Getting out of Town

I travel a lot. My travel almost always involves corralling clothes, blankies, pacifiers, bottles, sippy cups, cheerios, sandwiches, cheesesticks, grapes, train cars, crayons, play dough, books, rattles, more books, strollers, medicines, soaps, lotions, toothbrushes, bathingsuits, shoes, and all sorts of clothing for three.

Tomorrow I am flying to Boston. Alone. For a long weekend. With girlfriends. And sangria. And margaritas. And uninterrupted sleep. And Springtime in New England. And the ocean. And walks and coffee in the mornings.

2:00 tomorrow afternoon, I will be on my way to the airport with a suitcase full of only my things.

It turns out, though, that getting to 2:00 tomorrow afternoon is at least as complicated as it would be were I taking everyone with me. Complication #1: the sheer act of removing my physical self from this house on a Thursday afternoon creates, in and of itself, all sorts of upheaval, starting with the fact that it leaves Silas and Eden home alone -- very inconvenient, a little illegal, and quite expensive to remedy. Three babysitters later, Thursday afternoon and Friday are covered. Complication #2: Silas has a fever for the second night in a row that shows no sign of breaking. I have yet to remedy this or the fact that when Silas is sick the only thing he wants is me.

Before I stretch the list to Complication #20 (there are that many), I will paste a conversation I had with Annemarie, a friend I'm meeting in Boston, that illustrates how exhausting it is to extract oneself:
(you need to know Greg is her husband, that he recently traveled to Argentina for work, and that he's currently working 18 hour days on a case so the girls are staying at Annemarie's parents' house for the weekend)

I was just talking about how INSANELY DIFFERENT
our leaving is.

When Greg went to Argentina

he literally packed one bag.

That was his only job for leaving.

Currently

8:15 AMmy job is

to pack the girls up,
get them to my mom's,
teach my mom all the insane rules Madeleine's school has for what kids can bring in their lunches,
teach her how to get to swimming lessons,

clean the house for the cleaning lady,
leave money out for her,

pack my bags,

figure out how to get the girls to my mom's
and get to Dulles by 9am--

oh also
add to that- trips to the pediatrician
and all of a sudden realizing both girls outgrew their shoes
and I need to get them to the shoe store before leaving town.

and laundry.

HA!

We are so essential!!
But I just made a cup of coffee
and canceled my plans to go to the Corcoran (boo)-
and somehow it will all get done.

I also have to buy more motrin.