Laptops, Sippy Cups and Running Shoes

So is the woes of a working mother. Don't get me wrong, I love my job. I spend all day encouraging Corporate Canada to support their employees in improving their lives, their health and their overall wellness. In this trying economic times, the message is louder than ever.

However, there are days.....for example, Friday of last week I started the day like any other with one MAJOR execption. I like to run in the mornings - it gets the job done, I get a nice jump start to the day and frankly, my evenings are often absorbed by so many other things. However, on this day, I just didn't. No reason really, I just took the children to day care, came back to change into running clothes and go. I was a little concerned about time as I had my first meeting at 9:00 which meant a short run and a quick shower but I had done it before. This particular morning, I just wasn't feeling it and instead, I read the paper (online of course!) and drank a tea and got myself ready at a nice leisurely pace. - I should have known not to mess with the order of things as I discovered throughout the day.

Off I go to my meeting, smugly enjoying my change in schedule and thinking about some article I had read in the paper. When I drove around a corner toward my meeting, my bag fell off my seat and its contents went flying out. Although a pain, it is usually not a problem but this time, a wayward sippy cup was in my bag from the weekend. Of course the lid had come loose and now the contents of the sippy cup were all over the place - including my wallet, my Blackberry, my expense cheque that I had not yet desposited....When I say contents, I actually mean GRAPE juice. Excellent. I allow myself a few cursory statements not suitable for family reading and carrying on thinking about how I was going to pitch out all the sippy cups and therefore end the ongoing battle with my four year that she is WAY too old for them. There, now I felt better.

I arrive at my meeting where I am scheduled to speak to a large group of community nurses about our new partnership with their employer. The room in which I was presenting was large and what was probably at one time a cafeteria. I get myself set up and pull out all my materials. Then I pull out my laptop for the presentation slide show and begin to source an electrical outlet. Now, under normal circumstances, it is faily likely that an outlet is a no brainer. But keep in mind this was a cafeteria and the set up of the room is not exactly "standard". With no outlet to be found, I think - no problem. The laptop has a battery right? Of course I had forgotten that on Thursday, I had sat in a coffee shop between my meetings where there was no outlet and I had used up most of the battery life. Now I am standing in front of 200+ employees eager to learn of the wonderful changes their employer is embarking on and my presentation will probably only last about 10 minutes on the charge I have. And so it continues...

End of the day arrives and I pick up my children, go home, make dinner, chat with the hubby and put kids to bed. I spell out the mishaps of my day and he says, "maybe you should have run this morning after all?". After thinking about this, I decide perhaps he was right. Now after 8:00pm, I change my clothes, put on my running shoes and head out the door. I am determined to correct the universe! I start up the hill that we live on (I won't miss that when we move) and get to the top - about to the turn the corner when I trip over a ledge on the sidewalk. Not only to a trip but my foot goes off the sidewalk and into the mud to the side. When I say mud, I acually mean, swamp that has been freshly filled by the rain in recent days. My foot, up to the ankle, is buried in indescribable sludge and when I pull out my foot, I see that my shoe is not even visable.

I turn around and call it day. :)