Just Another Day in Paradise

In the middle of a bit of mayhem yesterday that was not really all that bad, I suddenly realized that life was requiring me to be quite the emotional multitasker. Here is the scene.

I was sitting at my desk. Bart was across from me with Wilson sitting on his lap. He had just received a lecture from me for whining about Christmas program practice and was unable to tell me what Christmas was about, so he really got me going for a minute. Ricardo had just left my office and Tony and Dominyk were in and out. Rand was standing at the door waiting for Bart to get off the phone. I was texting, on the phone, and in the middle of placing a huge online order with a Visa that was acting weird. I had a letter from Mike on my desk that I was attempting to glance through.

The phone I was on was a call inviting friends to join us for Ricardo's birthday dinner than he had waited until 11:30 tomorrow to plan. Obviously everyone he wanted to invite was busy, but I was doing as I said and asking anyway. I was texting Sadie reminding her that we were going to put up the tree and if she wanted to be home for that, she needed to be coming home from her friends. Meanwhile Mike called Bart on his phone from jail. He is desperate and misses us and knows that if he could just come home when he gets out of jail he would be fine. I could hear Bart patiently responding to his pleas. I instructed Rand to go pick up Sadie and then got a text from Salinda saying she was heading to the hospital. I texted her that if they said they were going to deliver the baby she should let me know immediately so that I could pack a bag and come up. I hung up from that, finished the sad plea letter from Mike, mentioned to Dominyk that he was, indeed going to clean his room, and called yet another not available family friend to invite them without much hope to join us for dinner in 6 hours.

As things cleared and Bart went up to finish lunch and I got the letter read and the phone calls all made I realized what had just transpired in the previous hour and chuckled. Most people would be overwhelmed by one or two of those events, and I was completely calm multiasking it all.

I wasn't even swayed when the starter in the van went out after dinner and we had to sit in the cold and wait for the tow truck. I hope I can remain as calm today when we only have the Avalon to get all of us to church.

To follow up: We aren't deciding anything about MIke's future until we have to. It may be months before court. They ended up giving Salinda medicine to stop her contractions and want her to hold out three or four more days so that Gabby can be 36 weeks before they deliver her. They sent her home for strict bed rest and with medication for the pain.

We had a tolerable time with just us at the pizza place, though Tony tries so hard to make as many people angry as possible. Dominyk did clean his room, miraculously, and he and I spent a long time at Dunn Brothers and I almost completely finished the Christmas calendars. John, who I didn't mention above, called, promising to be home last night, but he didn't show up.

The Christmas Card visa thing still isn't cleared up, but I did get some shopping done online yesterday. This afternoon we will make do with one vehicle and attempt to get what we need to get done done.

At this moment I'm feeling pretty good about juggling it all and maintaining my calm. Of course, I still haven't woken up either Tony or Dominhyk.

Smile.