Suddenly *Not So* Single Journey

Practically Pamplona…

Author: thenicknick

Yes, it’s the start of a new school year.  And that means one thing.  Where Pamplona has the running of the bulls, we have the walking of the schedule.

Right.

As if getting up early and walking my soon to be phat butt down Carmel Road wasn’t enough, I now have to complete Rachel’s schedule with her.  Seriously.  And after a full eight hours at the office, I’m mostly toast.

The only thing that spurred me on was that I remembered I was a loving and supportive mother…dammit.  That was why I crammed about thirty things into the evening.  There’s nothing like attending two open houses, picking up pet food, getting some brows done and feeding the family after working all day.

Well, it was a rough start from the inception.  The kids came home later than anticipated from their weekend with the ex.  Great.

And then I couldn’t find the pet food coupon.  (Yes, I am now a coupon carrying kind of girl.)  Luckily, we decided the pup’s food could wait a day.  I changed my clothes and we were off.

We hit Bi-Lo first to get the cat food.  We go through a lot of cat food.  It was quick and painless, despite the fact that I was toting two kids around.

From there, to the mall so Rachel could get her eyebrows beaten back.  Poor girl.  Only…there would be a thirty minute wait for a five minute service.  And I just didn’t have that kind of time since her open house was ending in…thirty minutes.

On to the school.

We arrived and expected to meet up with Ashley…only that never happened.  Instead, we worked the schedule.  We went from one building to the next, then on to another.  I’m not entirely sure how many buildings are on the campus.  What I am sure of is that Rachel didn’t have any two class back to back in the same building and we must have visited most of them.

Much like last year, it had to be 97 degrees.  And I was fading fast.  For some reason, I suspect that by the time Keenan is in high school, I’ll be sending him in a cab.  Just kidding, kid!  Mostly…

And we just kept walking and walking.  And there were stairs involved.  And suddenly, a thought occurred to me.

me: Rachel, we are just doing the first semester, right?

Rachel: No, Mommy.

me: We don’t need to do both semesters now!

I was ready to tell her I’d meet her in the car when she finally decided she’d had enough.  So it was off to Keenan’s open house.  And suddenly I was drawing a blank.  I couldn’t remember which direction to turn to get to his school.  (Much like the kids, all the unnecessary info falls out of my head over the summer.)

We found the school.  It was a quick left then a right then a left into the parking lot.  We parked in the already full lot.  And we walked to the main entrance…where we were immediately foiled in our plan to gain a quick entry and retreat.

Yup.  Locked up tight.  And there was a sign that warned the doors would remain that way for another thirty minutes.

Puhleeze!

My calves were burning.  My stomach was eating itself.  My toes were tingling.

me: Maybe I’m stroking out.

No such luck.

Keenan found us an unlocked side door.  We were in.  Oh, and the best part?  His homeroom was right there.  We introduced ourselves, made some apologies that we couldn’t stay later, and headed back to the car.

No, I don’t think I’m better than anyone else.  I’m not busier or more important or anything like that.  I’m just more determined to Damn the Man when I can, when I really need to.  And I needed to.

We ordered food and headed to get a few more groceries before heading home.  We made it back before 7pm…barely.  We accomplished almost everything.  Poor eyebrows.  Maybe we’ll pluck them later.  After all, tonight is something of a crap shoot.  Bishop has a follow up appointment at the vet.  Fingers crossed.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 24th, 2010 at 6:18 am and is filed under Reflections. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.