Getting lost, Shopping on Thursday and Leftovers

I did as I said and went to Bath and Body works for my mother-in-law last night. Before that, however, I spent the evening driving around aimlessly...looking for my daughter. Here's the background:

I take my daughter and her little friend across the street to school most mornings, and her mother picks them up. I say "most" because sometimes children are ill or what have you and don't attend school. I should also say that mother-across-the-street and I have different ideas about education; I think it is most important and unless you are incredibly ill, your butt should be in school. She feels that if you have a slight headache, didn't get enough sleep or just plain don't want to go, you shouldn't have to. That being said, we aren't surprised when we get a phone call that Babe's little friend "isn't going to school this morning".

The other issue I have is that mother-across-the-street calls some afternoons with the most ridiculous excuses as to why she can't pick up the girls. One day, she actually called to say she couldn't find her purse. I didn't actually talk to her that day, but my cell phone had her name displayed when I got out of the shower. The Babe was home, but I called back anyway as a courtesy:

"Hey, mother-across-the-street. I saw that you called. I wasn't near my phone and just saw your number here."

"Oh, yeah. It's okay now. Never mind."

"Is everything alright?"

"Yeah, I was just going to ask you if you could pick up the girls because I couldn't find my purse but, I found it." SMDH...

Anyway, yesterday she calls my cell five minutes before I'm supposed to leave the office. She says that she's taking her daughter to the eye doctor and wonders if she should take the Babe with her, or drop her off at her daughter's grandmother's house. She's taking her son there as well. I tell her it doesn't matter to me, whatever is easiest for her; however, if she takes her to grandma's house, I'll need directions because I've never been there before. Sure, she says. She proceeds to give me the house number than says,

"It's really easy to get there. You can just map quest it."

What the hell?! I'm getting ready to leave work and am in the process of shutting everything down. Can't she just say..."Go here, take a right when you get to this street, take a left." Is that so hard?! This was a case where technology was not on my side. I think even texting me directions would have been too difficult. Yeesh! So, I prevent the computer from shutting down and enter all the stuff into MapQuest. My girlfriend was at my desk at the time, so I was trying to talk to her and get the directions squared away, while my boss asked me about things too. Yep. I left work late.

Don't you know I drove to the daycare, picked up Indy, headed over to the area where grandma lives and got lost? I drove past her house at least once, but the street sign was missing. I'm very good with directions, so when a half-hour had passed and I still couldn't find her, I was pissed. I called mother-across-the-street at about the time I made another pass on the street with no street sign. Just as I was telling her I couldn't find it and could she guide me, I looked up and there it was; right on the street with not street sign. Nice. Now, we're fifteen minutes before gymnastics starts.

Grandma was very gracious and at least has some sense. She was going to get my number from the babe and call me herself, just as the babe was telling her she had gymnastics class. Once in her house, we exchanged information. This will not happen again.

So, I've got the babe and we head for home. She changes and grabs a snack, while I put away all my crap. Hubby calls and says he wants to go with us and is just down the street. I get the girls in the car and we wait in the driveway for him. Once he arrives, it's off to gymnastics class, then to Sam's Club to pick up the Babe's prescription of Flovent. While we wait, we meander around and eat samples. We now know that Indy digs beef jerky (she'd never had it before today). We also sampled seafood salad and Chex mix. The "poppers" guy was cooking, so we didn't get any of those. Prescription filled, we placed money in the Salvation Army tin and went to get gas. Um, $1.39 a gallon? Not since before my oldest child was born (eight years ago).

Off to the mall and madness. Shoppers were still everywhere, but not nearly as bad as they were on Saturday. The Bath and Body works was smattered with folks and happy sales people pounced on me when I walked through the door. I had to give it to the second gal who approached me. She worked there latest sales for everything they were worth. Normally, I don't give in but, it's freaking Bath and Body works! I spent $36.00 on $68.00 worth of stuff! Mother-in-law (and I) should be very, very happy.

Hubby had come in with me and I thought he was going to make some purchases too, then he opted to leave while I shopped. When I came out of the store, he was gone. I looked inside the closest stores and couldn't find him or Indy. Then, I slowly walked down the hall to the other end of the mall, peeping in stores to see if I could find them. I called his cell phone and considered having him paged. Finally, I sat at the bench outside of the store and hoped he would find me. Ten minutes later, my phone rings displaying a number I don't recognize.

"Hey, where are you?"

Ugh! I was so hot! Why not just tell me where you're going instead of disappearing into the mall of madness? We get to the car and argue/discuss it a bit. The conversation disappeared after that.

The rest of the evening was spent talking to the babe while she ate her Ramen noodles and I ate my leftovers (which were just as good the second time around). Hubby ironed and got things ready for work. When I got into bed, I read a magazine while he ate cereal and read a newspaper ad. We didn't say much, but by this time, I was well over it. When I turned off the light to sleep, he turned on his computer. I woke up around 11:oopm to gunfire (coming from his computer, of course). He was still up watching trailers. What the hell? Go to sleep, man!

The next time I woke up, it was to him groping me in his sleep. I guess arguments don't kill the fire...just the conversation. Happy Friday!