Being a single working mother is hard.
Being a single working mother to a sick/healthy/sick/healthy child is harder.
Being a single working mother who's nauseous and exhausted while trying to juggle a sick/healthy/sick/healthy child is impossible.
Really, it's impossible. It can't be done.
You can imagine my delight when the clock finally struck 5 on Friday afternoon. The longest week of my life was officially over. On to the weekend: free of fevers, free of vomit, free of work, free of short nights and early mornings, free of emails or text messages from people who just don't understand how hard that week was, how physically/mentally/emotionally draining that week was.
On Friday, the whiteboard in my office (which usually boasts something inspiring, or fun tic-tac-toe games, or a list of things I have to get done that day) there was nothing but white space and 5 bold words. All day long.
Yes, I'm glad last week is over. And this past weekend was a wonderful weekend. Wonderful and relaxing... with a few work-related errands to run on Saturday, but who's counting?
Blue Eyes and I were in dire need of a date night. We were unable to find a sitter, but decided to give date night a go anyway. Once we found out that we weren't going to procure a babysitter for the evening, we hopped on downtown, cheeky baby in tow.
Note: we had only one baby that weekend; had we found ourselves with two babies, we would probably have stayed in for the evening. We were in dire need of an enjoyable evening; we were not looking for a night of lunacy (which is precisely what happens when you try to dine out on a Saturday night with two 1-year-olds... it just doesn't work).
So we went to Bell's Brewery (which has both a restaurant/bar as well as a general store at which you can purchase homebrew supplies), and Sol watched in amazement as Mr. Blue Eyes carefully selected and mashed the most delicious roasted barley... so we can brew our own Vanilla Java Porter.
Oh yeah, have I mentioned that he's into homebrewing? A blue-eyed man after my own heart.
So after making our final purchase at the brew store, we traversed over to the restaurant side of things and, in doing so, I went straight to victual heaven. Let's just set aside the fact that I indulged in one of the best chocolatey porters EVER... Bell's is home to many a vegetarian entree, and I was all too excited to try their BBQ tofu wrap. That was one lucky flour tortilla: wrapped around juicy, marinated tofu with an avocado cream spread, Muenster cheese, Porter BBQ sauce, and cole slaw. Mmmmm mmm mmm.
Blue Eyes got himself a little brisket meal... which is fine. Whatever. Nuff said about that.
We sat all cozy in the warm upper level, where people would coo and wave at the puffy-cheeked baby who sat at our table, shoveling chubby handfuls of Cheerios in her mouth and flinging sweet potatoes across the floor as she "fed herself."
On our uber-romantic date night (enter dry sarcastic laughter here), a nice young staff member from Bell's came over around 8:30pm, and politely stated that "it was getting to be that time," because Bell's doesn't really care to have minors in there past 8pm (half-hour extension if said minor is a baby with cheeks that just won't quit). It was time for Sol to leave anyway... she'd had enough of the restaurant scene.
So we packed up and went home on that Saturday night: bodies healthy, bellies sufficiently stuffed, beer-snob palates satisfied with the libations of the local brewery, and backseat filled with one sleepy Sol and several pounds of roasted barley.
And no evening would really be complete without a bedtime tickle attack on Solchop by Mr. Blue Eyes. Warning: the following video will make your heart swoon.
Ah, date night.
