Pulled In a Million Directions

My blogging has been suffering as of late, mostly because I have been so busy with a full time job that has suddenly evolved into an almost 55-hour per week job, final preparations for our wedding reception that's coming up in a week (gasp!), and the normal day-to-day duties of motherhood and wifedom (both of which could qualify as full time jobs in and of themselves). I feel as though I am being pulled in a million directions and at the end of the day, there's not much left of me to go around--so much so that a couple of nights ago when I found a spare minute to check my Facebook account, I put my head in my hands and started to cry because I had all of these messages from my friends that I haven't had a chance to answer. So, needless to say, I don't have the abundant time that I once had to be able to sit down and write a decent, well thought out, blog entry. Sorry. I am hoping things calm down a bit once the reception is over and I have a chance to breathe. We'll see.

Anyway, a few random happenings from this week that I found to be noteworthy:

-Today while I was standing in line at my local BP station paying for my gas and cursing Big Oil, a rather attractive man that was behind me in line asked me if I drive the Lexus that was parked outside in the parking lot. I looked at him, bewildered, said, "Um, no, I drive a Saturn," and he smiled and said, "Oh, you look like the Lexus type." What the hell does that mean? Was that a compliment? Was it a come-on (and a rather lame one at that)? Eh, either way, I guess it's all right that I at least look as though I have enough money to be driving a Lexus around. Apparently the gentleman didn't notice that I was wearing a second hand jacket that was stained with something that Grace ate weeks ago or didn't hear me complaining to the cashier about gas prices while digging through my wallet for pennies to make exact change.

-Apparently I have earned the reputation for being a tyrant at home. Last night when I was rushing home from work to pick Grace up and whisk her off to swimming class, I called Aaron and asked him to have Grace fed and ready to go by the time I got home so we could leave right away and make it to swimming in time. When I finally made it home spotted Grace on the couch finishing her supper, she burst into tears for no apparent reason as soon as she saw me. After calming her down and asking her what happened, she blubbered, "Aarie said you were going to be mad at BOTH of us if I didn't finish my supper!!!" Well, I wasn't mad at Grace, that's for sure. At least I can chuckle about it now.

-Looks like I'm going on another business trip in a couple of weeks (this time to Hagerstown, MD), and I'm gonna have to fly. Ugh. I booked my trip today with my boss, who is coming with me, and instead of having my choice and flying on Midwest nonstop from Milwaukee to Baltimore, we're flying Northwest out of Milwaukee with a stop in Detroit. Double ugh. For those of you who don't know, I am an EXTREMELY nervous flyer. The trip is more than two weeks off and I have already launched into panic mode. I'm trying to talk myself down off of the edge by reminding myself about how safe I will be and how quickly the trip will go by, but hearing recent news of airlines cancelling flights due to safety concerns certainly isn't helping matters. I think I will definitely try to take some sort of anti-anxiety medicine when I fly this time--I have resisted it in the past, because I have been traveling with Grace or for other reasons, but I think that this time I'm gonna go for it and see if I'm able to be calmer.

-The big news in Milwaukee is a measles outbreak that has occured among three children that attend the same day care on the south side of town. These children have not received the MMR vaccine or were too young to have been vaccinated. Concern is such that the city of Milwaukee is holding vaccine clinics for people to vaccinate themselves if they haven't already done so. When Grace was younger and we went through her first several series of childhood vaccinations, I was well aware of the claim that vaccinating your child can heighten their risk of autism, and I, like many parents, had my doubts about taking the chance and letting our pediatrician inject her with all of this stuff. I was listening to Larry King Live last week, and Jenny McCarthy was on the program, talking about her autistic son and arguing that his vaccinations were part of the reason that his autism emerged. She said something that stuck with me. She said that parents would much rather have their children contract measles than live with autism. I don't know. Obviously, no parent would want their child to have either affliction, but would I ever let the fear of the possibility of having an autistic child trump the idea that I should safeguard my child against potentially deadly diseases? I wonder if the parents of these three Milwaukee children who now have the measles wish they had decided to vaccinate their children. I know that I am breathing a sigh of relief knowing Grace has been vaccinated.

-Where in the hell is Spring? Seriously. I am so ready.