Miserable multi-tasking
posted on: 12:48 PM October 01, 2007
Last week I had one of those days.
I woke up with the worst kink in my neck. I had a hectic morning reminiscent of a Keystone Cops episode. I ended up stubbing my toe in the worst way, I took my daughter to school late, garnering the stinkeye from the school secretary. Somehow I managed to get all of this wrong without being able to turn my head more than 10 degrees in either direction.
Later that day, I had an appointment for a TB test, which is required for volunteering at my son's preschool. So he and I went to my doctor's office to have this test done. He chose the day that I was immobile from the neck up to misbehave in the worst possible way. He whined, he was naughty, he ran around the office, he laid prostrate on the floor, he asked me the same question 150 times. I wanted to shrink under my seat.
Finally we got into have the test done. So there I was, in pain, annoyed, AND having some strange liquid inserted into my skin via hypodermic needle. And what is my son doing? He is beside me, wearing my open purse upside down on the top of his head. I had a needle jabbing me in one arm, while trying to restrain my son with the other.
After that disaster, it was time to pick my daughter up from school. By this point my neck was causing me excruciating pain. Once we all got in the car, I handed the kids each a fruit roll up I had brought them as a treat. As I sat in the driver's seat, wincing in pain, they asked me to open their fruit rollups. That was it, I burst into tears. I felt so sorry for myself by that point, that their simple request sent me over the emotional edge.
As moms, we're not really able to feel sorry for ourselves too long. Life goes on, the kids still have needs, there's homework to be done, lunches to be made. But sometimes, just sometimes it would be nice if the world could stop long enough for us to have a really good cry.