Last Friday was so horrifically bad, I am just now able to break it down enough to write about it. The day was made of many small items which led to big problems, which led to tears, but ended in triumph. Just like a movie. Maybe made for TV movie, as Ryan and I both tend toward dramatics when the going gets tough. Here is our story.
Last Friday, we were planning to have a lovely family get away weekend to the Peninsula. Our friends Nick and Lacey were hosting a joint birthday party for Nick and Jeff at their "family compound" in Port Townsend. Our plan included Ryan and me going to get the car serviced in Bremerton then meeting Jeff at the ferry terminal (he would walk on from Seattle) then driving north together to Port Townsend. I would love to include a map here, as it is helpful to the story, but Google the Washington Peninsula, and you will get the idea.
Our car drop off time was scheduled for 10:30 AM, I don't schedule anything where I am responsible for getting other people ready before 10 AM. However, due to poor sleep the night before, neither Ryan nor Mommy woke up before 8:40 AM. Oops. (bad thing #1) We didn't leave the house until 9:45- no big deal, I call the dealership and say that we are running behind. But the car guy says they may not be able to do the interior detail (a service they owed me due to a missing part last time) if I don't get there quickly. (the back leather seats were covered with a fine mist of rotten milk- If anybody needed a detail, it was ME) While on the phone, the milk that I have placed in a sippy cup/cooler/cloth grocery bag begins forming a puddle in the hallway. (bad thing #2) This is immediately AFTER the phone call to my husband to say that we were leaving, where he reminded me how nice it is to come home to a clean house after being away all weekend. Virtual middle finger went his way, as I ran through the house trying to find something absorbent enough to hand Milk Pond that won't matter if it has to be pitched due to rotten mild smell. After repackaging our food bag and leaving things in the sink that would haunt me Sunday afternoon, we BARELY made the 10:10 Kingston ferry. I achieved a relative state of Zen after some paper bag type breathing once our car was loaded onto the ferry. We arrived at the car dealership at 11:30 AM.
At the dealership, they provide a loaner car while my car is serviced. I love this. However, I have an entire weekend packed into the back of my Forester. And they give me an Outback. Which has a much smaller cargo space. Also, I am 23 weeks pregnant. An elderly woman and her deaf teenager had pity on me ferrying my carload of crap and helped me move some of it over. I placed Ryan in the front seat and let him "drive" while we moved stuff around. Installing a car seat is never a picnic, as you have to use your body weight to work it into the seat and keep tightening everything around it until it is snug. This is fine if you are a slim, and realitively limber individual. Not so great with Nugget in the way and me unable to get my knees up so high.
During the Car Swap Olympics, Ryan pooped in his diaper. This is something that unfortunately still happens at least once a day, and is usually when we have walked into an establishment that does not have a suitable area for changing and when we leave the diaper bag in the car. Luckily, I had the diaper bag, but had to balance him on the edge of the sink while doing the change and got poop on the changing pad that I would be using all weekend long. (Bad thing #3).
My big plan for the time the car will be at the dealership involves driving north about 20 minutes to a town called Poulsbo for some lunch, and to look around at the real estate in the area to get a feel for neighborhoods and housing options. Ryan and I head straight to lunch. He passed out for his nap just as I was ordering our turkey sandwich at a quaint little bakery. Unfortunately, this bakery was SO quaint, they were cash or check only. I had $6+ change in my wallet. A whole sandwich was more like $7+, not to mention the pies, cookies, and other yummy things that were SPEAKING to me as I walked in the door. Ryan and I SPLIT a HALF sandwich, I ate all the chips (he was asleep anyway) and I bought 3/$1 cookies for a treat. Bad thing #4- eating 1/4 of a sandwich for lunch and being out of $. After wandering the downtown for a little bit with my sleeping charge, I headed up the hill again to our parking spot (only 1 hour parking was open) and who should wake up upon our return to the car? Mr. I Don't Need Much a Nap Today! So, I get him into the car and feed him his 1/4 of the sandwich and some black olives (he loves these) and his cookie. We are then on our way to explore the town. I found the Chamber of Commerce and we inquire about our bank (I thought it was a national bank, but could not find an ATM). The kind lady sent me to the nearby grocery store to the ATM (my backup plan was to buy something there and get cashback anyway, so not a bad thing). I have never seen such a tiny ATM as the one I used at Albertson's. It was straight out of the 80's. It actually made that dial-up squealing modem noise while accessing my funds! I had to laugh out loud.
We spent the next couple of hours playing in a park, sharing an apple, and touring a track house (never done it before, wanted to see what all the hype is about- not my style. I need a house with Personality). Jeff was to board the 3:00 ferry from Seattle, which would put him in Bremerton at 4. He called to say that he made the ferry, but then called again at 3:45 to say that he had arrived. So we start back south and I tell him to find a good meeting spot and I will be there in about 20 minutes. On our way to Bremerton, my phone rings again. It is Ryan's pediatrician. They have test results on a urinalysis we ran earlier in the week. Ryan had been complaining, "Something is wrong to my pee pee," so I took him to the doctor to see if there was a real issue or not. Collecting pee from a diapered boy is no picnic. It involved gluing a baggie to his body for a while then REMOVING it (oh the horror) and taking the pee to the Dr. The immediate results were negative, but the culture grew some bacteria. Granted, this is normal skin type bacteria, but since he was still complaining about it, they wanted to give antibiotics just in case. I am in an unknown area here- my kid is complaining, when he had surgery last fall, they said to always believe it if your kid says they are in pain, so we went with it. Anyway, this all resulted in me having to find a foreign pharmacy during my weekend getaway so my kid can have his meds. The Dr. decides to call it in to Bremerton, so I can get it on my way. No big deal, right? wrong.
I go to meet my husband first. While I am headed that way, the dealership calls and says that my car is ready for pick up. My plan of attack-- get husband, pick up med, go swap cars, go to Port Townsend. Easy, right? Wrong. After numerous phone exchanges and loops driven through the ferry terminal area in Bremerton, we discover that Jeff has walked on the the WRONG FERRY!! He is in Bainbridge Island--no where near Bremerton. This is why he arrived so quickly! I yell at him that he is an A-hole, tell him to get on a bus to a central meeting location and head out to find this mysterious pharmacy to get my kid some drugs. Bad thing #5. I am not all that familiar with the geography of Bremerton, but I had the address of the pharmacy, and knew from the in-car compass that I was heading north (away from car dealership). I ended up at a Safeway nearly all the way in Silverdale. I must have passed 5 other pharmacies along the way that would have worked just fine, but it's 5 on a Friday, do you think I can get a hold of the Dr.'s office again. No way. Bad thing #6. I rush into the pharmacy and ask for a phone book map so I can figure out how far I am from where I need to be- it looks like a 30 minute trip back down to the car dealership. So I call them. They are closing. But they will leave my keys with the salesmen who will still be there when I arrive. Phew. In the course of providing my information and waiting for the medicine to be mixed up, Ryan poops AGAIN. (see previous history of pooping while diaper bag is in the car). I burst into tears in the pharmacy in front of the entire staff. (bad thing #7/straw that broke me) I scoop him up and head out to change since we are still waiting for medicine. A turd falls out of the car while I'm changing. I just kick it away. We go back in, get the medicine, and directions to get back to the car dealership.
At the car, Ryan asks for a cereal bar snack. He has his weird toddler things, like any kid, and will throw a FIT if it is broken. Guess what? It broke. He screams, and I screamed right back at him. I wadded the bar in my hand to make it whole again and left it in his cupholder. I got in the front and started sobbing as I drove back to the dealership. At this point Jeff calls and says that he will meet me at a restaurant in Poulsbo. He has taken a bus from Bainbridge Island to Poulsbo to be on the path to Port Townsend. I start to breathe again. But it is too soon.... I will have to continue my story later, as this is the World's Longest Post.
