So much for blogging every day. But, I have a really good excuse. I got sick. Then, I had to do a job that only a mother can do.
As I blogged about Wednesday night, I had taken my youngest son and his girlfriend to dinner at a sports pub so they could hang out and watch the Cubs make history. The evening covered No. 2, No. 10, & No. 24 on My Favorite Things list.
Within an hour of getting home, I realized I had food poisoning. Within an hour of suffering with all the wonderfulness that is upper and lower GI distress — I got word that my middle son’s journey to California and his goal of working for a BMX team was thwarted by the follies of youth. Due to some legal issues of other parties involved — not my son — we’ll have to leave the reasons at that.
Regardless, middle son, MWB, was stranded just south of Redding, California. However, his amount of baggage was too much for a train, plane, or bus to get him to San Francisco as originally planned. Also, without a travel companion, his #LifewithAutism kicked in and he wanted to come home. Between worry and my body working hard to expel whatever nastiness caused the food poisoning, I didn’t sleep much Wednesday night, maybe about two hours.
By Thursday morning, my actual birthday, getting my son here was clear becoming a one-way street: Mom drives 10.5 hours one way and picks him up and drives 10.5 hours back home in time for youngest son’s last football game of the season. All the while fighting bad calamari food poisoning. Just call me Wonder Woman. Oi.
I called my friend, Alexa Lioncourt, (No. 5) who, along with my pal and fellow author, Tonya Fraser, that tattoos would have to wait. Alexa went straight into her own superhero mode and called our artist (No. 9) and smoothed things over (He was expecting six hours of work with a cancellation just two hours prior. Boo!). He was very understanding and I’m grateful that a bridge wasn’t burned, because as some of you have heard me say in recent months, 2017 is the Year of the Tattoo (more on that later).
It was a full-throttle get gas, check the oil, walk the dogs, double feed the poultry, pack water and saltines (remember, food poisoning?), call father in law (No. 4) to catch youngest son after football and deal with being an adult presence at the homestead, and throw some sweats in a bag, and go, go go! Fortunately, there was no other barriers to my doing this.
Alexa called me just as I was heading out of town and asked if I wanted some company. This was my face: Safe To Click . So, I pulled a u-turn on I-90 West and headed back to get my friend, who I felt maybe wasn’t sure what she was signing up for, but I was grateful for the help.
And help she was. She was the perfect co-pilot handling the unending messages from my panicking son on the spectrum in California, the scholar athlete left behind, the husband traveling (No. 30) in Boston, and a million birthday messages that we mostly missed because of horrible, horrible cell reception through Oregon and California. When she saw me getting aggravated, tired, bored, she made conversation, pointed out cool things, and generally was the best person I could have had on an emergency road trip. Thank you, friend. <3 And look at that, No. 5 on my Favorites list. (We had planned on getting a road-trip selfie, but driving and taking photos just didn’t happen…oops.)
There was some serious skunk funk all through Oregon. I mean what is all that about? Oregon, you stink. Also, Grant’s Pass with Fog is like something out of a Stephen King novel, requiring a 45-minute nap at some random rest stop at 0400 hrs. California has some exit ramps that look like marsupial tails, and some weird fruit police. But thanks to Kevin (the name of our truck), my great co-pilot, and some Army Driver training and experience, we kicked the road’s ass, saved the kid, and got home safe, almost exactly 24 hours later. Look at that, we hit #30 on the list. Not ideal travel conditions, but travel all the same.
And I made the football game and ended up calling it on Twitter for parents and fans who couldn’t be there. When we got home it was all I could do to undress and get in bed. Having been up basically 48 hours, I slept like a log Friday night. 
Saturday was spent catching up with my best friend and husband (No. 1 on the Favorites List), doing a bit of treasure hunting (No. 28 on the list), and eating Tacos (No. 10), and watching THE CONJURING (No. 14) — Oh Man that Movie! Yikes! While watching that very scary film (it might actually get into my top ten best horror films list), we enjoyed some of the tea my husband brought me home from Boston from the Tea Party museum. Hey there No. 12!
But then MWB had a #LifewithAutism meltdown when the processing of everything that had happened two days before came to realization. So no blogging was done that night because it was all about #2, My Kids, or more specifically the child that gives me the greatest challenges; however, that encompasses No. 23 & No. 29 on my list. Therefore, gratitude that the universe gives me an opportunity to exercise things that are important to me during this month.
Today, once again was time spent with my Hubby (No. 1), but not until things around the homestead were attended to, to include mucking the duck houses, cleaning the coop, and getting laundry back into the daily cycle of life around here. These, of course, if you’re paying attention, fall under No. 15 & No. 16. Then we took a mini road trip to investigate the possibility of moving MWB to a community about 90 minutes north of us. It’s a great community, but we realize that the drive is just too long for his support network (us) to be much help to him. Since help is necessary in #LifewithAutism, we realized this idea would not pan out. Trading one stress for another wasn’t the solution we’re looking for currently. But, we got to spend some alone time together just us (even if it was in the truck), and talk through some things (Thanksgiving plans, house plans, life plans, you know best friend stuff). I had the forethought to put a beef stew in the crock before we left and we ate that yumminess (No. 10 again) while hitting some couch time (No. 27) and a National Geographic show. Then hubby had to take youngest son to baseball practice and well, I’m blogging.
Hopefully the rest of the month won’t be as challenging. I’m still trying to focus on being grateful, for enjoying the favorites in my life and focusing on those, which should, in turn, manifest a whole lot of happiness.
What will tomorrow bring? Given these last few days, I won’t hazard a guess. But, you’ll be sure to come back here and read about it, yes?
You’re awesome! You deserve a medal…although I believe you’ve earned at least one amazing one of those, so perhaps a drink is better. I owe you at least one when we finally catch up to celebrate your b-day with a little more style and hopefully a few less stressful surprises.
I’m so pleased you’ve remained on the hunt for your b-day favorite things bucket list numbers and found so many along the way! *HUGS* and Happy Birthday!
Thank you, friend. I’m looking forward to us celebrating, too!