Chris is gone, let the psychotic tendancies begin!

Okay, so psychotic is a bit strong, but "my own small kind of craziness" doesn't sound as good.

I do this every time he goes out of town. I know it's coming and I tell myself "I will not get crazy this time" but sure enough, the crazy just sneaks up on me. The problem is that Chris and I are both kind of forgetful people. It actually works out quite well because he helps me remember my stuff and I help him remember his....and we try not to get too crabby with each other about the forgetting. When we work together, we somehow manage to make it through life (and drag our kids along) without any major mishaps.

We he's out of town, it's just me. It's all up to me to make sure everyone gets where they need to be and has what they were supposed to bring. Up to me to make sure that the right dishes and clothes are clean, everyone gets fed when they are supposed it.....and god help us all, fix something that might go wrong. All this responsibility sends my forgetful, flighty brain into overdrive......and it just starts coming up with things that MIGHT go wrong, things that I MIGHT have to fix.

This morning, Celia and I take a rather pointless trip to K Mart (they had NOTHING good, like every other K Mart in the nation seems to have right now!) As I'm strapping her in the car to come home I notice this little old guy putting "fix a flat" in his tire and think "oh....what a bummer".

My wheels barely hit the interstate before the crazy thoughts begin:

"Huh...my tires sound funny. Am I getting a flat? Do I know how to change a flat on this car? I mean....I think the spare and jack are under the trunk....they are, aren't they? Crap, there's still all that recording stuff in the trunk! What am I going to do with that while I change the tire? Could I even change the tire by the side of the road? I mean, it's cold. And windy. And Celia would be really mad about sitting in her seat all that time......"

"Wait....that's not a flat tire. The whole thing is just wrong. This car just feels wrong! What if one of the tires is about to fall off? Do tires ever do that?" (By this point I'm almost hyperventilating at the possibility) "Calm down! You've got to be in complete control of yourself and the car when the tire falls off!"

Lucky for me the rational part of my brain slaps the hysterical part (again, all in my head. Slapping yourself while driving on the interstate steps you right over that line of "just a little weird" straight to "certifiably crazy". Unless you were feeling really sleepy and just needed to wake up, then slap away) and this whole crazy thought process disappears.