Lost: One brain

If found, please return to owner. Most desperately needed.

It's true. I think my brain is MIA. Evidently trying to keep too many things in it, between doctors and therapists, insurance agencies, various children's schedules, and then Christmas added on to boot, has caused it to run away. I should have seen it coming. It was evidently tired, based on the number of things that I had been forgetting, but I didn't think it would just run away entirely.

Let's take today, for instance. It wasn't a particularly taxing morning, and many of the children were playing with Legos. I spent some time messaging with various older children about various things, when I realized the time, and pretty much abruptly say good-by to M. and run upstairs to get dressed. Then there are always the lunch negotiations and the I-want-to play-outside-even-though-it's-21-degrees negotiations and the yes-you-have-to-wear-snow-pants-and-hats-negotiations, but that's pretty normal. What wasn't normal was the amount of driving I needed to do this afternoon, coupled with the fact that at the last moment I decided that we really did need to send Christmas cards, or we probably would never do it again.

So, I'm busily working on Christmas cards and trying to only pay attention to the most desperate cries for help, when I look at the time. The minutes said "45" which meant that in fifteen minutes I needed to leave to collect P. from the stable and begin my two hour driving extravaganza. Which is what I did. I arrived at the stable and waited for P. to come out. And waited... and waiedt. Well, when the minutes reached "30", I started to worry since she still hadn't come out. Now, I am the queen of worrying. I can go from completely fine to someone is dying in a matter seconds. This is what I proceeded to do in the parking lot. P. takes the bus to the stables and I decided the reason she hadn't come out was that she had never made it to the stable in the first place. Something horrible had happened, and I might never know it because I was just sitting in the parking lot. I decided I needed to go in to see if she even made it to the stable, so I can start phoning for help sooner rather than later.

I go into the stable fully prepared to hear P. never showed up. Instead, when I enter the stable, I see P. in the arena mounting a horse. This is odd, and my brain doesn't fully make the connection. All I'm thinking at the moment is, "Hooray! She made it to the stable!" Now a present and working brain would also make the connection that a child just getting on a horse is not going to be appearing in the parking lot terribly soon. No, it takes my absent brain a few more minutes to catch-on. It isn't until I look at the analog clock that is hanging in the office that I see the time is TWO-thirty, not three-thirty as I had thought. I have a moment where I realize that I am a full hour early for picking up P., and I'm sure some of the people who were there are still wondering who the crazy lady is.

I now have 45 minutes before I have to be back... again. It takes me about 20 minutes to drive home, so that doesn't make sense. I decide that I could use that time to run an errand, of which I have many this time of year, which is what I do. I make it back to the stable in time and drive P. home. I then pick-up all the children who need to be driven to the church for pageant rehearsal. (An aside. My children at home had no idea that I had left an hour too soon and was gone an hour longer than I usually am. This does not feel terribly complementary to me.) Do I get to go home then and look for my brain? No, instead I get to drive down to North Park University where all of my family either works or goes to school because I promised M. I would help her return some carpets which were borrowed as props to another school. I could just leave it at that, and have everyone think I am the nice and caring mom, but really we cut a deal that if did this driving, M. would then take over the wire feet part of the bird project that never ends. Trust me when I say I got the far better end of that deal.

We dropped off the carpets and made it home. I then had just enough time to make a cup of tea and make about 20 more cards before it was time to get back into the van to get the pageant people. Did I mention that temperature has been dropping all day and that it was heading down to the single digits by this time?

Right now, I'm just about to read bedtime stories to people. Then, finally, I can search for that missing brain. I hope I find it. If not, I'm going to have to spend a lot of time writing down every single thing that I need to remember, because it is evident that brain is not going to be able to do that for me.

Hmm... perhaps I should have just done that in the first place.

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