Fumble

Sigh.
Yesterday turned out to be one of those days when I found myself dropping the ball.
Things have been going along swimmingly and children have been arriving where they need to be on time and I have picked them up on time. I even contributed to the snack cupboard for Emma's class.
And now Andrew wants to join the tech club at school, which we definitely wanted him to do. They meet on Tuesdays, and I got a flier telling me about a parent meeting on Tuesday (yesterday) at 4:30. So, when I dropped him off, I reminded him to go to technology club. My plan was to stay a few minutes late at work (I have a lot to do in order to be on vacation next week) and then get Emma, spend an hour knitting at my mom's house (where my dog stays during the day), then grab the dog, drop her off at my house, and go to the meeting when Andrew's club was over.
That was the plan, and it was a pretty good one. It required Thinking Ahead and Conserving Gas and Efficiency all those things that moms are supposed to think about.
Before I get into the fiasco, you need to know that, geographically speaking, Emma's school and my mom's house (a.k.a. doggie daycare) are within a few blocks of each other and Drew's school and my house are within a few blocks of each other, and both spots are about 15 minutes apart, give or take a few when you factor in the traffic. So, multiple trips between them really sucks up my car's gas.
And here comes the tale called How My Carbon Footprint Grew to a Size 14:
I picked up Emma and was practically drooling with anticipation over my hour of knitting. We were backing out of the parking space at her school when the phone rang. It was Drew's technology teacher. There actually was no club meeting today, just the parent meeting later. Andrew gets out of school at 2:45. It is now 3:00. My baby is stranded on the other side of town.
Panic.
Looking like an Irresponsible Mother to all observers, I drive (or speed - whichever) to get Andrew. Because I was technically late picking him up, the dog will now have to wait. Once I got him, of course, I had to drive back to the other side of town to pick up my stupid dog. It is now later than it should be and I have a parent meeting at 4:30. I didn't pack an after-school snack, so we drive through for french fries. Don't tell healthy people that we did that, okay? Then we went home.
I've been letting the kids stay by themselves for short periods of time, and decided to do that rather than drag them to the meeting; I grabbed my keys and headed for my meeting and Andrew asked me what I was doing. He said the meeting was at 6:00. I pointed to the flier that said 4:30. He said the teacher told me 6:00 when she called me to remind me I had a son at school. I said I didn't get a piece of paper negating the first, and I was too panicked about getting him to know exactly what the teacher said on the phone. He rolled his eyes and said I shouldn't expect him to be surprised when I had to come straight home.
I met the vice principal in the office and she offered to walk me to the classroom. No teacher was there. She called the office to look for the teacher. And we waited. We made pleasant small talk for 10 minutes while I was either a brilliant or incredibly presumptuous conversationalist (we'll never know which) and it turned out that Andrew was right.
Oh well.
I didn't have supper in the fridge, so I swung by the grocery store. My fabulous neighbor had left us four fat, gorgeous, fresh tomatoes on the porch. BLTs were definitely on the menu.

I got home at around 5:15. This meeting was supposed to start at 6:00. So I started making those sandwiches.
It became apparent that I'd forgotten to buy the "L."
So, we had BTs for supper instead.
The meeting went fine and I found myself on yet another committee. It's not just a school-wide tech club, it's actually a TSA (Technology Student Association) club with competitions and stuff. It should be fun.
And lots of work.
And I still had to get to the grocery store last night, which left me no choice but the super center. Yuck.
When I finally stumbled in my front door last night, I was pretty beat. I hadn't accomplished much for all the running around and driving I had done. But I fell asleep fast and that was good.
Because our alarm didn't go off this morning.
I am having a quiet visit with Earl Grey right now and am looking forward to this evening's Blackout. Oh, how I need it - even if I don't have time for it.

DAILY BLISS: soy yogurt (can I call it soygurt?) and chocolate-covered cherries