Hang On

This was one of those days, not a "Human Pinball" day, more like a "Hang On, the Ride's Starting" kind of day.

It started with a four-hour field trip for my son's class, to a marine science center.  Actually it started with my cat snoring at 5 a.m., waking me up.  Fell back asleep at around 6.  Then, at 7:30, raced to Starbucks because there was no bread for sandwiches, and little else that I could easily pack into a brown bag for a field trip; bought two bagels from the superhuman morning baristas at my local cafe, working their way through lines of fifteen people (or more) as if they were nothing.

When we got to school the teacher told me she'd emailed me to say there were enough drivers; I never got the email.  I stupidly said twice, "So you don't need me?"  She didn't want to say it, so she hemmed and hawed; I stood there trying to figure out what to do.  Finally I decided I would just accompany my son outside, to whichever car he was going in; but when the parent driving that car said "Why don't you just come along?" I thought, yes, why not.  It turned out to be a fantastic field trip, the kind my son will probably remember for the rest of his life, or at least, the part where the class pulled fish out of the bay with a huge net then they let him transfer one fish to a clear bucket with his cupped hands--or the part where he got to touch a leopard shark, in spite of his fear that it would bite his hand off.

After the field trip the kids returned for one hour of class time, and so I went running in spite of a huge headache; the run (a moderately-paced one; I'm "tapering" as they say in the racing world--yes I'm a true triathlon geek now) helped me shake the headache, amazingly enough.  I picked up my son; we watered the classroom garden, which looked as dry as a bone; I did some basic chores at home, then we went to a fundraising dinner for the school at a local "fresh-Mex" restaurant.  Then back at home, I worked on my son's ghost costume (to be worn on Halloween and at the school Halloween parade the day before) until 10 p.m.  Until just now in fact.

Now that the costume is done (just before the deadline), I feel so much better.  In fact, I feel like Supermom today...able to cruise through long field trips and never-before-attempted costume construction in a single day...tomorrow though I've got to carve out a little time for myself, or I'll find myself falling into that cruel vortex of perfect-Mommy madness that so many women have disappeared into, never to be seen again.