TheMommyBlog

Monday, May 29, 2006 Family

There’s nothing like… oh wait, yes there is. There always is. I start out saying there’s nothing like something when in fact I am EXPERIENCING that something at this very moment. Must wean self from pithy phrases. Will start with that one.

So I am off to Chicago first thing tomorrow morning for a forty hour there-and-back. Not enough time even to slip away and see the King Tut exhibit at the Field Museum. I saw it as a child when it was there last, but would like to have had another look with a bit more appreciation and context.

Anyway, the panic. Here it is, late evening, haven’t even packed, my most severe suit has been in a pile on my bedroom floor since I arrived home from the last conference, and Logan has a crop of blisters on his lip that would make your momma weep. He gets cold sores now and then, but this looks more like our old friend, Impetigo. Impy doesn’t visit very often, but when he does, he runs from one to another of the children and then back to at least one again before we get a handle on it. He makes me crazy, this man Impy.

Of course, Logan also feels like shit with the associated malaise, and absolutely cannot go to school tomorrow. “Don’t worry mom, I’ll just rest in the school office all day.” Yeah, right. I’m already on the list with them about some other things; I don’t need to ask them to put up my contagious-rash-ridden boy. Someone has to keep him home.

Did I say I was getting on a plane at 8:30?

Oh, and guess what else is happening at 8:30 tomorrow morning? Dylan is going to be honored as a Spotlight Student at his school. They only pick two kids per class per month, so it’s a big deal considering what kind of trouble he’s had in school this year. His teacher is amazed and proud of how far he’s come and how well he’s turned his behavior around and says that he’ll thrive in first grade next year because he just loves to learn and there is more to occupy him there.

Think about it. We’ve gone from being on speed-dial at two kindergartens and one day-care, been called at least once a week for unacceptable behavior (spirited child, my ass—he’s bored and knows he’s funny) to having him recognized in from of the entire school for earning such a high behavioral honor. I won’t be there, but he knows how proud I am of him, and that Grandpa will be there for me and Daddy too, with Logan in a Hannibal Lecter mask. God, I want to put one of those old-fashioned mustard plasters on him just to get it to do something other than sit there torturing us all. ("Wash your hands! Wash your face! Hey, mind washing your hands again? I know, LET’S WASH THOSE HANDS.")

Anyway for a while there I thought I was going to have to change my flight to get into Chicago after midnight so I could keep him home the first half of the day. Then his dad checked his schedule and instead of having to be at a meeting an hour away all morning, the meeting is a phone call he can do from home. But that was a fun fifteen minutes of checking flight schedules while he remembered that. He’s going to have to reschedule another meeting as well, but it’s that or hand in my resignation, because I cannot, cannot ditch this presentation and still hold my head up. There are two whopping pitches this week alone so I am pulling favors left and right. I’m just so used to having my nice little home office and being able to shoot down the street to pick up each child after school. Kinds throws a wrench into the routine when you have to be hours away.

Which reminds me. WHAT AM I DOING TYPING? I should be packing. Gah. All I need are black shoes. Two of them, hopefully. I think the suit has sufficiently un-wrinkled and I have a blouse. Severe bun comes later. I’m packing double doses of anxiety meds. And my best smile.

UPDATE: It is indeed impetigo. We had a late-night freak-out because a spot on his bottom was itching SO BADLY. Earlier, Phil and I were talking about where it chooses to show up and I said, “funny, it’s always on the bottom near the hip.” He pointed out that that’s just about where guys scratch. Bingo.