Sunday, May 22, 2005

a busy, busy week

We went to two birthday parties, my brother's comedy show; it was finals week at our jobs and Ben had a stomach bug. Here's an excerpt from his diarrhea log:

Day 1: 3 yellow, seedy; 1 green and watery. Vomiting. Ate cereal and bananas and carrots and applesauce and 24 oz. of formula--vomited all except late night bottle.
Day 2: 1 green/yellow, watery. No solid foods. 12 oz. of formula. No drool. Peed once. Some vomiting.
Day 3: No stool.
Day 4: 1 light yellow, more solid. No vomiting.

Never did I think I would be keeping track of anyone else's excrement. What is missing in the log is Ben's projectile vomiting of grape-flavored Pedialyte all over my shirt and pants, and the morning when I went to get him and he was soaked from head to toe in curdled milk. Oh, and the morning when he was rolling around in his crib in the oozing, green diarrhea that had exploded from his diaper.

Ben's better now, so yesterday we went to a birthday party for a family friend who was turning 50. It was held at the R's house, world-renknowned for making people uncomfortable at their "parties." Nine months ago, the R's 17-year-old daughter gave birth to googly-eyed twin runts who had enticing toys that Ben couldn't play with due to Mrs. R's aversion to "germs." Apparently, Mrs. R has never heard of soap and water. In return, I tried to coax Ben into licking their photo frames, light switches and silk plants just for fun.

Ben has excellent taste, and he hates the R's. He screeched the entire time we were there. When we got home, he, relieved, played contentedly in his Exersaucer (see pics above), ate some sweet potatoes and cereal and fell blissfully asleep. It is absolutely amazing how many people in this world are lacking personalities and etiquette, yet still manage to be convinced that they are better than everyone else. I will never subject Ben to those horrible, horrible people again.

Last week, I had a little bout with depression or hormone shifts or sleeplessness or something. We went to a day spa for my sister-in-law Jillian's birthday, and I left Ben at day care. Unfortunately, we hit traffic on the way back, and I was too late to go to work to collect my student's final research papers. My husband Ryan teaches the same night and he assured me that it would be no problem to collect the papers for me. But for some reason, I suddenly felt so overwhelmingly guilty for everything--for going to the day spa in the first place, for missing my students' last day, for leaving Ben at day care while I rubbed clay on my body, for shirking my responsibilities, for not striking the correct balance between mother, English instructor, and 25-year-old who wants to have fun with her friends. I was crying hysterically. Later that night, we went out for dinner, and I told Ryan, who's been working very hard, to go out for drinks with his sister and friends and that I would take the baby home. Unfortunately, I forgot to get the alarm for Ryan's car, and I went running through the parking lot at 10pm like a madwoman trying to find Ryan to get his keys. Finally, after what must have been a quarter mile of running, I burst into tears (again) and, miraculously, Ryan and his sis spotted me running from their car on the way out of the lot, and they drove me back to the car. To make a long story short, I got into the car to discover it was extremely low on gas, tried and nearly failed to find a gas station before stalling out, got lost and nearly fell asleep on the freeway on the way home.

I had a lot of fun on Jill's birthday, but I was so very tired on the next day, and I faced a mountain of grading and housework. Which I'm still catching up on.

Days like these make me so grateful for the days when I simply stay at home and sit around in my pajamas and play with Ben.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just knew grading papers would be in there somewhere. I think I might have liked my Composition class a whole lot better if you had been the Instructor!
You need some of those wrist bracelets that Wonder Woman wears.
Criminy, don't feel guilty about a spa treatment just for you.
Keep on doing your best. A day of rest will come along....

Anonymous said...

Speaking as a former daycare teacher...You should not feel guilty leaving your little guy there for some extra time. You probably have to pay for it anyway (ours was a set fee for a week, no matter if the kid missed for illness or mom's extracurriculars) so you might as well do what you can, and know he is in a safe place.

You're doing fine. Having a baby is hard on a body and schedule. Take plenty of pictures because in 20 years, memory fades.

Anonymous said...

Husband forwarded an e-mail sent to him. This came from ***Dave

A college class was told to write a short story in as few words as possible. The instructions were that the story must contain the following three subject areas:

1. Religion
2. Sexuality
3. Mystery

There was only one A+ paper in the entire class.

Good God, I’m pregnant! I wonder who the father is.

angela said...

Ha--that's a good one!