Tennessee Time

                                              
After the car debacle, it was time to drive to Tennessee for my daughter's gymnastic competition. I picked her up from school on Thursday morning, took her out to lunch and we headed out. It was nice for just the 2 of us to spend one-on-one time together.

This school year has not been an easy one. This is the year of the great divide for her - the year that she pulled away. Just think, last year she was still begging me to sleep in my bed. Now, I have to BEG her to just say good night to me. My mere existence has become an embarrassment to her.

I do not hold it against her. I understand that it is necessary and eventually things will even out but it's not easy. I do my best to connect with her anyway that I can. We took turns playing music and she took a nap. After 5 and a half hours, we made it to the hotel. The parking lot of the hotel was adjacent to an Outback Steakhouse. My daughter was sooooo excited, "Can we get steaks?"

We checked in and then headed over for dinner. She is so funny when she orders food. She's like a 40 year old woman. "I would like my steak medium rare, with a side of steamed broccoli and the potato soup." She didn't ask for a lobster tail. This surprised me, she usually does ask for a lobster tail or add on shrimp. There was the time she tried to order a $40 slice of meatloaf at the Stanley Hotel.... She thinks we're rich for some reason.
             
I always have to shut her down.

We enjoyed our dinner and she lamented to me about how horrible middle school is and how she wants school to be over so she can watch anime all day.

We went back to the hotel room and watched TV and I was out by 9. I was so tired and had a long day ahead of me. We slept in the next day and then got ready for her competition. I had a very specific timeline.

Friday:
11: 00 - check out
11:30 - lunch
11:45 - check in for competition
3:30- competition over
4:45- awards over
5-11 - Drive home

I planned to take my oldest to a band audition 2 hours from home on Saturday morning, leaving at 8 am. That was the plan.

We ate lunch and checked in and the competition was already running late already. She did her best, she still isn't competing bars. Awards were running late. They had a former male Olympian doing the awards and he is going on and on about "believing in your dreams..." I was standing there like
                            
Come on, let's get this show on the road, we have places to be......

She placed in floor and beam, so she was happy about that. We walked out of there at almost 6:15 pm. It was a LONG ride home. We drove out of Knoxville and stopped at a random Wendys in the middle of no where to have dinner. It was the only place around.

I put a change of comfy clothes in her competition bag and when we went inside she went into the bathroom to change out of her leotard and I ordered our food. There was a lady in front of us with 5 kids arguing about chicken nuggets or something. There was one morbidly obese man working behind the counter, at least 400 pounds and he was doing EVERYTHING. He was running in the back to grab fries, he's trying to fill up drinks...he was really struggling.

I stood in line for 15 minutes before he even got to me. By this time, he is sweating profusely. He is wiping his brow with the apron. I ordered our food and watch him run around to get the fries and fill our drinks. All I could think about was him sweating on our food and our cups. His sweaty hands handling our food. *VOMIT* I brought the tray to the table and my daughter and I sat down to eat. I was so grossed out but I decided that I was just going to have to lower my standards.

Let's be honest - I just had to have no standards. I ate that sweaty, Wendys shit and I regretted it with every single bite. It was getting late and I was in a rush to leave. "Bring your fries with you, let's go!"

We finished the drive home. It was LONG and miserable. My ass hurt so much from sitting all day and driving forever. I walked through the door at 12:45 am. My husband woke up when he heard us come in.

"I can take our oldest to her band audition tomorrow," he said.
"NO - you promised the youngest that you would take her to lunch and roller skating."
"Yeah, but you won't be able to function tomorrow."
"I'll be fine. She's been looking forward to spending time with you tomorrow and it would break her heart. I can power through."

He looked at me suspiciously.

"Seriously, set the alarm for 7 am. I'll get in 6 good hours."

I fell asleep right away. It seemed like only a few minutes when my husband woke me up in a panic. "It's 7 o'clock! Wake up! You need to get up!"

I opened my eyes and saw the clock said 7:00. I groaned. "Just give me 5 more minutes." I dozed off for a few minutes. I opened my eyes again and it still was 7:00 on the dot. Am I living in the Twilight Zone? Do I have no sense of time?

Then I realized that my husband set the alarm but never flipped the clock back. When I did, I discovered that it was actually 6:10 am. I was a raving lunatic, I was so angry.
                               
My husband was not phased. "Just go back to sleep." I tried but I was awoken in such a panic that I couldn't fall back asleep.

I got out of bed and went into the bathroom to take a shower. I looked in the mirror. My hair was tousled, my eyes were dry and red, my butt was sore. It was the beginning of yet another very long day.....