Monday, September 29, 2008

Could All of This Have Happened in Just 1 Day?

So today was my first day back to work after being off for a total of 2 whole weeks. Sounds kind of nice huh??...well if you are not a follower of my blog, you might want to scroll down a few entries to see exactly why I have been off for that amount of time.....the short version:
1. My daughter gave birth to our 2nd Grandchild.
2. We had a hurricane barrel over our part of Texas.
3. My saddle fell apart leaving my old body in a heap under the horse...which leads me wondering what happened to about 4 of those days...but a little drug called Dellotid (spelling??) erased those days forever I am sure.....but back to today.

Feeling better, I do what was normal for me and park in the very back of the gargangious (I swear it is 3 football fields...sort of) parking lot and walk into the building. All the security people know that I park there just to get the extra exercise, so they never even bother to stop to ask if I need a ride anymore. A quarter of the way in, my left hip started to hurt. That was right about the time the cart zoomed by me to pick up someone else. By the time I reached the building, I was walking like the hunch back of Notre Dame and I would have sworn that a railroad spike was sticking out of the left side of my butt! If that was not bad enough - I was 3 minutes late signing in!

Okay - so I am trying to catch up on about 80+ work e-mails, get caught up on the latest office news and be as apologetic to the one and only other person in my department who had to work alone for these last 2 weeks. Oh yes - I had to tell and retell the humiliating story of how I came off of my horse....the latest version sounded something like this:
The saddle broke, I fell off, and almost broke myself.

Aside from trying to catch up on the work from that job, I also have a deadline to write an article about tbe horse show I was not able to attend due to the hurricane. The show went on - but without me there....kind of makes it hard to write a story about it though...and even harder to sell ads (on my lunch hour) when the stock market takes a deep sea dive as it did today.

So there I sat uncomfortably at my desk when my phone buzzed. I was getting a text from Emily - the daughter who gave birth only a couple of weeks ago. Trestin was sick and she was taking him into the Emergency room. He seemed to be having trouble breathing. I anxiously awaited every bit of news. He indeed was ill and they put she and Trestin into an ambulance to another hospital better equipped to handle infants. By this time she and I were on the phone together. I was so proud of her, she was calm and understood why he was being moved. The cell phone never left my hands after that conversation.

On my way out of the building - not one security guard could be found so off I went again on my trek back to my car. I was really hurting by the time I reached it and vowed to give myself at least 1 week off from being an exercising lot lizard. I had only 1 errand to run before going home and that was to pick up a prescription previously called into the Walmart pharmacy. Should have been ready at 5pm..so why oh why was I surprised that when I arrived at 6:20...it was not. Apparently I was in good (well maybe not exactly good) but a lot of company being given the same story. 20 minutes.... 20 minutes later they would just say 20 more minutes.

Okay - so I have been subject to quite a bit of stress, pain and over the last several days I had been on some pretty intense medications...so when a 70+ year old man with his polyester pants almost pulled up to his nipples walked in with his 30 year old girlfriend whose shorts could not in any position cover the crack of her behindwalked beside me....well I had to physically bite my tongue. I have never laughed so hard and so quietly in all of my life. What made it worse was the 3 or so women who obviously shared my sense of humor. We all almost blew a gasket when Miss 30 reached up and we all got an unrequested look at her thong panties. I turned around to the woman behind me and under my breath I said, I give the pharmacist $5.00 if they speed their prescription along - just so I don't have to look at her a** again. The moment they left, a roar of laughter rose like I have not heard in a long time...and then they called my name. Like a winning lottery number, I claimed my prize (my meds) and went home.

Comic relief is good when stress is hovering...

Emily again called and said they were at the hospital and she was going to stay the night. Daren would stay with their 2 year old daughter at home..returning the next morning. She seemed calm but worried and told me she would call if anything happened.

I got back to the farm just as it was getting dark. I hate doing farm chores in the dark. It is more difficult and certainly more dangerous. First started the sprinklers, then started to feed, water and hay the horses, feed the lambs, bring in the dogs and feed them too. I needed to clean one stall, but I was hurting by now and was hungry too, so I opted to go upstairs. I removed my jacket before doing my chores, leaving me wearing some black pants and a tank top - thankfully not tucked into my pants....

You see - we always seem to have an issue with mice. I mean if you live above a barn, there is no getting around having mice. The barn cats keep them to a minimum, but once in a while one will get past them and find their way into the house....well let me introduce you to the Kama-Kazi Mouse. This tiny beast has NO fear. He has claimed our pantry as his domain and if you happen to open the pantry door while he is eating, he will throw himself at you, as he did to my husband a couple of nights ago. He lept right off the shelf and onto his shirt....

Well tonight I had a standoff with the beast. I opened the pantry door, the tiny brown villain spread his little mouse arms and legs and pretended to be a flying squirrel..and flew right down the front of my tank top. Bad hip and all, I was dancing and jumping around as I felt him go down my shirt....and Thank you God...he fell out of my shirt and right into the dog food bag! I quickly grabbed the $8.00 bag of dog food and ran out onto the porch where 3 cats immediately ran away from me. I opened the bag and shook it....nothing. I shook it again...nothing. I could just dump out the whole bag...but Gezzzzzz - the stock market dropped over 700 points...so one last time I shook the bag and out ran the mouse. He raced down the railing and flung himself into the bushes below...ha ha - not taking even 1 piece of the dog food with him!

...as I sit here and type all of this ...I just know the little demon is making his way back up the wall and back into his pantry though......sigh..

No news from Emily means good news and it is now past midnight. I hope tomorrow is full of good reports and maybe a bit less pain!

***Edited to add - when I was leaving for work this morning, the 30th of September..I glanced down at the kitchen table to see a Jury Summons.....THAT I WAS SUPPOSE TO REPORT FOR YESTERDAY!.... You know - I could not have made this up no matter how I tried!

11 comments:

Sometimes It's Good said...

Well, you had quite a day! Even battling that demon mouse. You just amaze me...doing all those chores after working all day. I am such a wimp. Bless you...you need some pampering.
I hope your new grandchild is fine by morning.
Hugs, Susan

Cindy said...

Oh my gosh!!! What a day! I feel bad for complaining about car problems! I think I would have a heart attack if a mouse jumped down my shirt!!

I hope your little grandchild is doing better!

Rhoda @ Southern Hospitality said...

HI, Julie, sorry about your horse accident & all the other crazy things that have happened to you on that day. I'm glad you survived the hurricane though...I know it was bad from all the pics on the news.

xoxo

Anonymous said...

Talk about Murphey's Law! What a day!

CIELO said...

Wow girl, what a story! You've gone through so much in such short time, but I'm glad to see you're still laughing ;) Hope your new grandchild is doing better.

Cielo

Unknown said...

OH JULIE! My gosh! What a horrible day! Oh I sure hope your week gets better! I dont know what I would do if a mouse did that to me!

I hope your sweet little grandson is okay! Please keep us posted if you can. My middle son got sick like that when he was three weeks old and ended up in the hospital for two weeks with pneumonia. So scary!

I am so sorry about your accident! That must have been awful! I will keep you in my prayers. I hope you feel better soon!

Big Ol' Hugs,
Amy

Kari (GrannySkywalker) said...

I hope the grandbaby is doing wonderfully well now. I'm very sorry to hear about your horse accident. And I darn near peed my pants when I read about your Kamikazi mouse. I think I would have passed plum out and they would have found ME face down in the bag of dogfood. lol That's too funny. I mean, for US readers, it's too funny...for YOU? maybe not. :)

Kari

kari and kijsa said...

LOL...thanks for the wonderful post! All we can say is WHAT A DAY!!!

smiles, kari & kijsa

Elle Jay Bee said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Elle Jay Bee said...

Oops, sorry about that!! I forgot to add something..

What a horrible day, Julie!
I hope you don't repeat another like it. There is nothing like worrying about a child we love, coupled with pain and stress!

I am sure the doctors will have the little guy feeling better soon. I bet he is adorable!!

Take care of yourself and enlist some help with those chores, if you can. Oh, and stop by my blog next week, as I will be having a really great give-away.

Cheers,
Linda

Susan (Between Naps On The Porch.net) said...

OMG, WHAT A DAY!!! It's taken me a few days to get over here and read your post, it sure didn't disappoint. That mouse story was a riot!!! Who ever heard of a mouse flinging himself onto a person...I would have had a heart attack or passed out!!! I hope your sweet grandson is much, much better now! Hope your hip is better, too!