Thursday, September 29, 2011

What Keeps You Up?

Everyone has things that they think about from time to time that keep them up at night. Usually, for me, it's lists of things that need to be done. That is unless I'm pregnant, then the things that I think about keeping me up at night morph into the strange and unusual. They also come with greater consistency while pregnant. (Probably because I'm up a lot more frequently anyway.) Here are a few things that kept me up last night.

First I was thinking about what I would do if the house caught on fire. Dan is working night shifts so I figured first I would open the bathroom door to let Percie out. Then I would go to Greg's room and the two of us would get out his window onto the deck. Then we would go downstairs and get a big rock and break open Charlotte's window, which is at ground level, and get her out. Of course if the fire were such that I couldn't get to Greg's room by the hall I would have to hang out my window and drop to the ground. I bet I could do that if I hung by my arms and it wouldn't hurt too bad. The problem would then be how to get into Greg's room to get him out. A big rock could open his window, but how to get up and in past the broken glass.

Then after that I planned if an intruder came into our home while Dan was away. What would I do? That one is much trickier. And there were about a million different scenarios I went through. Percie, though big and white, is pretty much dead to the world late at night. I know this because she sleeps in the bathroom and every night now I have to pee sometime in the middle of the night. I have stepped right on her before without so much as a movement from that dog. So it would have to be up to me, and my cell phone which is right next to the bed and hopefully some obedient children.

After thinking about all the various life threatening situations our family could go through in the night and how I may or may not handle them I moved on to thinking about all the things I've lost lately. First it was some very special things that my mom and mother-in-law hand made for me right before I got married. They were lost about a year ago and I've been searching ever since and called everyone and everyplace I thought they could be, but no luck. We even packed up our entire house and moved and they didn't show up. I'm heartsick over the loss and still try thinking of something I may have missed that would clue me into where they might be.

Then, more recently, I lost my set of the keys to the minivan that had the house key and the check-in card for Charlotte's preschool. All of which is annoying to have lost. Now we're down to one set of house keys and one set of minivan keys. I can't possibly figure out where they might have gotten to and I have searched the entire house.

Then, most recently, I lost a ziploc bag that contained soiled undies from an accident that Greg had while out of the house a few days ago. I'm not really missing the undies, but I know it's going to show up soon and yuck!

Mostly I just find it annoying that I can't seem to keep track of things lately and for the life of me cannot remember when the last time I saw them was. This so very rarely happens to me. In our house I'm the finder of lost items, and the rememberer of where things have been placed. If I can't find it then usually nobody will.

So that's what's been keeping me up at night. Things I've lost, and strange scenarios about how my family could die horrible painful deaths and what to do to avoid them. Anyone else have this sort of strangeness happen?

3 comments:

denise said...

When you were a wee TOT I figured we could hide in the center of the waterbed. Marci figured she could throw the baby out the window into the bushes. Now I have the tee ball bat. Watch out.

Anth said...

I can't tell you how often those scenarios kept me up while pregnant (congratulations, by the way!). They usually consisted of barricading myself in my closet until I could get the gun cabinet unlocked to defend my kids. Hoping of course that the baddies bypassed my kids' rooms as being bereft of fenceable goods. I also double locked the front door a lot more often while pregnant. I think it's perhaps because I knew I didn't have the same physical capabilities (not even close) so I was more worried about what I would do.

Now what keeps me up now is the eleventy million things I have to do that I keep forgetting during the daytime.

Also, I lost Miss E's backpack and didn't realize it until the day before school started. So the actual day school started, we had to run to Target and buy one of the two girly backpacks left.

Dan's mom said...

One night when Craig was at the hospital, I awoke to find the kitchen light on. I thought "what a dumb burglar, turning on lights" & then worried about getting the bat from the boys' closet. I crept to the kitchen & peeked around the corner- no one there but a chair pushed over to the counter. I looked around - nothing else out of place, considering, & still no one there. When I turned off the light & went back around the corner, I heard giggling - from on top of the refrigerator. Michael (age3 or so) was up there eating twinkies......

Have you asked the kids about the keys? More than one child had hidden or stored or whatever mine in various places; someone put my drivers license in the bottom of the hamper once & keys in seat of the ride on toy. We won't even discuss Carson's attemps at keeping things safe! hope they reappear soon.