Is it the weekend yet?

This is the kind of week when an airplane could fall out of the sky and nobody would even know where it landed for 36 hours. When a preggo little sister would have to head for home five days early, missing her own baby shower, because of contractions that can't be stopped (she's only 27 weeks!). When both my job and M's might suddenly turn shaky within hours of each other. And it seems entirely appropriate that it has been cold, gray and rainy almost all week, a rarity for Colorado in June.

M's employer laid off 18 people on Tuesday. Luckily, he was not among the 18. But he still has to take a 10% pay cut (the up side of this is that he will not be working Fridays for the next few months), and there will be no more 401(k) match. The way they went about it was just awful. They'd been saying for a few months that there were going to be layoffs. Then for the past few weeks, they kept saying it was going to happen "next week." Every week, that's what they'd say. Then the managers had a meeting on Monday where they found out exactly who was going to get laid off. And they were told that if they spilled the beans before 9am the next day, they'd be fired. So they had to face the people they were going to lay off all afternoon, and couldn't tell. And everyone had to go home that night and try to sleep, then drag themselves into the office the next morning to find out if they were losing their jobs. Why???? Why not just do it right after that meeting on Monday? So we found out late Tuesday morning that M was not losing his job. Whew.

A mere three hours later, I received an all-staff email from our executive director, announcing that the retiree health plan had been canceled, nobody could carry over vacation accrued in FY2010, and there would be no raises this year. Plus, we'll have to do at least one of the following soon: layoffs, salary cuts, furloughs, or increased employee cost-sharing in the health plan. They are seeking our input on these options, and I assume the decision will be made next month when the executive committee meets. My pick is for some combination of salary cuts and furlough days -- that seems like the most equitable way of sharing the pain.

When it rains, it pours. I'm ready for this week of rain, both literal and figurative, to be over. At least we're both still employed, right?

B's got the cat flu

We woke up at 2:00 this morning to a panicked "Mommy! I bawfed!" followed immediately by the unmistakable sound of more barfing. Poor little dude was sick as a dog. Errr, a cat, I mean. M helped him to the bathroom while I cleaned up the mess. As I was headed down the stairs in the dark with an armful of barfy bedclothes, I very narrowly missed stepping in not one but two huge piles of cat barf on the steps. Why must they barf on the steps?! And always on carpet? Good grief, only three rooms in our entire house have carpet, yet the dumb cats NEVER barf on the hardwood floors where it's easy to clean up. Then I found another half dozen cat barf sites this morning in the light of day. Gross.

At one point, we very nearly took B to the emergency room last night. He was screaming his head off, writhing in pain. It went on & on & on, and we were starting to think he had a burst appendix. But I finally got him calmed down enough to explain that when your tummy's upset, the best way to help it feel better is to lie still and be quiet. He tried that out, and the screaming/writhing went away.

B seemed better at first this morning, until he walked into Z's room where I was getting her dressed. When he opened his mouth to say something to me, he projectile-vomited all over the floor instead. The floor covered with an unwashable throw rug whose colors run when they get wet; lucky for him I'm much more forgiving toward kid barf than cat barf. Plus I'm the one who was stupid enough to put an unwashable rug on the floor of a kid's room, so really it's all my fault, not his.

Now it's late afternoon and he really does seem better. He's running a fever but has managed to keep his stomach contents in his stomach since the morning projectile vomiting episode. The cat is better too.

I hope I don't get it next. I've already had the stomach flu at least three times that I can think of in the past year and I really don't need it again. But he did insist on sleeping all snuggled up with me for the rest of the night, so my odds of dodging it aren't very good. I have been engaging in an OCD-level of handwashing though. And not eating much, just in case it decides to come back up later on.

Life keeps getting in the way

I am dropping the ball big-time on the blog these days. There just isn't time! Take yesterday for example:

6:00am Wake up, make coffee get dressed & ready for work, let the dog out, feed the critters, shut windows & blinds so the no-A/C house won't be 1,000 degrees when we get home in the evening, pack lunch & put it in car so I won't forget and leave it on the counter, fold a load of laundry
6:40am Wake up kids & get them ready to go
7:00am Out the door
7:20am Drop off kids at school
8:00am At my desk at work, frantically trying to cram my full-time++ job into my part-time (and part-pay) schedule
5:10pm Leave work
5:15pm Car starts acting funny
5:20pm Call M to warn him I might not make it to childcare by 6:00 (the time they close and start charging you $1/minute/kid if you're late)
5:40pm Car starts to totally break down on mile-long bridge with no shoulders, check engine light starts flashing frantically, I call USAA for a tow truck and start praying (to whom, I don't know) that the car makes it off the bridge before it totally dies
5:42pm I make it off the bridge, abandon car at a Denny's parking lot, run in to tell the manager why it's there, run back to the car to grab some change because my bus pass is in my other bag at home, and sprint six blocks for a bus (in high heels and a skirt, clutching a purse in one hand and pressing a cell phone to my ear with the other because I'm still on the phone with USAA)
5:55pm I catch a local bus that's standing-room only and stops on every corner
6:15pm I run in the door at childcare; luckily for me, it's a night they're open late for parent training (so no $30 late charge), and they're even feeding the kids dinner
6:30pm M arrives at the broken down VW, takes the child seats out & puts them in his car (Note to self: buy another child seat this weekend so we can have 2 in both cars at all times), and gives the VW key to the tow truck driver
6:40pm M arrives at childcare
7:00pm We arrive home; Z pretty much goes straight to bed; I water gardens, feed the dog, etc.
7:45pm I start getting B ready for bed
8:30pm B is in bed; I finish watering gardens & take a weak stab at tidying the house
9:00pm I eat a tortilla and call it dinner, collapse into bed with the Daily Show on
5:45am today: Repeat (except that M drives the kids to school and I catch a bus 2 blocks from the house -- a much nicer way to get to work than driving IMO -- I'm hoping M decides he likes taking the kids to school & I can ride the bus from home most days)

Now if only the car repair shop would answer their phone or call me back...

See why I haven't been blogging? There's always something. I'm actually at work right now...better stop blogging and do some actual work...

10:30am UPDATE: Shit. Just talked to the car repair shop, and someone broke into my car overnight. It doesn't look like they took anything, but they broke a window. Now I have to head over there to meet the police & file a report. Fortunately, the shop has the whole thing on videotape, so maybe they'll actually catch the @ssholes. Pardon my French, but I'm pissed.

I'm baaaaack

It's been a crazy, psycho blur of a week. There's been no time to do a blog post. This is the best I can do -- a quick rundown of what's been going on around here:

Last weekend we had 60 degree weather, so we took B to the zoo. I learned that the zoo carousel (or is it a merry-go-round? the zoo train engineer tells you about the difference as you pass by it on the train and I know I've heard the spiel at least twenty times, but apparently I don't really listen) goes abnormally fast, as I was unable to get a photo that was both (a) not blurry and (b) had both M and B's heads in it. Why did M ride the carousel? Because it makes me so dizzy I feel like I'm going to hurl.

We wound up a fun weekend by roasting marshmallows over a backyard campfire. We got a patio fireplace from my parents for Christmas but hadn't been able to use it yet because every single day since Christmas it's been snowing, freezing, incredibly windy, or some miserable combination thereof. Note the cool after-dark view of downtown that we have from our backyard. It's much better at night, when you can't see the brown cloud.

On Wednesday this week, my work friends threw me a baby shower. Cake and presents, always a good way to spend a Wednesday afternoon at work! It was fun and very sweet. The women all sat on one side of the room, and oohed and aahed over all the darling girly clothes I held up as I opened gifts. The men sat on the other side of the room and oohed and aahed rather sarcastically, if you ask me. But I didn't mind, really. It was nice that they came. Men showing up for a shower at our office is a rare event.

Also on Wednesday, I went to the doctor and got a fistful of prescriptions for our trip, including antibiotics for all three of us and a goody bag full of Ambien samples so we can sleep on the way to Hong Kong.

One last thing. The best thing, actually. Today I went to work for a few hours and took B with me. In the car on the way there, he counted all the way to 100, with very minimal help from me! Very impressive. He tried to convince me that he was the only person in the whole wide world who could count to 100, but I didn't buy that. We finally settled on the idea that perhaps he's the only 4 year-old person who can count to 100.

My countdown clock: 16 days to Zhi Yi -- WOW!!

Sicko

Wah. I'm sick. Went to bed last night with my stomach feeling a little gurgly & sloshy, but not actually feeling sick. Woke up feeling the same. Started getting ready for our big ski day, and things went downhill fast (ha ha, bad pun -- sorry). B & I sent M on his merry way up to ski b/c he had a telemark lesson to take (Christmas gift from me) that couldn't be rescheduled. I thought maybe if I laid down for an hour, I'd feel better & B and I could go somewhere closer to fool around a bit. He's never skied before, so it's not like we need to hit the big bumps at Mary Jane or anything. Any 10' x 10' patch of snow, even without a hill, probably would've suited him fine.

Parents to the rescue!!! God, what would we do if we didn't live near family? After an hour of ever-increasing misery, I called my parents. They were here in under two hours, and have taken B and his skis up to their house until tomorrow. After his so-called nap, they're going to take him up in the mountains somewhere to fool around with the skis for an hour or so. I'm hoping M & I will be better by tomorrow. Oh yeah, M left his lesson an hour early & came home sick too. He didn't even wave at me nesting on the couch when he walked in the door. He just went straight up to bed.

I never get sick, so I'm super-wussy when it happens. The last time I was sick was the winter after B was born. I was sick throughout the whole pregnancy and most of the first year after he was born. I never had morning sickness, I just got sick a lot. I think all my immunity went to him while he was cooking & while I was breastfeeding. I caught every single cold, sinus infection, stomach flu, ear infection, and general crud that came along. It SUCKED. But I haven't been sick since. And before that? I remember having the flu twice in graduate school, which would've been 1995-1997. I was teaching English as a second language, so I'm sure I was exposed to all sorts of exotic germs my students brought with them from around the world. But that's it. I can't recall anything other than a cold for the rest of my entire adult life.

I'm not good at being sick. I'm going to go curl up on the couch & watch bad daytime TV until I pass out.

Whine, whine, whimper, whimper.