Some Time Away – The Days Before Departure

I had planned to take the weeks between semesters off. It ended up being just over 2 weeks. I had the shift covered for all of that time, and then I planned what I would do. I decided that I would go to the condo and just relax and hang out poolside for the first week and a couple of days. I would be away from home for 11 days. I just had to get through my final papers and pack. I had been throwing things into bags and boxes all week, so I had most of my items gathered, but not packed well. My swimsuit and toiletry bags were already in the car, since I had them ready for gym trips. There’s a washer and dryer at the condo, so it’s easy packing, but I made a list, anyway.

The day before I was scheduled to leave, I had planned to write 2 papers. One final research paper for each of the classes I was taking during summer semester. One was 2500 words, the other was 1600 words. Most of the 1600 word paper had been written over the weekend, and it just needed another hour or two to complete. The 2500 word paper needed a lot more research and to be written. Both due Friday. The 1600 word paper due at midnight. The 2500 word due at 6pm. Difficult, but not impossible. I would head home after my class that day and crank them out.

Toward the end of the very last afternoon class, I got a text from a friend who never asks for help. He needed help. He was admitted to the hospital and his family was across the country. His turtle was loose and needed to be fed, and so did his fish. I knew that I would be away, so I dropped by the hospital, tied up his loose ends, and told my daughter that she’d be turtle sitting while he was in the hospital. I had them start texting each other so that I would not have to play middleman. All settled.

I got home late because of the unplanned outing. I worked on the 2500 word paper, using part of that week’s bookclub meeting to get started. By the time bookclub was over, I had only 300 words written. This was not going well. I had a friend checking on me, since he knew bedtime for me was usually at 9 on work nights. I was updating my word count periodically. He was cheering me on. I needed that. At almost midnight, my mom came to check on me. I had 2300 words written and was going back and adding quotes. This was doable! I finished up and submitted the paper just before 1am. Well before the deadline. I went to bed and woke up 3 hours later. I looked at the directions and found that I forgot to put in one line of required information, and that I was supposed to change the font type to Times New Roman. I pulled the paper from the submission page and told myself I would deal with it after work.

I got up and went to work. I was originally planning on leaving directly from work, but because I hadn’t packed the car yet, I would have to go home before heading out to the condo. That’s fine. It isn’t really out of the way.

I got a text from my mom while I was at work. She wanted to know where my friend’s keys were since he wanted something from his house. I’m at work. My daughter has the keys. I can’t really do much about this from work. Long story short, I would have to come home, move a car so it wouldn’t be on the street for street cleaning, get my stuff, drop my friend’s stuff off at the hospital, go to the sourdough shop for mom and my daughter, pick up my daughter’s prescriptions, get gas, and have lunch before heading to the condo. At least I didn’t need to be at the condo at a certain time, because there was a large concert going on near home, and I had to pass traffic for it on my way out of town.

I got home. I got the car mostly packed. I realized that it was getting late and I needed to fix my paper and resubmit it. I got it sent off and I did a little bit of the 1600 word paper, since I had the laptop out. I got it to the point where I knew I had only about a half hour left of it. It wasn’t due until midnight, and it was only 3pm at this point. I was going to hit traffic no matter what.

I headed out to the hospital. My friend was asleep when I got there. I tried to drop off the stuff and leave, but he woke up. I chatted for a few minutes and ran off. He knew I was headed out of town. I stopped to get gas and went to the post office to pick up mail. It wasn’t on my list, but it was near the sourdough place, so I figured I might as well get it done. I got the bread and called my daughter to ask her to make me lunch, since I forgot about it when I was home. I would trade her the bread for the lunch. I wandered off to the pharmacy and there was only one person in line in front of me. Thankfully.

I ran home, used the bathroom, traded the bread for my lunch, was given something to mail and headed on my way! I got about a half mile from home and stopped. Concert traffic. But, I was on my way! 4 hours late, but one paper was submitted and I was moving in the right direction.

To be continued…