I almost wallowed

Yesterday was a long day.  I had to take Kendra up to WRAMC and do all the pre-op orders for her surgery on Tuesday.  It's a long and tiresome drive up there, but at least it's routine now.  We don't get lost anymore.  We talk about things and then we listen to music and sing together.  Kendra has the best voice.  She used to be in the school choirs, but she elected not to do that this year.

At any rate, we left home around 7:00 AM.  We talked with Dr. Cartwright about what would be done on Tuesday (they are removing bladder stones).  We went through all the choices for how to do it, as well as discussing what would happen if we elected NOT to remove them (not a good choice, but an option).  We finally decided on the method and discussed that thoroughly.  Now that Kendra is 18, she speaks up a lot more and she absolutely MUST sign off on anything they want to do for her.

Then it was off to the pre-op ward and taking care of all the paperwork before the surgery.  They have set it up as a "one stop" area.  We see the finance officer to confirm insurance coverage, we see the lab techs for all the preliminary blood work, and finally we see a surgical nurse to go over the final consent forms and sign them.

When all is said and done, we finally left WRAMC at 3:00 pm and arrived back home after 5:00pm. 

So.. last night after arriving home was when I really felt the need to wallow.  I miss my real-life friends in Germany.  I haven't yet made the kind of friends here that I had there.  I knew that if I was back at Illesheim, Sara and I would be out on the balcony, sipping some white wine and commiserating on the tediousness of the day. 

Here it's just me and the kids.  And while my kids are great, I don't like dumping my concerns on them.  Especially when some of the concerns are brought on BY them. Anyway, I know that I could call some of my friends but most of them have bigger worries than I do and I hate having to share my whine time with someone who really has something to whine about.. I know.. selfish.. but OY... I just didn't want to have to shoulder someone else's much bigger issues lastnight.

Paul called me about the time I was getting ready to really start the pity party.  Being able to share with him my worries and concerns helped.  He managed to stay very neutral so that he didn't feel like he was being picked on. (one of my bitches was being tired of single-parenting when I have a partner).

And once we were done with the nice parts of our conversation, I felt so much better.  I let him know that, too.. that just being able to talk to him really made all the difference.