Our trip to Arizona: packing not a priority

Coach and I boarded a plane for Arizona on Friday.  The hours leading up to our departure were not-surprisingly hectic.  After spending the week preparing meals, cleaning the house, and arranging rides for the gang, I had a short list of tasks to accomplish before I could leave.  

On top of my last minute to-dos, I was babysitting.  Two little guys, Theodore and Gilbert, were at our house until we were supposed to walk out and climb in our Uber car.  I don't normally sit on Fridays, so I was less than thrilled when the mom, Gretta, asked me to switch Monday the 30th with my travel date of Friday, Feb 3rd. 

Cleaning up before we leave town.

As luck would have it, I caught a bad cough from Theodore and Gilbert six days before our trip.  Although I hoped I could kick it before we headed out of town, I required a second visit to the doc on Friday with the two tots in tow.  I was slightly alarmed when I ended up retching in the sink on Thursday during a crazy, hard-to-recover-from coughing fit.  

Imagine my excitement at having to squeeze in another doctor visit and trip to the pharmacy while I was scrambling to have all of my ducks in a row hours before our trip.  I really didn't want to be sick on this rare occasion when Coach and I get away, so I hoped that the oral steroid that the doc was prescribing would loosen my cough and sort me out.  The doc explained that I might have pneumonia, but the antibiotic I was on should cover both bronchitis and pneumonia. Bases covered - yippee.

I fixed the boys lunch and started gathering food that I intended to squeeze into my checked bag.  It has become increasingly difficult to travel since I was diagnosed with celiac disease.  Nowadays I am very territorial about my food.  Limited choices make airports dodgy for a hungry gluten free person.  

Lunch with Theodore and Gilbert.

With the boys in for naps, I was feeling like I had a good handle on the last minute stuff and I sat down to send one more email reminding my religious ed substitute teacher of her upcoming Sat. evening obligation. 

That's when exhaustion hit me.  I was unable to keep my eyes open.  My constant companion for most of the week, a.k.a. my cough, had been waking me each morning at five am.  Sleep deprivation was catching up with me.  A 15 minute snooze on the couch was in order. 

After a call with Coach's office manager, who was scheduled as our morning sitter on Tuesday when our overnight sitter left for work, I realized I was racing against the clock.  Time budgeting was failing me.  Shock.  Coach asked me to send for the Uber car, but I called out over my shoulder as I raced up the stairs those magic words he didn't really want to hear, 'I still need to pack!'