Clusterf*ck to the Capital
First, I ran to the photographer's studio, thinking they were just going to show me Charlie's pictures on a computer screen and I would order some kind of package real quick. I didn't even park the car in a real spot-- just kinda pulled it up in front of the door-- because I expected to be out in just a minute or two. It wasn't that quick at all. The lady took me into a back room, put me into a comfy chair and told me to relax, a little screen came down out of a ceiling, the lights dimmed, soft music started playing, and I was presented a beautiful slideshow of all of Charlie's portraits. Wow. The pictures were awesome. I can't wait to post them here.
Forty-five minutes and $320 later, I was headed back to the house to get Charlie and go to the birthday party. When I got back to the house, I realized I had FORGOTTEN TO BUY A GIFT! Ugh! I told Tim I had to run to Wal Mart real quick-- a stuffed toy of some kind would have to do-- and asked him to stay with Charlie a while longer. When I got back with the gift, Charlie was eating. We didn't leave the house until 11:00, and the party started at 11:00.
It was fun. About what you'd expect for a 1 year old's party. She was cute, the other kids were cute, everyone thought Charlie was cute. The whole thing was perfectly cute. A good time was had by all.
At 12:15 I headed back to the house, calling Tim on the way to make sure he would be ready to go as soon as I got there. We managed to get on the road by about 12:35.
We were almost there when I realized that I had packed everything except the bottle and bottle liners. (I use the Playtex Drop-ins.) We left a bottle and nipple at his sister's house last time we were there, so I knew there would be a bottle, but the bottle is useless without liners. Charlie was already starting to fuss for his dinner, and I was freaking out. I didn't want him to come unglued and us not have any way to feed him. Everything I do is aimed at making sure his needs are met before they become so urgent that he feels the need to scream at the top of his lungs, because it drives my blood pressure up and shaves hours off my life every time he does that. Being stuck for an extended period with him screaming and no way to stop it? My own personal hell.
We went through several towns, stopping at every little Mom and Pop pharmacy we saw, plus a few Dollar Generals and Fred's. No dice. Tim had called his sister to make sure the forgotten bottle was still there, and she told us that his niece was on her way to Wal Mart anyway and we should just let her get the liners for us, but I was afraid she would have more errands to run that would keep her gone a while. I was envisioning us sitting in his sister's living room with a screaming, hungry Charlie, waiting for niece to return with the golden ticket. The nearest Wal Mart was going to add about 45 minutes to our trip, but I thought it was worth it to avoid having him come unglued, so that's what we did.
By the time we arrived at his sister's house, we had been driving for over 2 hours and I was in a sour mood.
We dropped Charlie off and headed to Jackson. We drove through Jackson and all the surrounding towns aimlessly for a while, and finally decided to eat dinner at a Mexican restaurant. There's a place called Fernando's in Magee where they serve these giant tacos in deep fried taco shells. They're awesome, and we order them every time we go there. So when we saw a Fernando's in Brandon, we went in and ordered the giant tacos. But they weren't giant, and they weren't awesome. They also gave us both unbearable gas, which super sucked since we were trapped in a car together.
After our less than spectacular dinner, we spent more time driving aimlessly. We drove by a movie theatre but had no desire to see anything that was showing, so we found the richest neighborhood we could find and drove around it for a while, admiring the mansions and fancy cars. Drove across the reservoir. Stopped at a Circuit City to see if we could get any deals in the going-out-of-business sale. (We didn't.) Then we headed back to get Charlie.
All total, we were in the car for over 8 hours. Eight hours of driving, just to go to Jackson and eat crappy Mexican food. What a big, fat, pointless headache! (Or stomachache...) We should have had a plan, I guess.
Maybe it was worth it, even though I don't look forward to driving that much again any time soon. Charlie needs to socialize with people besides me and Tim, and his Aunt and Uncle and everyone else who spent time with him enjoyed it immensely. And Tim and I learned a lot of things: You should always keep bottle liners in the diaper bag just in case, small town pharmacies are being put out of business by Wal Mart and Walgreens for a good reason, even the biggest city in our state is boring as hell, and you should never eat Mexican when you still have hours to drive.
Forty-five minutes and $320 later, I was headed back to the house to get Charlie and go to the birthday party. When I got back to the house, I realized I had FORGOTTEN TO BUY A GIFT! Ugh! I told Tim I had to run to Wal Mart real quick-- a stuffed toy of some kind would have to do-- and asked him to stay with Charlie a while longer. When I got back with the gift, Charlie was eating. We didn't leave the house until 11:00, and the party started at 11:00.
It was fun. About what you'd expect for a 1 year old's party. She was cute, the other kids were cute, everyone thought Charlie was cute. The whole thing was perfectly cute. A good time was had by all.
At 12:15 I headed back to the house, calling Tim on the way to make sure he would be ready to go as soon as I got there. We managed to get on the road by about 12:35.
We were almost there when I realized that I had packed everything except the bottle and bottle liners. (I use the Playtex Drop-ins.) We left a bottle and nipple at his sister's house last time we were there, so I knew there would be a bottle, but the bottle is useless without liners. Charlie was already starting to fuss for his dinner, and I was freaking out. I didn't want him to come unglued and us not have any way to feed him. Everything I do is aimed at making sure his needs are met before they become so urgent that he feels the need to scream at the top of his lungs, because it drives my blood pressure up and shaves hours off my life every time he does that. Being stuck for an extended period with him screaming and no way to stop it? My own personal hell.
We went through several towns, stopping at every little Mom and Pop pharmacy we saw, plus a few Dollar Generals and Fred's. No dice. Tim had called his sister to make sure the forgotten bottle was still there, and she told us that his niece was on her way to Wal Mart anyway and we should just let her get the liners for us, but I was afraid she would have more errands to run that would keep her gone a while. I was envisioning us sitting in his sister's living room with a screaming, hungry Charlie, waiting for niece to return with the golden ticket. The nearest Wal Mart was going to add about 45 minutes to our trip, but I thought it was worth it to avoid having him come unglued, so that's what we did.
By the time we arrived at his sister's house, we had been driving for over 2 hours and I was in a sour mood.
We dropped Charlie off and headed to Jackson. We drove through Jackson and all the surrounding towns aimlessly for a while, and finally decided to eat dinner at a Mexican restaurant. There's a place called Fernando's in Magee where they serve these giant tacos in deep fried taco shells. They're awesome, and we order them every time we go there. So when we saw a Fernando's in Brandon, we went in and ordered the giant tacos. But they weren't giant, and they weren't awesome. They also gave us both unbearable gas, which super sucked since we were trapped in a car together.
After our less than spectacular dinner, we spent more time driving aimlessly. We drove by a movie theatre but had no desire to see anything that was showing, so we found the richest neighborhood we could find and drove around it for a while, admiring the mansions and fancy cars. Drove across the reservoir. Stopped at a Circuit City to see if we could get any deals in the going-out-of-business sale. (We didn't.) Then we headed back to get Charlie.
All total, we were in the car for over 8 hours. Eight hours of driving, just to go to Jackson and eat crappy Mexican food. What a big, fat, pointless headache! (Or stomachache...) We should have had a plan, I guess.
Maybe it was worth it, even though I don't look forward to driving that much again any time soon. Charlie needs to socialize with people besides me and Tim, and his Aunt and Uncle and everyone else who spent time with him enjoyed it immensely. And Tim and I learned a lot of things: You should always keep bottle liners in the diaper bag just in case, small town pharmacies are being put out of business by Wal Mart and Walgreens for a good reason, even the biggest city in our state is boring as hell, and you should never eat Mexican when you still have hours to drive.
Nice
toronto magician
Posted by
Unknown |
10:56 AM