When life gives you lemons...blah blah blah...

Of course Im starting this out with a cliche reference to dealing with a bad hand. There, cliche number two for you. To tell you the truth, it's two in the morning and I can't really think for myself. No, I don't want to go back to bed, not yet. I'm simply trying to process everything that is happening right now.



It's 2:38am Thursday, December 10th. I'm sitting in a really lovely hotel room in Portland, Oregon. Truly if you have to long term stay somewhere Staybridge Suites are sweet. But my feelings are disconnected, and confusing. Almost numb. Tuesday morning around 8:20 am, my friend (so proud to call her my friend) and coworker busts into my room as I'm setting a couple of students up for a math test. Here is where it starts to go all wavy lines and dream like so if you'd like to add to the story and help me out, feel free.



"Barb, you have to go, your neighbor just called, your house is on fire"



First thoughts: "Kevin is asleep, call Kevin now"

Dump contents of purse onto desk, find phone, try to call Kevin, phone dies (no battery again) somebody smack me if I fail to charge my phone again...

Run out of room with dead cell phone, leaving contents of purse laying on desk in the presence of teenage girls with questionable moral standing...ok, that may not have been a fair assessment. Sorry.

Run down hall, wearing sexy black boots, and beeline for Kieran's room. (Who am I? one of Charlie's Angels?) Because I am not a smokin' hot female detective I cannot run well in boots. Back spasms and I continue to flail myself down the hallway , wincing in pain and cursing my dead phone, past students and teachers and team members who I am sure are now convinced I have lost it.

Run up to Kieran's room just as Pam and Chris R are approaching his door. I try to be calm (sic). Ok, I try not to throw up from fear and pain and running combined and blurt out to Kieran "We gotta go now" Here is where it gets fuzzy again but I recall CR being very calm and cloaking himself in his coolest "man in charge demeanor" (which I totally appreciate btw) and he calls Kieran out of his totally full classroom of curious and now even more curious 6th graders. Neither of us grabbed our coats, our bags, our anything. We left knowing that people at work would cover for us unconditionally, and clean up the mess we left behind. We work with an awesome crew.

As we race away, in our truck, Kieran has me call the office to let CR know that Kieran's lesson pkans are on his desk. What a good teacher :) (side note: Girls, when shopping for a husband, try to find one with the work ethic Kieran has...I think he's amazing.)

Kieran calls Kevin, he's out of the house and he's ok, Kieran hands me the phone so he can drive. Confirmed, Kevin is out of the house and he's ok. He has the dogs with him, emotional blur drifts in, Here would be a good place for people to fill in details for me. Hyperventilation is moments away...

OK, race forward, why is it rush hour on Halsey at 8:40 in the morning? OH! because it IS rush hour...Special dark words begin to leak out of Kieran's lips...these words are unprintable yet undeniably necessary at the time.

Finally, pull onto Morris past the police cruiser on the end, park it and run (why all the running in boots?) towards house, can't make it all the way, start limping and crying past the no fewer than 6 fire/rescue vehicles on my street. There is a fireman on my roof with a chainsaw...(you know my roof is brand new, right?) My yard is filled with firmen and hoses and parts of garage door are lying on my rose bushes...why my rose bushes? Neighbors everywhere, hug my next door neighbor, hug some little old lady in a robe that I don't know,hug awesome friend/in-law to be and cry for a minute, get called into the cab of one of the fire vehicles, talk to wonderfully calming fireman, "ok wait here" "can we go find our son? he's across the street at a neighbors" "of course" Walk across street, go to awesome friend/in law to be and hug her, look around her house in amazement at the 5, count'em 5 dogs in her living room. To be fair, two are mine (thankyouthankyouthankyou) 2 are her own and one is her daughters (she's pooch sitting), find Kevin (finally!) and hug him. Now Kevin has just recently moved home from NYC and I have been kind of the crazy mom because even though he is 22 he's never allowed out of my site again so I may have been a little emotional here...it get's fuzzy. And so am I...

I'll finish this up after some sleep. It's now 3:30...perfect time to sleep.