Girl's Weekend

I got home late from work on Friday (the day of Ben’s departure). I was beat and really not feeling so well. I asked Maia what she wanted for dinner and when she said, “Old McDonald’s” I relented.

Being McD’s, I did not think it was necessary to dress up. I was wearing a too tight T-shirt with a slight rip in the side and looked exhausted and pregnant. Maia was mismatched and had hair hanging in her face. She wanted to play there, so I told her that she could play for a bit, we would wash hands, and order food to take home to eat. We were the only people there, so I can imagine that the staff thought that we were just there to play. However, we did finally go to order. At first, I ordered two kid’s meals. Rethinking, I asked to change the order to two hamburgers and a large fry as I was not hungry and did not think we needed the drinks or toys. The manager overheard all of this and I spotted him looking from Maia to me and back. As I was paying, he came around to the front of the counter and offered Maia a toy—very sweet. And when we got home, I discovered a kid’s fry in addition to the large that I had ordered. This made me a little embarrassed. Did he think that I could not afford the kid’s meals? Do I need to start looking a little better when visiting fast food chains? I did look pretty horrible, but need free food bad? I don’t know. I do feel that this man was very considerate, though. How nice to know that people care.

After we ate our cultured cuisine, I went downstairs to look for something in the frog room. I noticed that one of the tanks was open and there were no frogs inside. I searched the room in case any had escaped recently and saw that a frog was stuck in fly food in another tank. Now this other tank is no ordinary terrarium. It is one of the exhibits from Totally Frogs at the Museum of Natural History. It has a housing with lights and a drip system that cover the main lid and it is VERY heavy. I would guess that it is 100 lbs. That thought did not occur to me when I saw this poor, hopefully not dead frog. I got in the top without moving the housing and rescued the now dead frog. To ensure this did not happen again, I tried to hit the bottles of fly food over. This is when the catastrophe started. The lid fell in.

This room is not kid friendly. There are plugs and cords and outlets everywhere. There is usually dirt and scissors and screwdrivers and bottled flies. Maia is not in the best mood and neither am I and I ask her to go upstairs while I try to fix the lid and housing. After a few minutes of not coming upstairs, Maia gets impatient and comes back down crying. I cannot do anything for her. I am standing on a desk, holding a 100lb housing while trying to set it carefully on a plastic lid and it is not working. Yelling ensues as I try to yell to Maia to move out of the way so that I don’t drop anything on her and eventually, I start sobbing. I don’t know what to do so I call Ben to see if he can help me somehow. He cannot and I just end up stressing him out since it is only minutes before his presentation in Minneapolis. What a disaster! Finally, after thirty minutes and many tears from both Maia and I, the lid and the housing is in place. I hold her and we watch Bolt as I contract throughout the night from putting to much weight and stress on myself.

How can the weekend get any worse? It didn’t. Not much, anyway.

Saturday, Maia and I went shopping with my mom. We were looking for a rug for the living room and a Christmas tree. After quite a few hours of shopping, we found a rug. When I purchased it, the cashier told me to keep the tag and receipt in case of return. We got back to my home and put the rug in the living room. I didn’t like it. But where was the tag and receipt??? I had left them in the store. I dragged a worn out Maia back to the store and searched everywhere, asked if anyone had seen them, and just as I was walking out, a manager said that she could reprint the receipt if I was willing to wait. Of course I was willing. By this time, Maia had fallen asleep in my arms. She doesn’t do this often, so I knew she was tired and wanted to let her rest. About thirty minutes later, holding over thirty pounds on top of my belly (it is surprising I didn’t fall over), I got the receipt. All of that and we are keeping the rug…

Maia and I went to the library and played for the rest of the evening. It turned out to be a very nice time.

Sunday, we were finally in the swing of things. Maia was a little upset and I was a little sore because I decided to rake up ten bags of leaves from our yard. Other than that, we played and decided to go swimming. I did not have much time to get there before it closed, so we hurried to gather our things and rushed out the door. We headed down I-80…13th exit—closed, 7th exit—closed, State St exit—closed. By this time, Maia was drifting off and I knew that there was no way that we would make it. We headed to Nana’s and Papa’s early for dinner instead. It was a nice way to end the day. I am lucky to have parents who cook for me and drive for me and help take care of Maia!

Monday, after I got home from work, we went to Sugarhouse Park. We fed the ducks, ran all over, and played at the playground. There was a little boy there who put on his fiercest face and growled at Maia! She was a little afraid at first, but then started to bark like a dog back at him. It was quite a site. When we got home we ate a lovely dinner and celebrated our last ‘Girl’s Night’ with a brownie and ice cream.

So, the time without Ben really did get more manageable. Maia and I had a lot of fun together and I felt that I got to know her a little bit more. We missed Ben desperately, though. Maia said to me, “I am going to pretend that Kona is Daddy, ok? (To Kona): I love you, Daddy.” Tuesday, we were VERY happy to go pick Ben up at the airport. I imagine that the look on Maia’s face when she saw him was reflected in my face. We are so lucky to have him!