Well--

Left the house this morning just a bit after 7:00 after doing my dead-level best to get the three younger kids downstairs and full of something resembling food. Always the most stressful time of the morning--make sure they all are completely dressed, hair more or less combed, backpacks, coats, kiss Mommy, everyone hush and LEAVE, go to the door of the van NOT into the street in front of the speeding brick delivery truck--the moment they're all in and buckled and the engine is turning over is a giant relief.

I spend the next 10 minutes on the road to school by trying to get my jaw muscles and the throbbing vein in my neck to calm down, but then there's always the minor flare-up when we get to the sidewalk at school and everyone decides they either a) forgot something for me to sign, b) need money, c) have to kiss all their stuffed animals they snuck out of the house, and/or d) have to tell me about someone in their class who said a bad word that we don't say and they got in trouble and they had t-- "GET OUT OF THE VAN SO DADDY WON'T BE LATE, please. " So they pile out after giving me a hug and a kiss containing the crumbs from breakfast and eventually go inside the building. Afterwards is my me-time, when I can put on the autopilot and let my mind go completely blank and enjoy the nice drive on the friendly and efficient interstate system of our fair city.

This morning, thankfully nothing from the Peanut Gallery but a few odd verbal scuffles--they were remarkably subdued, which made the muscles and other viscera less angry. Got them to school, and they got out relatively quickly (although I credit part of this to a well-timed back-burp by Little Boy that seemed to add an extra incentive for everyone to get out) and then I was back out on the road. Aaaaah. Turn up the radio, and hear that there is an accident blocking the inbound interstate lanes between Chalkville Road and I-459 in Trussville, so everyone needed to use Highway 11. Which I just happened to be on. Which just happens to be real busy anyway, without the addition of ever other car from points east trying to get to Birmingham.

I had left the school parking lot at about 7:15.

I got here at 8:45.

Hour and a half for a drive that usually takes 25 minutes, and it just RUINED my me-time. The bright spot is that I did manage to miss our Monday staff meeting.
posted by Terry at 10:12:00 AM