Today was just… not well planned. I did too much. That was stupid of me. Let’s start with the premise that I’m down 8 hours of babysitting over the last week–sitter has been sick. That means I’m way higher anxiety/stress than most weeks.

Today started at 4:30am. When Shanna woke up. I kept her from waking up Noah and Calli but it was a near thing. (We actually had a lovely chat.)

We left the house at 8 to drive to Mountain View. Then we drove to Burlingame. Then we went back to Mountain View. Then we drove to Campbell. Then we went back to fucking Mountain View. Then we drove to south San Jose, like where 85/87 hook up. (So about 145 miles. Most of it in bumper to bumper traffic.)

We spent a while scouting the hotel for the My Little Pony conference Easter egg hunt we are working on. (I’ve never been there and it seemed like a good idea to look around. I’m glad we went–we had a great time playing in the hotel.)

Then we went to a craft store to get stuff for Valentines. In the store Calli spent a lot of time crying and yelling at me that I am so mean because I never buy her anything. The irony of a full cart completely escaped her.

Then we went to a comic book store because we had time to kill before we picked up Noah for work and the kids love spending their allowance that way. Calli spent a fair bit of time crying and yelling at me because I am so mean because I helped her pay with exact change so she wasn’t handed change back from the cashier. Clearly I should be shot. (She didn’t tell me that she wanted change till we were outside.)

Then we went to lunch with Noah. That actually went fine.

Then we drove first to one Sports Basement (where I have gone before to register for races) and I discovered…. wrong fucking store. I was kind of far from where I needed to be. I feel ok about not knowing that the Barnes and Noble in the Pruneyard is now a fucking sports store. IT WASN’T WHEN I LIVED THERE. But we registered for the race tomorrow. (For 8 damn people. I kept that registrar busy for a while.)

Then we rushed back to Mountain View for a play date with a friend. On the drive I talked to a good friend who is on the far side of the country. The play date was fine. The little guy had kind of a loud day (I am not allowed to complain about loud children. ahem.) and I was kind of freaking out before we arrived (LOTS of Calli screaming at me sets me off) so I spent a lot of the play date twitching. I pray I wasn’t too rude.

Then we picked up Noah from work and he played with the kids in the park for 40 minutes while I read my book and tried to stop shaking.

Then we drove south for dinner with former students. That was a lovely experience. Hanging out with them makes me feel like I might actually know shit and I might have some value as a person. I’m not sure why they give me so much of a bump compared to most of the people in my life. Realistically, all of my former students give me a big bump of self esteem. (Holy shit—it’s no longer mandated that you know me and you choose to continue knowing me?! That’s shit is solid gold for my self esteem.)

Why do the students build me up more than my other friends? If I fucking knew that maybe I could solve some of my problems.

Today has been long. And I’m completely wired for sound. Anxious. Fuss. It’s 9:15 and I should be asleep.

My friend on the phone explained the origin of the allies wanting “cookies” thing. Apparently Chris Rock had a standup routine in which he mocked fathers wanting approval for doing basic parent things. I had no idea. She said it generalized from there into other allies. Good to know.

Tomorrow I am sitting on my ass until the 5k race. Oh yes, I will.