{Virtual Coffee}

Oh dear, I thought I would be ecstatic to see Tuesday this week and instead I am stressing to the nines. If we were meeting for coffee today I would warn you that I am flying high on crabbiness and gnarliness so that you could decide if you even want to have coffee with me today.

If we were meeting for coffee today I would be torn between telling you about the coming days and the past few days. I would say I should stick to decaf because I am already climbing the walls and trying to put a positive spin on all of it.

The last weekend I spent at scouts camp just about finished me off. We were staying in old train cabooses like Frederick here

only ours was named Saint Laurent. Well, let me tell you it seemed like the last occupants had been a pack of feral cats who sprayed the entire inside. We were nine in our caboose which left the three foot square entrance a virtual wading pool.

This is the view from the top of the stairs which left me a little nervous about the kiddies in our charge running up and down them and hopping across the gap to the caboose beside ours. I was hoping their tetanus shots were all up to date with all the rust and pointy metal edges.

I guess I should throw in that fact that we had electricity but no running water which put the toilets at a bit of a hike. But not as far as the potable water (which looked a little dicey to me even if they claim it is tested once a week) which was a good half mile hike away.

The highlight of the trip (which should give you an idea) was coming head to head with the main cub leader over the issue of safety in one of the sporting events. He declared he had never been looked at or spoken to in such a manner by a parent volunteer in the twenty-odd years he was leader. I'll spare the details and just say that I hardly recognize myself anymore. I've turned into the mouse that roars.

The last straw for me was the smoke detector going off twice during our last night. Already we were all short on sleep. The days started early and ended late. And it's stressful enough waking to the smoke detector shrieking let alone waking to the smoke detector shrieking when you are responsible for a load of other people's kids. False alarms, both of them but there was no restful sleep for the rest of the night. My theory was that the heat of the caboose (too hot inside and no way to turn the temperature down) mixed with the cat urine created fumes that sparked the alarm.

Oh, if we were meeting for coffee today I would ask you to just talk to me and tell me that these feelings of being in the middle of a nervous breakdown will soon pass while I cry tears of frustration and fear.

If you were here for coffee today I would pull out the page from my page-a-day calendar for Women Who Do Too Much which reads for February 8: Every day we complete many tasks, and yet we often see only those left undone. You would tell me that's true and remind me to breathe. And you would ask to see some of the pictures from the weekend and I couldn't resist showing this one of Riley jumping off the piled up docks into a bank of snow

and this one of my hair after not showering for days. A bad case of bed-head and hat-hair rolled into one

I would say that I think this photo looks a bit Annie Leibovitz-ish and you would laugh so hard coffee would come out of your nose which would make me laugh and start to feel a little better.

I would give you a hug at the door because friends really can lift my spirits when I am down and I know it's a start when I begin to feel moments of lightness in my heart.

You would tell me you are headed over to Amy's Lucky Number 13 for some more stories since it's your day off and are being kind to yourself by actually giving yourself a "day off".