know how you single parents, or parents of people who are deployed with the military, do it. I really don't.