A Very Long Day - The Good, The Bad and The Cute

This is gonna be long cuz my day was as long as a busy week:

I got to sleep from midnight to 4am and then Libby decided it was playtime. She never does that! Anyway, got back to sleep at 6am to 7am, when really I should have gotten up at 6 so I wouldn't have to rush, but I went back to sleep when I had the chance.

Got up and showered and changed everyone and nursed and pumped, etc. Gracie was extra hungry this morning and ate 3 bowls of oatmeal! And I was really rushing her along, but that child does not have "hurry" in her vocabulary!

Finally got out the door at 8:45 with the two littles, their two diaper bags, my school bag, my purse and of course, my coffee!

I took Libby to her sitter first, then I took Gracie to her sitter and when I pulled up I just knew something was wrong. There were 3 vehicles out front, one was her husband's car and he should've been at work by now. I had a bad feeling. So I took Gracie to the door and the paternal grandparents and the girls all came to the door. The sitter's mother suddenly passed away yesterday, so things there were in the hands of the grandparents. Gracie likes them (they’ve met before) and they offered to keep her for the day even though they didn't know she was coming, but I felt like that might be asking a lot since they most likely just threw arrangements together within the past few hours... I don't know but I thought they had plenty to manage already. I got back in the van and called Libby's sitter and went right back there with Gracie.

It had been 15 mins since I dropped Libby off and returned with Gracie, in that time Libby was settled into the swing with her blanket all snuggled up around her and she was fast asleep. Awwww!

I got a tank of gas and cussed at the pump cuz gas keeps going up. grrrr. And I hopped on the freeway! It was 9:35, not bad considering my goal is to be on the freeway by 9:30. Just when I thought I could make up that 5 minutes in the fast lane, the whole freeway plugged up and became a mile long parking lot. I’m lucky it wasn’t further because those tend to become 5 mile jams in no time! I finally got past the source of the problem, a mangled up mess but no ambulance, so it must have been a non-injury accident. I like to tell myself that.

After I got past that, the road opened up and I flew to the college. I dropped it down to 80 in that spot where I always see a cop or two. I cranked up a Boston cd and drove fast in the far left lane. I never do that! Got to San Marcos in record time! Parked and hiked up the hill to class, got there on time!!! Wow! How’d I beat the clock!!! I did it!! I’m like Mario Andretti in a mini-van! It was now 10:30am. Long day already and I was just getting started.

You know how when you are hurrying and hurrying and then you get to your destination and you still feel like you should be going fast? I did that. I was all caffeinated and had been rushing around for over 2 hours trying to get to this class and I couldn’t shake that hurry feeling. I sat still and listened, tried to learn about Jacques Derrida and his literary theory of deconstructionism. When we broke into groups and analyzed a short story, I totally aced the little project and felt great being a valuable part of the group discussion. Not bad since I only read ¾ of the story that we needed to pick apart; I fell asleep before I got to the end last night.

After class, the student union had a table set up just outside our classroom and they were giving out pizza. Score! Free lunch and it was good too! I have an hour for lunch, and today I decided to use my hour hiking back to my van to swap out my books instead of carrying them all. The college campus is on the side of a hill, so when I say “hike” I really mean it! It’s a long walk on an incline, or decline, whichever way you are going.

During my walk, I met up with a nice gal that I’ve run into a couple of times before. It’s nice to meet good people. Today we exchanged phone numbers and she showed me a picture of her baby. She mentioned to me before that she has one baby the same age as Libby; today I learned that her baby is actually her third, but the first two did not survive. I spent the rest of my walking time counting my blessings.

I also found out that she just moved to America last June and she only knew three words in English before she arrived here. I would have never guessed that she wasn’t a native to Southern California. There are some amazing scholars on campus, very intelligent people; I hope some of it rubs off on me. I am in awe of some of the students I meet. Sure, I can fake it a time or two, but there are students on that campus who amaze me.

Then I went to my Psychology class. Today’s lecture was all biology though. And I was totally lost. Genes, DNA, chromosomes, Mitosis, Meiosis, huh? Yeah. Wish me luck!

Now, at 2:15 pm I scurried on home and kept the driving to a reasonable speed. Kept the volume down too. No need to be Mario Andretti all the time. I saw three cops in “the cop spot”. They were all writing tickets too! I wanted to stop and do some birthday shopping for my daughter’s birthday tomorrow (just call me the last minute mommy) but since I started the day in a size C cup and I was now busting out of a DD, I decided shopping could wait until tomorrow. My boobs haven’t figured out how to handle school days yet.

When I went to pick up the Littles at Libby’s sitter, she invited me in for coffee. A mutual friend of ours and her baby were over visiting too. So I sat and fed stubborn little Libby (who only drank one ounce from her bottle all day) and visited with the mamas. It was great to get some caffeine in me again. Got my second wind!

When I got home, I carried Libby, two diaper bags, my school bag, my purse, hats and blankets. Gracie carried a rawhide bone as big as she is for Sandy. The sitter gave it to us for our dog; it was gag gift for her Chihuahua and she wanted to just get rid of it. I have a really happy dog! So we get in the house, and get all this stuff out of my arms while Sandy is wagging her tail like mad carrying a bone as big as Texas in her jaw smacking into everyone, and what is that on the table? A package? For me?

One of my internet friends sent me a package! I opened it and it was CHOCOLATE! A Big bar of chocolate, homemade brownies (more like fudge, mmmmm), princess snack cups for Gracie and a teething toy for Libby. A sweet card topped it! Too sweet! Thank you so much, Jen!

I decided it could be fend for yourself night for dinner. Gracie fell asleep, Libby wanted to be held, Keith finished off the leftovers from last night and Katie and Lexie were both working. Pretty easy to blow off cooking tonight!

I did put Libby down for a bit. She was happy and enjoying her exersaucer. And then, she started to fuss. So of course I scooped her up to see what the fuss was about and in doing so, I discovered what the fuss was about. Ewww! Poopies everywhere! In the exersaucer seat, on her blanket that I stuff around her in the seat because she isn’t really big enough for it, on her jeans, her shirt, and filled her onsie. It was even in her sleeve! She saved it all up for mommy! Gee, thanks, Libbers. I’ve got a very poopy load of laundry going right now. I might have to wash it twice. Not sure how she can get so much of that nasty stuff out of her little bitty baby body all at once. Amazing!

Katie eventually came home from work, she was pale and sniffing and clutching a bottle of orange juice. She said “I hab a code.” Poor girl. She went to change and she said she’d come back for some chicken noodle soup, but she didn’t come back out of her room. I think she fell asleep.

Gracie fell asleep too. I guess throwing a wrench in her day was exhausting. Glad she took it all in stride. And Libby is asleep. Otherwise I’d never be able to type this extremely long post (wordcount: 1,611). Lexie isn’t home, she’s busy working her fingers to the bone trying to make ends meet and pay her bills (car insurance, texting, and lost library books).

It’s 8:30 and time for a beer. Ok, half. I am breastfeeding, I can’t overdo it. Today was one long long long day! Seems like this morning was a week ago!