Feeling Like Staying Home

I've been having a streak of bad driving experiences. It may not seem like a big deal to most people, but my anxiety has been through the roof lately with moving and such. I have to leave to pick the Youngest up from school in seven minutes and I'm dreading it.

Friday, I'm backing out of my driveway and almost plow into someone driving down the street. In my defense, this big behemoth of an oversized Freudian pickup truck was parked next to my driveway. I did look before backing up, but couldn't see anyone. Would it have been so much trouble for this neighbor of mine to have not slowed down and let tiny old me out of my driveway instead of speeding up so that I almost hit them?

Then Friday afternoon, I'm parked at the curb waiting for the Youngest to get out of school. A pickup parks behind me. Typical afternoon. I'm reading my book waiting for the kids to get out and I'm totally oblivious to the world around me. I happen to look up as she is walking towards the car just as the pickup behind me is pulling away, having already picked up his kid. And he yells at me through our open windows, "Don't even bother to pull up a little bit!!" What? First of all, I was there before he was and didn't make him park on my bumper. Secondly, I had no clue that he was having such a hard time pulling out into traffic. I wasn't, and it isn't my responsibility to, pay attention when I'm parked. Jackass.

Monday, yesterday, I'm driving to pick the Youngest up from school (I really only drive the kids to and from school these days. I have absolutely no life.) and I notice a bee in the back of my car. I freak. I hate bees. So, I drive as fast as I dare to get to her school so I can let the bee out of my car before it flies up to the front to ride shotgun. I felt pretty silly about that but I really hate bees.

Then, this morning, I'm dropping the Oldest off at school and traffic is backed up for blocks because the city of San Diego thinks it's a smart idea to start construction during rush hour and traffic was down to one lane. THEN, on the way home from dropping of the Youngest, another pickup, turns right on red. Instead of turning into the near lane like they should have, they turned into the far lane right in front of me. I was probably going 45 mph and I had to slam on my breaks. I slid a ways laying rubber and almost didn't have enough space. I came so close to eating their bumper. And I would have, my compact versus their pickup. My hands were shaking for a good ten minutes.

Now, I have to go. Wish me luck.

The Longest Week

I know that I said that I would be back to my Pets Hall of Fame series yesterday. At least I think that’s what I said. But I’ve had a hellacious week and I haven’t gotten back to it yet. I will. Probably tomorrow. I swear to try my best.

I wasn’t even going to say anything until I read Jennifer’s post about her experience at the movies. But now I feel inspired and you all get to listen.

I’m not sleeping. Again. And I’ve had a headache since Monday. Yesterday, I was awake at 3 am and got up out of bed at 4 because I was irritated with trying to get back to sleep. Or maybe I was awake at 2 and up at 3. Who freaking knows at that time of the morning. I get to sleep fine, I just can’t stay asleep. It’s irritating. Blah blah.

Anyway, Tuesday night, both the girls were invited to different friends’ houses for a sleep over. No big deal. I didn’t even have to drive them anywhere which was cool for me. The oldest was told to be home by 5:30 on Wednesday and the youngest was next door so I knew she would be home early. She gives me a call around 9:30 and asks if she and T can come over to our house to play. Sure. Whatever. So they troop over to the house with T’s younger sister, A in tow. Nobody mentioned A coming over too, but what the hell. One more makes little difference in my busy day. So, I tell them to occupy themselves while I was trying to work upstairs in my office. Little did I realize that I was babysitting A and T while their parents went to Jacksonville. Hello!! How do you leave your kids at someone else’s house for a period of time without touching base with them first?? They didn’t roll back into town until 6 last night. By this time, I had fed their kids lunch and dinner and had to deal with constant interruptions to my day while I was trying to freaking work.

THEN!! The girls were outside with some different neighborhood kids playing. The Mister and I were watching TV in our bedroom when we hear the youngest child come into the house yelling, “Leave me alone!!” and crying hysterically. I call her into our room to see what the hell when she told me the other girl, she’s 13 or 14, was tossing her around and the boy, also 10 like the youngest, was trying to pull her out our front door when she was trying to get away. Wtf?!? First of all, you should know that she doesn’t like rough play like that from anybody. Not even her mom and dad. She has a sensory perception thing that makes her overly sensitive to what would be a “normal” situation to other people. But whatever. So I go outside to see what the heck is going on and proceed to yell at the top of my lungs. They really picked a bad day to start a ruckus on my front yard. I yelled at the oldest child to get her butt inside and then yelled at the other kids to take their butts on home. Then I slammed the door hard enough to knock a picture askew. Boy. It was just a bad day. It’s times like those when I have to wonder why I’m the only parent paying attention to yelling and screaming outside. And I would never in a million trillion years drop my kids off at someone else’s house and then leave town for the day without talking to the parents first. What is freaking wrong with people? And lastly, there is a difference between the noises of the terrified and the noises of someone having fun. It shouldn’t be that hard to distinguish.

And to top things off, the Mister checked in for his training yesterday so he’ll be gone for the majority of the summer. It’s not nearly as bad as a deployment but it still sucks royal. It’s 12:30 and I could use a freaking nap.

The Energizer Bunny

That's what my day has been like. It just keeps going and going.

After running my last and final errand which was going to Target to pick up a tire pressure gauge and some other stuff (I treated myself to a lipgloss since I was having such a crappy day, heheh.), I finally came home for what I thought would be the last time today.

Sidenote: When I checked the tire pressures, I made an interesting discovery. The rear right tire has a Saab valve cap on it. I drive a Toyota and have no idea where the cap came from. I asked the Mister about it on the phone tonight and the best we can figure is that one of the guys he works with put it on as a joke. I dunno. Also. none of the tires have the correct air pressure.

Anyway, so the kids get home from school, I'm doing my school work, all is quiet. I start dinner at the usual time which tonight was fettucini alfredo from scratch with cajun chicken to go on top. I had been wanting to try my hand at homemade alfredo sauce for years but the hubby doesn't like it so I never did. I was totally looking forward to this meal. As I'm serving the girls their plates, Sidney looks out of the front door and sees Bailey standing there waiting to get in. Holy crap!! I knew Hannah was going to be all the way gone and sure enough, she was nowhere to be found. I was spitting mad. It was dinner time and dark and I figured she was gone for good cuz I just wanted to sit down and eat and wait for her to come home on her own. The oldest, however, started to cry so I put my sandals on, grabbed my cell and a flashlight and started the old drive around the neighborhood. I came across some teenagers taking a stroll and stopped and asked them if they'd seen Hannah. They hadn't so I asked them if they did, to please stop her and call me that my cell phone number is on her collar. Then, I proceeded to drive to the most exclusive neighborhood in New Bern which is where the dogs ran off to the first time. I guess they like to see how the other half lives. I had just about given up when my phone rang. It was those teenagers and they had Hannah. Funnily enough, she was still on our block. I drove over and picked her up, thanking them profusely, and came home. I got to enjoy my dinner of cold, congealed alfredo sauce, nasty looking fettucini, and cold chicken. Yum.

Oh. And about the gas pump...I told the hubby about it when he called. Remember way back when, when he got his first speeding ticket? Well, he was on his way to the same gas station and had gotten gas at the same pump and the same thing happened to him. FIX IT ALREADY!!

I'd give up and go to bed right now if it wasn't just 7 pm. I'm not leaving the house tomorrow for anything.

Today

THANK THE GODS THAT IT'S ALMOST OVER!!!!!!!!!

1 hour and 10 minutes left of the day. Nothing bad can happen in that little bit of time right??
(knock wood)

Today sucked royal monkey butt. Nuff said. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that tomorrow will be better even though I'm already dreading it.

ARGH!!!!!!!!!!