Where do I get off?

Where do I get off going and having another kid?

I can hardly manage one.

Today started off pretty rough.

Leslie (our out-of-this-world-amazing caregiver) has been off on vacation since last week and I am way too scatterbrained to have my regular schedule messed with like this.

She asked for a week off back in May, a request to which I replied something along the lines of "Oh my god, of course! Whatever you want!" and reminded me two weeks ago to be sure I'd remembered, to which I cooly responded "Oh yeah. We've got it covered. Have fun!"...but do you think I really remembered though?

Nope.

Not so much.

All the trouble started when I lost (read: Clemmie lost) the dry erase marker to my fridge calendar.

Who knew I relied on that crummy little Dollar Store purchase so much?

August never made it to the calendar and so far I've missed one doctor's appointment, stood up a friend for dinner (I hate myself) and forgotten to find care giving not once, but twice.

Including today.

I work Tuesdays all day.

I look forward to my full days in the shop so I can catch up on emails and administrative stuff and, let's face it, have a little time to sort myself out without having to have snack breaks and read One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish eleventeen times.

This morning I was on my own (Brad's was at a work thing in Montreal overnight) and I was all over the single mom thing like it's my job.

I even set the coffee last night so it was ready to go when I woke up.

I had both of us dressed and fed and cuddling on the couch by 8:30am, and was waiting outside with my lunch packed and purse in hand for Leslie to show up by 9:30.

By 9:45 I started to worry.

She's usually here by now. I better go check her note from back in May (she keeps a sitter's journal. Of course she does.) and see if I have my dates mixed up.

Sure enough.

She's off until the 2nd.

Shit.

At this point I had 15 minutes to get to work and open the shop, and bringing the rugrat simply isn't an option.

It was Emily's (my part timer) last day before she goes off to University yesterday, it's Colleen's kid's birthday, both my parents are at work, Brad's away, and I. AM. ROYALLY. SCREWED.

In tears (I mean, if I cry over spilled milk, you know I'm going to be Niagara Falls in this kind of pickle) I called my friend Andrea who will be starting to look after Clem on Mondays soon to see if she could rescue me.

And rescue me she did.

We were at her place in less than 5 minutes and, truly, I welled up at the sight of her I loved her so much in that moment.

So we're good now, and I'm trying to turn my day around.

I've been promised a back rub for my troubles so at least there's that to look forward to.

To better days,

xo Em