Review of Last Week

And we're back!

Patrick and I have been on yet another, and, thankfully, final, trip around the globe for interviews for his residency. Three in three days, each in a different city. Wow, overscheduling! Anyway, he's done now. With the exception of a trip for a second look to his favorite one, I think we'll be home for awhile. HOLY COW AM I EXHAUSTED. Here's why:

• Tues: Travel north to Grandmother's house to stay before Patrick interviews on Wed. Patrick goes to pre-interview dinner. I am not invited, and so snub them haughtily to stay home with Grandma. Colin has horrible gas pains, screams for 45 minutes while tensing his entire body, before finally passing out in Grandma's arms in the rocker. Meanwhile, I bite off all my nails, pace, and feel guilty for no good reason.
  
• Wed: Patrick interviews. Grandma sets up camp outside our bedroom door until Colin wakes up, at which point she takes him and I don't touch him again until nearly six hours later as we're leaving. He is adorable, talkative, and happy today and, thus, makes up for his screaming fit (which was not his fault, of course. I'm sure it was mine somehow - such is the burden of motherhood.) from the night before. She loves him, he loves her, and I doze in the corner.
  
• Wed, later: We rush back to Lex and our friend Kelli comes over to babysit while Patrick and I go to the pre-interview dinner here. It is the first time that I have left Colin with anyone other than family, so I, predictably, freak out. This is not helped by the fact that the cat left us a pile of fresh poo on the sofa in Colin's room. GROSS. We have a great time at dinner (I met a mother of a 9 week old and we swapped stories. I am totally a member of the club.) and Colin does great while we're gone.
  
• Thurs: Patrick interviews. My mother-in-law comes to our house at 8am so that I can go interview for a research job for the semester. My interview goes great, I fall in love with the woman I'll be working with, and I consider restructuring my entire future so that I can pursue a degree under her.
  
• Thurs, later: We rush north (a different north, where my family lives and I grew up) for another pre-interview dinner. We don't make it in time. Instead, we check into our hotel and go to the adjoining mall in search of a quick bite. Afterwards, we pop into the Gap to look for socks for Patrick and run into a girl that I (supposedly) went to school with. (She remembered me; she looked vaguely familiar.) She drools over Colin, then says this:
  "I went through the motions of being pregnant, but then he got to be four months old and died." (She waves her arm at me, on which is a tatooed name.) "This was his name, see? Ha! Like I could forget! Haha! Anyway, your little one is so cute!" I am slayed. I mumble that I'm so sorry, but catch myself, thinking that SURELY I have misheard her, as this is not normal Don't I Know You? talk at the Gap. But she keeps on talking about it. I am devastated and overwhelmed with the need to get away from her. I didn't want to make her feel bad, but I left as quickly as I could and then cried myself to sleep in the chair next to Colin's bed.
  
• Fri: Patrick interviews. I bop around the mall wasting time and trying to avoid the girl from the Gap. I go to pick Patrick up and we head to a different mall where my sister works at a photography studio. She captures Colin's stunning good looks on film - er, digital memory card. We meet my mother, the Baby Mama, Bro-in-Law, and the Best Nephew Ever for dinner. There is a "Big Ball" hanging over our table and the BNE is hoarse aftewards from the thrill of it all.
  
• Sat: The Baby Mama and I go to a yoga class, possibly the best one I've ever been to as far as my personal progress is concerned. Life is good. We hang out for the afternoon, then host some friends and their daughter in the evening. The little girl and the BNE immediately fall in love and chase each other around the house screaming. After they left, the four adults played board games and drank wine into the wee hours of the morning - a decision we all regretted when neither of the children slept.
  
• Sun: Lunch with my dad, his sweetheart, me and my little family, the Baby Mama and her little family, the Little Two sisters, AND the sweetheart's two sons and new daughter-in-law. It is fun, but exhausting. Then, home. Colin is fussy again and doesn't want to sleep, but wears himself out and finally is quiet. I have 40 unread emails, 38 unread posts in my Google Reader, dishes, laundry, bills, and a thousand other things to do. But I'm going to go have a hot bath and go to bed. Life can wait until tomorrow, I'm sure.