...it's only TUESDAY!

The kids are sick.

Evelyn got it first. It started as a cold, and led to painful infections in both ears. The first prescription of antibiotics didn’t clear it up, so by part way through her second prescription she had been waking up screaming 2-3 times a night for nearly 2 weeks. Now Bridget has the cold. She isn’t fairing as badly, but she still wakes up crying when she can’t breathe.

Needless to say, we are all rather tired. So tired that sometimes we can’t even keep track of what day it is or where we are supposed to be. All will be well again, soon enough, I hope.

Meanwhile, in spite of the sleepless state I found myself in last week, I decided to honour a commitment to attend a local after work meeting of my professional association. Since my wife and I share a vehicle I had arranged for a ride home from the Wednesday meeting.

By Tuesday we were so tired we could barely stand upright. We asked Grandma to come stay with the girls that day since they couldn't go to daycare. Midway through that afternoon my wife called me to tell me something had come up and that she’d be taking our vehicle out to a meeting – “call you when I get back to the office”.

I didn’t need to leave the office that day, and my work was piling up on my desk, so it barely registered that she was going out.

At 5pm I called Carolyn’s office number just to ask how much longer I could keep working. No answer. I tried her cell phone with the same result.

As long as she was busy, I decided I should keep working—the girls were home with Grandma, so we didn’t have to rush to make it to the daycare on time. At 5:30 I tried both Carolyn’s phone numbers again, but there was no answer. That was odd. Usually we will each answer our cell phones, even if we are in a meeting, just to let each other know how long we expect to be. I still had plenty of work to do but I needed to stretch my legs – went upstairs to her office, but it was empty.

I headed back to my desk and finished off a few more tasks and case notes. By 5:45 though, I had run out of steam. Besides, our parking pass is only valid until 6, so it was definitely nearing time to leave. I tried Carolyn’s 2 phone numbers again, but no answer. I finally thought I would call home to see if my mother-in-law had heard anything from her.

Instead, my wife picked up the phone.

“Oh hi! I just got in. What a day! Mom says the girls are still really sick, and now she has to go right away to take Dad to his doctor.”

I listened patiently for a pause in the conversation before I said: “you realize the ride home I arranged is for tomorrow night…don’t you?”

“You mean it’s only Tuesday?? Ohhhh… I am so sorry. But Mom’s leaving, and the girls are too sick to load up and come and get you. You’ll have to take a cab. I’m really sorry.”

I wasn’t upset at all. To be honest, it was quite funny. And… I suddenly had the rare upper hand.

I was the only one left in my own team, but I was hopeful I could find someone upstairs who could give me a ride home, and save me the $25 cab fare. I live 20 minutes outside of town. It was a long shot—the place is pretty empty by 6pm.

I ran into 2 co-workers who were chatting. I knew they both lived further out of town than I did, but in the opposite direction. On the other hand, I couldn’t pass up the chance to tell my story. They thought it was hilarious—my wife had forgotten me at work!

And as luck would have it, one of them was not heading home. She was on her way to visit her mother, who lives near me. Not only did I get a ride home, but when I arrived and told my wife who had driven me, all she could say was “…but she lives an hour in the other direction”.

I thought it best not to argue. I let her believe our friend had turned around to drive back in the opposite direction.

I didn’t play it up too much. I just let the guilty feeling linger for a day or two – about the time it took for the plans my friends and I had for a poker game to fall apart for lack of a venue.

It was much easier to convince her to take the girls on an overnight to Grandma’s house next weekend when it was her own idea.

And I promised her I would definitely remember to pick them up again the next day.