Today Is All About Me...

Or at least, it was supposed to be! Today was my desperately needed mental health day. A day for me to catch up on some of the things I haven’t had a chance to do at home that are on the someday list, as well as doing a few nice things for me to distress before the reality of summer hits with the whole family home and hanging out while I work three days a week.

Somehow, I forgot to write out the thank you cards for the preschool and daycare teachers. I can’t wait until they’re in elementary school and I have only one teacher to buy for. Mister Man’s this year was: two bus drivers, a preschool teacher, two aides, three therapists, the principal, Language Stars teacher, and three daycare providers. For Little Miss: two preschool teachers, one aide, and three daycare providers. All told, that’s nineteen cards (and gifts, ugh!) that I need to write at the end of the year – ok, and at Christmas, too. I’m so ready for it to be just one each.

Fortunately, I was able to get this all done before the bus came this morning, and Mister Man helped by signing each one that was from him. Of course, that also meant that I did nothing else this morning before the bus came. Once Mister Man was safely on the bus, I got the last of the things together for the trip to daycare and dropped off Little Miss. Finally, I was able to eat breakfast and take a shower.

As I was heading upstairs for my shower, I started to feel like a heel. Mister Man’s class was having a “graduation” ceremony – since all the kids but him are moving on next year – and I was planning to skip it for my mental health day. My dad was going to go, so he was going to have someone there to support him, but how wrong is it for me to not go? Ordinarily, I would be home and ready to walk out the door if necessary by 9:05, leaving me plenty of time to get a few things done before I needed to start driving to the preschool. At 9:23, I decided I should be there and that I was a horrible mom for even considering ditching the ceremony. Let’s just say that was the fastest shower, etc that I’ve taken in awhile.

At 9:55, I was driving through the last traffic light before Mister Man’s preschool, totally going to be on time. And my phone rang. It was my mom calling to tell me that my dad’s car had broken down on the way to the ceremony – about 6 minutes from where I was at the time – and requesting that I pick him up. U-turn and I started heading towards where my dad had broken down, although my mom didn’t know exactly where. Smart me, I called my dad’s phone, but no answer. Fortunately, I was able to find him by driving very slowly and looking down all the side streets.

When he saw me, he was surprised, as my mom hadn’t told him that I was coming. Oh yeah, and he had to stay with his car until the tow truck came which was expected about a half hour later. So I turned around again and headed to Mister Man’s school. I made it there about 10 minutes late and missed some songs and dances that they were doing, but I have years of that to come, right?

When it came time for the diploma presentation, Mister Man had made his way to the back of the classroom. At first, I thought he was coming to see me and was going to shoo him back to the rest of his class. Nope, he had to go potty. So when his teacher called his name and then started looking for him, he was still occupied. She, not surprisingly, had never noticed that he left the rest of the class sitting in the circle. The good news is that he made it back to the rest of the class by the time the last name had been called. He was so proud to have his certificate!

By 10:30, it was all over, and the adults were all taking their kids home. Uhhh, Mister Man can’t go to daycare until noon, and I have to be back at his preschool for a thank you lunch at 11:45. Plus, I also have to pick up a gift card at Petco for the school nurse as the last of our teacher appreciation events. The plan had been for my dad to take him to lunch and then drop him at daycare. Obviously, not going to happen now! Fortunately, Mister Man was understanding of needing to stay at preschool with the one student who had no parents come while I ran errands.

And yes, I managed to get the gift card in time to get back for the lunch. Plus, I did the first thing strictly for me today. The Petco happened to be near the mall where the belly dancing instructor had told me the hip scarf store was. I am now the proud owner of a black hip scarf with silver coins. Bonus: I was talking to the cashier about my complete noviceness, and she found out where I did the belly dancing class which happens to get a 20% discount. Yay!

The lunch, I will say, was lovely. The teachers went all out for us with china and lots of homemade goodies – including the oddest cake I’ve ever seen: graham crackers layered with pudding and then frosted – and many nice things to say. Apparently they’re grateful that we were finally able to get the school board to approve building a new early learning center!

I tried donating blood again but unfortunately my iron was low, so I was deferred again. Apparently all the running, etc that I’ve been doing has been depleting my iron stores. Of course, going there meant driving 20 minutes northwest. I then drove 30 plus minutes southeast to uhhh get a manicure and pedicure. See, I told you it was a day about me!

On my way home, I got a call from my parents wanting to know where I was. They needed my car with carseats so they could pick up the wee ones at daycare – for some reason, they prefer that the wee ones spend the night if possible rather than my mom being at my house at 6:15 so I can head out to work! – and with my dad’s car having been towed, my car was required.

I picked them up at my house, and we all went to pick up the wee ones, which is always a good 20 minute experience, especially when there are students and teachers to say good bye to and lots of accumulated stuff to ensure we pick up. Finally, I arrived home to start my mental health day for me at 4:40. How did it get to be 4:40 already?

I started going through some of the end of year papers and filing a few of them before my neighbor brought dinner. And granted, I did check my email briefly. Oh yeah, and I paid my property taxes and credit card online. However, my at home to do list somehow didn’t shrink. I need a mental health day from my mental health day!

The update with my dad’s car is that the fuel pump has gone on it. It’s an $800 repair on a 12 year old car with 150,000 miles. Knowing what you do about my dad, anyone want to join me in a pool on how long before he comes home with a brand spanking new one?

And lastly… I absolutely can’t decide what three posts to provide to SITS to get featured – because I need that ego stroke! Tell me your favorites, and let me be lazy!