Whirling Dervish

When I was a kid we had this little octopus toy. You would stretch his arms (or are they legs? I guess they are technically tentacles...) and they would shrink back to normal in a few seconds. Today I feel like this poor creature whose name I don't even remember.

The plan all along was that today was going to deviate from my typical Friday schedule of working 3 hours from home. I was supposed to go to the office for a meeting and LP was going to go to day care. Since the meeting was not until 1 pm I was going to take the morning to run errands by myself. Of course, this didn't happen.

It snowed. Again. I should have known, because today we had a meeting scheduled with our branding consultant. This is our fourth meeting with them that has been complicated by cruddy weather.

Anyway, LP's day care is closed. Since the roads looked okay and relatively empty, my initial plan was to scrap my lazy morning and instead hang out with her and bring her to the office in time for the meeting. I figured there were enough hands willing to watch her while I participated.

Then I get word via email that a co-worker's mother just passed away. This is never good news. Since I live close to my grieving colleague, I am volunteered to order some food platters to be delivered to the house. Usually this is a quick phone call. But today nothing is simple. While I attempt to keep LP from destroying the house or injuring herself (please tell me why little kids like to eat paper) I call several bagel places to see if they can deliver today. No one can. After circling back to the office, we place the order for delivery tomorrow morning.

While I am in the midst of placing the order, my cell phone starts ringing and my call waiting beeps persistently. There is still the meeting at 1. And LP is refusing to nap, even though she can barely keep her eyes open. Fortunately, the call is from the office telling me to make the meeting a conference call since they don't want LP and me on the roads.

But nothing is ever that simple. I misunderstand and make the entire meeting a conference call after calling the consultant from home. When I talk to work again, they let me know that they aren't planning on leaving early, so the consultant might as well come in to meet with them in person. I should still take the call from home. Three phone calls later, I finally get LP to lay down in her crib and I think I have the meeting all worked out.

Let's see what happens this afternoon.