I've gotten many comments wondering when the next post will be up. I'm sorry that I've left you waiting. Today's post is an informal one. I want to talk about the blog, and about what you want from it. And I want to tell you what I've been up to.
Today, I left work early to make it home in time to pick my son up from after school care. He's ten years old and I need to meet him by 6 oclock when the daycare closes. I was rushing to catch the soonest bus, and I remembered that I hadn't picked up my bus pass yet. So I was fumbling through my purse, wondering why I had to carry SO MUCH stuff in such a small bag, and saw the bus. Everyone else got on, and I was still searching for the change to pay. The driver waved me aboard, probably willing to accept what change I could find. I found the change I needed, and we were off.
Half way home I notice that the driver has not taken an important turn off towards my neck of the woods and is now on a highway headed in the wrong direction. I had apparently gotten on the 57 bus instead of the 50 bus. The visual appearance of these two buses are only subtly different (whats one digit between friends?) and yet, they are not the same.
I ended up in the middle of nowhere, waiting in the scorching sun for one of two buses required to land me at home. It was a good 25 minutes before the first bus arrived, and by this time it was nearly 6 already. I called Ethan's after school care. His Monday childcare is a licensed daycare, and they have all kinds of rules in place for my child's safety and I'm pretty sure actually for my inconvenience. Such rules as: there will be a 25 dollar late fee if you don't pick up your kid by 6:00, and then a billion dollars a minute after 5 minutes, or the "your kid cannot leave without being signed out by someone authorized on the official form" rule. So here I was, stuck in the middle of nowhere, dying in the sunshine, with my child across town being held hostage by a daycare that was going to charge me a million and a half dollars in ransom for being late.
I phoned everyone I know that lives within a reasonable proximity to the daycare and not a soul answered their phones.
Thankfully for me, while the daycare is designed with these awful (and very important safety) rules, they are also staffed by highschool kids who don't want to do any more work than they have to. So I begged them to release him into the wild to fend for himself, while I prayed that a bus would arrive and I could get home before he died of starvation or lit himself on fire.
In the end, the bus arrived and then the second bus arrived, and Ethan made it home and he knows how to work the TV so he was happy and fine. I was exhausted, and he was fine, and I didn't have to pay a million and a half extra dollars ransom to the daycare. What a day! So I was going to write an amazing post about truth and happiness and emotions, but I thought that this would be more true to where I'm at today. Today is an unpolished post about what being a single mom is REALLY like. Sometimes it's tricky and imperfect. Sometimes I'm an idiot, and I get on the wrong bus because I forgot to buy a bus pass and end up across town and stranded. But it all worked out. I didn't burst into tears and flail myself into the street in a desperate attempt to acquire rescue, and Ethan didn't light himself on fire. I think it went well.
- KR Munro
PS. What do you guys think of this kind of post? Is this something you would enjoy once in a while? I am hoping to post frequently again, but know that sometimes I won't be perfect about it. Sometimes I'll be stuck on the other side of town because life happens. Sometimes the posts will be polished and artful, and other times they may be casual and playful, or uplifting, or who knows. But they will most likely reflect real life. Real life as a single mom isn't always easy.
Thanks for reading. I'm glad to be back.
- Kell
