The Boy Scouts were right...

You should always be prepared. And sadly, I have not  been prepared these last few days.

Being a "sometimes single" working mom with a baby in day care is driving me a bit bananas. I took for granted how easy it was to schedule when you had someone playing backup. If J had to work late, no big deal because I could pick up the baby. Or if I had to work early, J could take the baby in to daycare. Not so much now. When there is a mandatory 5:45 meeting, guess who is emailing their boss saying that daycare doesn't open that early? And when daycare lets you know that they have to close early to do a state (or military) mandated class? Guess who is talking to their boss about switching shifts. {It's me, in case you didn't get that}

I hate being a "problem child" at work. I like to have all of my ducks in a row, show up on time, do a great job, and leave everyone thinking about rainbows and unicorns. And even more than being a problem child, I hate being a flake. I hate having to tell my boss, oh so thanks for changing my schedule this week, but my daycare is actually closing early one day NEXT week. (That would have been nice to know this morning when she said Wednesday!!)

In my job, there are a lot of probing questions that you ask to make sure you are getting the right product for the customer. I guess I am going to have to start implementing those techniques into my everyday life. Great...next thing you know, I will be using my phone voice when I talk to people. "It will be just a moment while I am looking into this.... Please bear with me...I do appologize..."

I need to channel my inner boy scout. I need to prepare for the worst, and hope for the best. I need to get a little bit better at this single mom thing. It is way harder than I ever realized. It makes me with that I was home and had close family and friends to pick up the slack (which reminds me, this is the kind of friend I want to be for people, someone they can count on and someone they can call when they are in a bind).

The one good thing about this week so far? Apparently I do a good enough job to be cross trained in other departments. So on top of a little bit of personal life stress, I am adding a little bit of work stress and learning something new. I feel like I am just learning to juggle...and I went straight from juggling balls to juggling knives.

Thank God for coffee,
L