Almost Comical

I will be laughing in a few days...hopefully sooner. Today has been a bit of a crazy day! Matt called me mid-morning fretting his minor mistake...he had taken my suburban keys with him all the way into ABQ, a good hour away. The problem is that we have been meaning for a while now to get a spare key...do you understand the "minor" part now? He asked, in high hopes, if I had anything to do today. I didn't even check my calendar...because it is a given that the most important things I had to do today were to take Chloe to the school to catch her preschool bus and pick her and Carter up from school. We live a little less than 2 miles from the school.

My first feeling was disgust...but at least he gave me an hour warning and didn't leave me to find out while in a mad rush out the door...or frantically trying to get out the door while turning the house upside-down trying to find the keys. I was also feeling aggrevated.

My second feeling was hopelessness. I just decided that Chloe wouldn't go to school because I didn't want to figure out how to make it work. I was still feeling aggrevated.

My third feeling was a tiny bit of relief when I realized that I could walk the kids to the school and silently feeling a little gratitude that I had enough time to walk to school. I figured we would need at least 30-45 minutes.

The gratitude quickyly faded when I remembered that the stroller was in the back of the suburban...felt a little hope that maybe the door was unlocked...called Matt and found out it was locked. Ok, back to feeling aggrevated and hopeless and getting very angry.

My next feeling (I forgot by now how many emotions I was feeling!) was a glimpse of excitement to ride my bike with the bike trailer...but too angry to allow myself to feel excited. (I will mention that I have thought about riding my bike with the kids to the school on several occasions, but hadn't had the opportunity...yet) I decided Chloe could ride her scooter and I could fold it up and bring it home in the bike trailer.

I began to feel like I needed to release some of these quickly building emotions, so some exercise sounded great...yet still allowing myself to escalate the frustration, anger, aggrevation and excitement inside me.

We quickly had some sandwiches and loaded the kids in the bike trailer for our begrudging journey. Part of me wanted to feel self pity and the other part wanted to make Matt feel horrible for his tragic "accident" of taking the keys with him across the country, or so it seemed.

Well, after the long journey, which Mason and Josie thoroughly enjoyed (riding cozy and snuggled up together in the bike trailer) we survived the lovely experience. Chloe was totally thrilled that she got to rider her scooter to the school where she told her preschool bus driver all about her scooter-riding experience.

After returning home from the first round-trip, the kids didn't take naps because they slept all the way home. I was exhausted and wished I could lay down for a nap with them...but nobody would go to sleep...which added to my frustration. By now, I had burned up a lot of unnecessary emotion and was feeling better...mostly just tired.

So, as time went by, it grew time to get back on the bikes to go pick the kids up from school. It was a long uphill journey that seemed harder than the first time. I think part of it was that I didn't have any rest periods because Chloe wasn't with me to take breaks. Somehow I made it to the school...by now feeling like I am seriously out of shape and need to start riding every day just to get in shape. I felt a little shakey, but everything was good when Carter saw me on my bike and realized that he got to ride his scooter home from school.

As we waited for Chloe's bus to arrive, Carter and his little friend rode the scooters around for a while. It was a great energy release for them. I think I might bring the scooters for them to ride everyday during this wait. Well, when Chloe finally arrived, we started on our final journey home. It seemed to be a slow journey, but mostly downhill for the kids. We had to take a few breaks...thankfully. As we got closer to home we stopped to get our mail. We still had about 1/4 of a mile or less to go before getting home...when all of a sudden my bike pedal decides to break off...so I end up walking the rest of the way home.

By now, I don't even know what emotions I am feeling...other than total exhaustion...mentally and physically. The great thing was that the kids got home and were exhausted also. It took about 45 minutes to get home.

So, the moral of this very long story...is "I have no idea!" :) I think I got all worked up over nothing and deep down inside thoroughly enjoyed the fact that I was out on my bike getting some much needed exercise! :) I think that I just might do it again someday.

Oh, and I did forgive Matt, since he really did make an innocent mistake. I think we are going to get another key made soon! :)

I think I am about ready to laugh about this silly...way too long...travel log! Sorry for wasting some of your precious time. :)