"On the road again......"

.......... "just can't wait to get on the road again........"

With all due respects to Willie Nelson, I think I've been on the road ENOUGH today!!  I will be SOOOO glad when hubby is back home from Georgia and able to help some with running kids to and fro.  My day has been full of driving, driving and more driving.......

8:45 AM -- Drive Morgan to college -- 30 minutes, 15 miles

9:15 AM -- Stopped at Starbucks for a hot chocolate and a muffin; stopped at a gas station and filled up the car; and then.....

9:45 AM -- Hit the road again, this time to meet a client in Alexandria, Virginia -- 1 hour, 38.5 miles

Met with my client at the Starbucks in Alexandria, left there around 12:30 PM, and headed BACK to Columbia to pick up Morgan from school -- another hour of driving, 38.5 more miles on the car.

After picking her up, we headed back home, but needed to make stops at CVS and PetSmart on the way home, so there was another 50 minutes or so, plus 17 or 18 more miles.

Then this evening, we'd promised Bryanna we'd drive up to the restaurant she works at for dinner and let her wait on us........ 28 miles, 45 more minutes of driving....... and then a return trip home.  

Grand total for the day:  nearly FIVE HOURS in the car; 150+ miles on the car; one exhausted mom........

And as of today -- two overdue clients; two more due TODAY; one due TOMORROW; one due sometime next week.  I haven't looked at the April calendar in the last two days; I just can't even THINK about clients due then, even though technically some of them could be in the "birthing zone" as well!!!  I think SOME people need to have babies soon -- and a few need to WAIT!!!!  This could be a busy next week or so.....

These are the days.......

......that try my soul!! I really don't like days that don't go the way I planned -- and lately, it seems like I'm experiencing more and more of those kinds of days. My plan for the day was to get my daughter up, do some uninterrupted homeschooling, bake and ice a cake (just for fun, no special occasion), do a bit of laundry, pay some bills, keep working on the taxes. Very ambitious, but I really THOUGHT it would work out!!

One of my clients, who's been trying to get her labor going, called this morning to tell me nothing was happening -- OK, so far my day is intact!! This bubble was soon burst, however, as my partner Audrey called to tell me that the birth she was at (which we had expected would be quick and easy, as it was the mom's fourth baby) was now entering 13 hours and no sign of ending. Unfortunately, my partner was scheduled to be at work today and needed to leave the birth no later than 2 pm. If the baby wasn't born by 12:30 or 1:00, she'd need me to drive to Virginia to take over for her.

Well now -- change of plans, but maybe I can still salvage something of the morning. Maybe I can get my daughter up, get some school done, maybe the cake?? Except that when I wake her up, I hear the words every mother dreads: "My stomach doesn't feel very good. I think I'm going to throw up!" Oh, no, not THAT!! Fortunately, that doesn't happen, but she ended up spending all morning on the sofa, and absolutely NO work got done. And no cake, either -- and I was SOOO looking forward to that cake!!

Audrey called at 12:30. No baby born, I need to get down there. Off I go, leaving sick daughter on the sofa, recuperating dog on the floor next to her, and praying that no disaster happens while I'm gone!!! I arrived at the mom's house in Virginia at 2:04 -- the baby was born at 2:06! So my partner got to be present for the birth, though she needed to leave immediately, and I took care of assisting the midwife through the postpartum period. Thankfully, all went smoothly and easily, and I was out of there by 5:10 pm.

The harder part was the drive home. Leaving Virginia and trying to drive through or around Washington, DC and into Maryland at that time of day is suicidal. I KNOW better; I should've found a Starbucks or a restaurant, stopped and got a snack or a meal, waited for an hour until the traffic slowed down, and I probably STILL would've gotten home at the same time as I would have braving the traffic. But no.... I just wanted to go home!! So I drove straight into the mess! Two hours, 45 minutes later, I arrived home -- a 54 mile drive in nearly 3 hours. You do the math -- it was SLOOOOOWWWWW going. Three hours at the client's house, four hours on the road -- I think there's something wrong with that situation!!

Now I'm home and typing, because I'm just too tired to do much else! Guess the rest of my big plans will need to wait for tomorrow.

My funny moment for the day involves Cody (what else??). He is still recovering from his surgery and was resting in the hallway right outside my office door this morning. I heard his tags jingling, and looked up to find him curled around towards his rear end, with rear leg up in the air over his head, starting to lick his stitches again. I made the ah-hem, "clearing my throat" noise, but said nothing. He moved his eyes -- and nothing else -- and looked directly at me, staring, probably for 8 to 10 seconds, then slowly lowered the leg, pretending to scratch himself on the head!! What a liar!! Then he let out another of his now-infamous sighs, and went back to resting on the floor. Poor Cody -- busted again!!!