Tumultuous Tuesday.

1:21 AM...that's when it started. But before we go there, let's back up.

Yesterday was Columbus Day - the day that marks the anniversary of Christopher Columbus arriving in the Americas. It wasn't his birthday, as I heard a local DJ say over the radio - just wanted to clear the air on that one. Get it?...clear the air, because it was a DJ that made the mistake? Okay, yeah...moving on. Although most of us did not get the day off of work, it is considered a federal holiday, which in turn means people like postal workers and bankers had a 3-day weekend. Mondays are my bank days. Visiting our local branch has become part of my Monday afternoon routine. I get x-amount of cash out to pay our nanny for the week. Yesterday, that didn't happen. A sign in the window said "Closed in honor of Columbus Day." Crap. Off to the nanny's I go, cashless. Columbus, rhombus.

After picking up my 25-lbs of giggles and wiggles, we headed to the grocery store. My daughter, we'll call her G, has had a runny nose for about 3 days. Yesterday, it went from semi-runny to stuffy. A coworker recently told me about a Vick's Vapor Bath for little ones, so I figured I'd try it out. Long story short, and forty three dollars later, we were checking out with no Vick's Bath. A regular bubble bath it will be.

We're finally home. Dinner is about 20 minutes from being done, and I mention to M (my husband), that G needs a bath. After some hesitation, he says he'll do it after dinner. G wasn't feeling good, and as her mother, I knew the earlier she had a bath, the earlier she could get in bed and hopefully sleep off this runny nose of hers. Dinner was finally done, and of course, she was a fussy, tired little snot factory. I ended up bathing her...annoyed to the point of tears at the husband for not utilizing the 20 minute slot I had suggested earlier, so that we could actually eat dinner together while it was still hot. But in his defense, he did apologize and told me the rest of the night would be better.

Fast forward. It's 10:30, I'm finally in bed...pounding headache and scratchy throat. Pollen is the devil, by the way. By 11:00, the lights are out, and the household had set out to slumber for the night. Then, what seemed like hours later, I'm startled awake by my husband leaning over me and saying, "Hey!"

I jumped and gasped. He continued, "Baby, it's me. I gotta go."

"Go where? On a call?", I asked.

"Yeah."

"Will you be back, you think?"

"Yeah."

My husband is an HVAC Technician and works for a large property management company here in town. He rotates an on-call schedule with three other techs every month. This is his week to be on-call. Someone's bathroom had exploded...or something like that...and off he went, into the darkness, to save the night. I asked him if he'd be back, because I swore it had been hours since we had climbed into bed. I was expecting my alarm to go off any minute. I peek at the alarm through sleepy eyes...it's 1:21. Really? I go check on the munchkin, and climb back into bed. I watch way too much Law & Order, so I couldn't sleep without the husband there. I heard every creak, every thud, every minuscule sound that may or may not have been simply in my head. He finally got home a little after 2:30, and I was able to fall back asleep.

6:04am. My alarm is blaring. 6:53am. Still fighting with the snooze. Crap, I'm late. I scramble to get myself put together. I was annoyed at the world - everything and everyone, including myself. Poor G had a mini-meltdown. She wanted to eat breakfast before we went to the nanny's. She never wants to do that. It's not even part of our morning routine. So, I scoot out the door, leaving her there with M, crying her big brown eyes out. I did get some consolation when M texted me to say she drank a sippy cup full of milk in the car, and was perfectly content when he dropped her off at the nanny's. Thank goodness.

I finally reach work. I park. As I'm walking into my office twenty minutes late, I manage to spill red V8 Fusion on my light gray pants. Miraculously, I'm stain free.

The morning continued pretty uneventful. I worked through numerous reports before lunch, and the afternoon has been pretty painless...with the exception of a growling stomach, a headache, and blogger image uploading drama. My original plan was not to blog about my Tuesday turmoil, but to talk about some great recipe finds. Maybe tomorrow.

29 minutes until the whistle blows. Then it's breakfast for dinner and endless hours of HGTV. Maybe Tuesday's not so bad after all.