Where to start?

As a friend said to me recently, these things always happen to me.

On Tuesday, Ben's plane was supposed to leave Dallas at 3:50pm and arrive in Kansas City at 5:20pm. I had a choir performance at Village Shalom (seniors' home) at 6:30pm, which I had mistakenly thought was later when I booked Ben's flight. Still, it's about an hour from the airport at that time of day so it should have been fine. I had warned the choir members that I would be rushing in at the last minute, and they were fine with that. Since there were only 8 of us singing (2 per part), not going wasn't really an option.

At 3pm, I spoke to Ben and he said that everything was on schedule and that he had just bought Rachel a Texas cowboy hat. Hehe. (She loves it, by the way!) So I packed up our stuff and we headed up towards the airport. I wanted to stop along the way to do some shopping at some new stores halfway there. I also figured that it would be a nice break for Rachel since it would involve a trip to Panera for a cookie and some juice.

We had a great time shopping - I picked up a super-comfy fleece hoodie from Gap for only $13.98, and I got Rachel fleece pjs at Carter's for just over $7! Yay! We also went to Panera, and spent some time reading books in the bookstore.

At 5pm, we headed up to the airport. I didn't want to arrive too early since they only offer 30 minutes of free parking. We walked into the terminal at 5:25pm where I was greeted by the sight of the arrivals board that informed me that Ben's flight was DELAYED until 6:04pm. "Crap, now what do I do?" is the censored version of what went through my head. After asking Rachel what we should do, I realized that I was being slightly irrational. ;)

I told Rachel that Daddy's plane was late and that we were going to go get some gas and think about what to do. Did I mention that the van was literally almost out of gas? We left the terminal and got gas right outside the airport. I then decided to just boot it down to my performance since I'd likely get there just after 6:30 whereas if I waited for Ben I would most definitely not get there before 7 or 7:15pm, thus missing the whole performance.

At about 6:10pm, I noticed that it was strangely quiet in the backseat. Yes, Rachel had fallen asleep. Since Rachel doesn't nap, she is usually in bed for the night not much after 6pm. Oops.

I arrived at Village Shalom just after 6:30pm. I quickly changed my shirt (yes, in the van. It was dark and there was nothing to see!) and got my choir stuff together. Then I got R out of the carseat (still asleep) and rushed up to the building. R woke up about halfway up the walkway.

The choir hadn't started yet because they were waiting for me. I quickly found someone with a cell phone and called Ben to say, "I'm at choir and you're going to have to take a cab home." As an aside, Ben's cell phone had about 8 or 9 minutes on it. Oops.

Rachel was very cranky and hadn't used the potty since 3pm so I took her to the bathroom to change her into a pull-up. When I got back, we started our performance. Rachel has been with me to Village Shalom before and she is usually content to stand between myself and one of the bass singers. That night, she demanded to be picked up. Then she wanted to walk circles around me. Then she wanted to sit down behind everyone and insisted that I come with her. Then we ended up in the back. The other soprano said that she was still happy that I came because I did sing most of the program. All I have to say is that I'm glad it wasn't our High Holy Days program with a message of repentance/forgiveness, because I'm positive that people could see the steam coming out of my ears from the stress and frustration of leaving Ben at the airport, corralling an overtired cranky toddler and attempting to sing in Hebrew all at the same time. I believe the exact thought going through my mind was, "GAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! Get me OUT of here!!!!!!!!!" Hehe.

After the performance, Rachel got her second wind. She was very cheerful, and she was thrilled to receive some chocolate gelt and a dreidel. So I guess I could have gone back to pick up Ben at the airport after all since she didn't go to bed until 9pm and it wasn't quiet in her room until 9:30pm.

A cab from the Kansas City airport to our apartment? $60.

Rachel telling Ben that night at home how she went to choir with Mom and sang songs and had fun? Priceless.