Never mind

Yesterday morning was a logistical nightmare, with Her Ladyship needing to be at school early (note: early = 6:40A) , Young'un's fall conference at 7:30A, Eldest's orthdontist appointment at 8:45A, play therapy for WB at home, and B due in court -- downtown -- at 8A, which meant that he would have to leave the house by 6:15, and was unable to help with any of it.

Getting it all done was tricky, what with all the phone calls and shuffling schedules and making sure that everyone knew where they needed to be and when, but not impossible. The night before I called WB's therapist, who graciously agreed to move her schedule around and come to our house at 11:30 instead of 9. That morning I dropped Her Ladyship off a bit early so that I could be home in time for the older boys (a friend's son is staying with us this week while his parents are out of town) to make their bus at 7A, took Young'un and WB to the conference, where he read books and drew in the hall and his sister amused herself by playing in the class tide pool, drawing, and generally exploring the room while his teachers and I talked, then ran to the coffee shop to get WB and myself a treat before going to the high school to pick up Eldest for his appointment.

(WB -- who had been asleep until just before we had to leave for Young'un's school -- was cutting quite a dash in her fleecy footie pajamas this whole time; the bright pink ones printed with large green frogs, and sporting frog faces on the feet. She certainly stood out in a crowd, but what the heck ... she's TWO, and frankly, looked more pulled together than I did.)

The baby and I got home at around 9:30. I cleared the breakfast dishes, started a load of laundry, and spent a bit of time on the computer before heading back into the kitchen to start a pan of brownies. Once the brownies were in the oven I did a bit more tidying up, and it was then that I noticed that in the rush to get out the door, Eldest had forgotten to take his medication.

I took a quick look at the clock to see if I had time to get to the high school and back before WB's therapist arrived. Nope.

I called any neighbors who might be at home to see if they could run over and hold down the fort while I ran the meds to Eldest. No one was home.

I called WB's therapist and asked her to delay her arrival by 10 minutes (she agreed. saint! the woman is a saint!), grabbed the baby and the meds and dashed out the door. Before pulling out of the driveway I texted Eldest (this involves pushing my glasses up so that I can see the keypad and hunting and pecking my way through each sentence. I really need to get a texting phone):

On my way meet me at the nurse

When I got to the health office (park the car, sign in at the office, carrying and/or leading WB), the boy was nowhere to be found. Aaaargh!!! I didn't have time for this ... I had brownies in the oven and a therapist due on my doorstop any minute! Irritated, I texted him again:

Come to health office now

Stifling my impatience, I made small talk with the nurses and watched WB explore the office . A few seconds later my phone buzzed; I flipped it open to find this message:

Hi im @ jr achv biz town talk later

What the .... I thought the boy was at lunch! "Is there some Junior Achievement meeting at school today?" I asked the nurses. They shook their heads. "Not that we know of."

"What is he playing at?" I huffed. I hit "reply" on my phone and pecked another message to my errant son:

Come to health office 4 your meds now

The nurses smiled at me sympathetically and gave WB a lollipop while I watched the door. Instead of seeing my boy, though, I got another text:

What

O.k., that's IT. Who's doing who the favor here? Furious now, I pecked a firm response (if I knew how to text in all caps, I would have):

Come 2 health office now 4 meds

My text was returned immediately.

This is tanya

Oh.

Uh.

Oooooooooops. Well, she was probably going to have a hard time getting to the health office promptly, seeing as how she lives in NASHVILLE. And was apparently in the middle of a meeting.

Embarassing, yes. But even in the moment I could see how funny it all was (Tanya thought so, too, once she got out of her meeting and I was able to explain what happened). And besides ... some days are like that.

Even in Australia.*

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* who knows the source of that quote?