going to the compound

2-11-10

Yesterday was busy!!

I managed to clean the house from top to bottom. All laundry done, including the dogs’ bedding. I cleaned the heck out of our bedroom, and each of the boys’ bedrooms. I got the living room cleaned, including putting out the boxes of old toys and sweeping up what looked like a small cat’s worth of shedding. I cleaned the kitchen and even had every dish done and put away, nothing left in the dishwasher. I bathed the dogs and did 43 minutes of working out. By the time it was relaxing time, I was so sore I could hardly move. But I did finish the packing, aside from all of the little things like bathroom stuff and the Wii that Ken will do this morning. I can’t leave early today as I have a meeting at 1:15, so I am glad yesterday happened.

I think that in the hour and a half I have to get everything done this afternoon, I should be fine. I need to load the car, which shouldn’t be too bad since I mostly condensed everything. I am hoping that Ken can text me on his way home to tell me his ETA, and when he pulls up, he basically just has to park his car, lock the front door of the house and get in the van.

We have one pit stop at my parent’s house since I forgot Dax’s sweatshirt at their house on Tuesday. Sure, I could have gone and got it last night, but I was not in a position to do so when they called, so they just suggested we swing by on the way out of town. Should be ok, really.

We won’t get in to the Compound until late. Probably after midnight. Hopefully there isn’t too much traffic. It is a Thursday night before a 3 day weekend, so there is the potential for some, but I think tomorrow will be a heavier travel day for most. Monday is going to be crazy, but I think we will end up leaving early enough it should not be too bad. Plus, if we leave early, we can kind of take our time, even stopping somewhere for lunch that has a playground that we can let the boys run a bit.

I get nervous when there is a meeting in the department. Since it is scheduled, it might not be as bad. But since there was so much turmoil an crazy last year whenever there were meetings, I still freak out. Like I worry someone is getting fired or laid off and this departmental meeting is just letting us know that. I worry we are all in some kind of trouble. Since I was gone yesterday, for all I know I was supposed to be let go yesterday!! Anxiety for days. I should have brought my Xanax!

Ok, well, that seemed positive. I just talked to the boss since he just came in and he didn’t seem upset or guarded as he normally does on bad news days. In fact, he seemed very happy and chatty. Of course, I could be reading it all wrong, but I feel a little better. I hate this stress. I know I bring it on myself. I mean, I have no reason to believe I would be on the chopping block. My name, according to my pretty reliable sources, has never come up as someone they wanted to terminate, but it still is something I can’t get too cocky about. It probably doesn’t help that I have a bunch of other stuff on my mind today. I have a trip in a few hours, I have a birthday party in a couple weeks. I have another birthday coming up soon after that. I have an anniversary. Once again, none of this should be this stressful. Perhaps that is why I needed the drugs. Because truthfully, even though I am super stressed right now, I don’t feel nearly as bad as I used to when I had this much on my plate. I feel chipper and even though there is a smidge of anxiety revolving my afternoon meeting, I don’t feel the tightness in my chest that I used to feel. I am not picking at my fingers, and I don’t have a headache. Yay!

I got home yesterday from work and the boys had not yet gone to Maria’s. I opted to take both of them with me when we went on the couple of errands I needed to do. I needed Luna food, Sparky food, and cat litter along with a quick stop by the pharmacy to get my meds. It was probably a mistake to take them. They were both so wound up with me being home they couldn’t contain themselves. Since PetSmart didn’t open till 9, I worked on some of the house while they sat and ate breakfast and watched Spongebob. Not only did a good bit of cereal get on the floor, they thought it was a good idea to stomp on each cherrio, delighted at the tiny explosions each ring made. Yeah, cause I needed more to clean.

At PetSmart they were mostly good, until the end. Neither of them was listening to me and I finally had it. I told them they could not go with me to the store and that I would be taking them to Maria’s now. The tears and screams probably could be heard outside the car. Bobby kept pleading, “Mom, can we have one more chance?” I told them if they were silent from PetSmart to Ralphs’s, they could go in with me. I was shocked at how quiet they were. They earned the 8 minute trip to the pharmacy.

When I picked them up, we had to run by the Dollar Tree since I needed to get some candy for Valentines to take to daycare. I love that they had these little ziplock bags with hearts on them. It made the whole thing so much easier. Plus, for $6, I was able to make 24 little bags of goodness. There are only 12 kids, and I suppose I could have been cheap and made one baggie per kid from both my kids, but I thought that was cheating.

I have been keeping so busy this morning, slamming through my accounts, being a master harasser. I think it has kept me from stressing too much about this afternoon. On the plus side, meetings tend to kill a whole lot of time and it means that I will get out of here all the sooner.