Aiyaiyai...

Wow, have my past few days been pretty crazy.

Last Thursday night I had the kids for dinner, as usual. That was OK, except I got almost no time with Katie. She had dance from 6:30 until 8:30 (and I only get them 6-9 on dinner nights). Plus, I had to take Connor to kung fu at 6, meaning I didn't get to see Katie that night until she was done at dance. By then, I had just enough time to get her and Connor some dinner at Wendy's, then drop them back off with their mom. I wasn't too happy about that.

Friday was Katie's 10th birthday. My feelings on this are terribly, terribly mixed. I'm so very proud of her, I love watching her grow up, and I love spending time with her. She's such an incredible blessing in my life...she's so smart, articulate, and creative. Someday, she'll be out of school and she'll become an amazing success. She'll find a fine career (probably as a professional golfer or artist), become well-known, and marry a wonderful, handsome man who will cherish her the rest of her life. They'll have two beautiful children, a boy and a girl. (I really can see all this in my head, you know.) But at the same time, she has to get there, and I already dread that, now that she's starting to reach That Age, soon she won't be so hot on spending time with her ol' Dad. I'm just doing everything I can to keep that connection there, so that she can always come to me and spend time with me when she's ready. I have a couple more years with her before she reaches That Age, so I'm going to just keep building.

But of course, all of this was moot. She had dance at 6:45 (I pick them up around 6 on my nights with them), and she was in dance until 10:30. So I didn't get to spend much time with her then. Well, at least I got some quality time with Connor. He needs me so much more these days...I think it's the lack of any stable adult male in his life, other than me. In any case, we got in bed much later than I wanted. I had to work on my loaner laptop, getting it ready for my training classes this week (that started yesterday, incidentally). I was up until 1 am.

Saturday morning was more of the same...up early to get Connor to kung fu, take Katie to shop for a present while she was in kung fu (she had assembled about $140, and I chipped in the rest to get her an iPod Mini, which I'm still trying to get working), back to get Connor at 11. Finally, I had some uninterrupted, dedicated time with both kids at once. So we grabbed some lunch, watched some TV, then did some more shopping (Wal Mart this time). Katie had dance rehearsal at 3:30, and we were there until midnight. I was NOT happy about this state of affairs; Miss Phan (Katie's dance teacher) has a bad habit of forgetting that her dancers are children, especially when it gets close to show dates. We had a dance competition on Sunday (more on that in a moment), so this definitely qualifies. Couple this habit with her perfectionist tendencies, and you have a nasty case of late nights at critical times. (Phan herself always pulls an all-nighter the night before a performance, mostly because there are so many things that have to get done.) Phan is a wonderful dance teacher, has been great for Katie as she has gone there the last 6 years, and has been great at helping me maintain some sanity through my recent difficulties. But she can also drive me crazy. While Katie was in dance, Connor and I went to Country Buffet (his favorite restaurant), then drove out to my office to get a replacement laptop, since the one I had wasn't working properly. I also had rehearsal of my own later, as I also was performing in the dance show. After rehearsal (again, about midnight), I got the kids back to my apartment and into bed, then spent another 40 minutes working on the laptop. Bedtime: again, about 1 am.

Sunday...we woke up a bit later than I would've liked, but we were all pretty much completely worn out, so I didn't figure it was too big a deal. Got the kids up and back over to their mom, since she gets them on Mother's Day, regardless of whose day it is (I am guaranteed Father's Day, so it all evens out). This was difficult because neither wanted to go back right then...they were feeling the lack of quality time as much as I was. I had them over to her about 9:45, then went back to my place to spend some uninterrupted time getting my training laptop working. I headed to the dance studio to get ready for the show about 12:30 and hung around there for well over an hour, just in case they needed anything of me. This barely-controlled chaos is SOP for show days...people are always forgetting props and bits of (or entire) costumes or needing directions or just generally needing help getting something done. This is another side effect of Phan's management style, but I and the other parents are all pretty used to it by now, so we just roll with the punches and try to do the best we can. I headed downtown for the show around 2:30 and spent a hectic 3-1/2 hours helping get everyone in the right places, performing, and trying to squeeze in moments to see Katie's numbers. The show was over by 5:30, so I called Heidi to see if she wanted to get together.

She was on her way back from visiting her family in Loveland (just north of Denver, for you non-Colorado types), and we would get there about the same time, so I headed straight down there from the dance show. Heidi herself lives in Highlands Ranch, on the southwestern edge of Denver. (My life recently also seems to entail lots of driving...needless to say, I got down to Heidi's place and dumped three meals' worth of fast-food trash into her extra-large trash bin.) She and I spent a nice, quiet evening together, having a quiet meal and a good, long, much-needed talk. I finally left her place around 11:00. Now, back to the driving thing; as my profile states, I live in Westminster, in the northwest part of the Denver metro, about halfway between Denver and Boulder. In other words, about 35-40 minutes away from Heidi's place. So I didn't get to my apartment until nearly 11:45. I had MORE work to do on the laptop, and finally got it finished. Yet again, bedtime: 1 am.

Yesterday, I had to get up early (and boy, did it piss me off...three straight nights of going to bed late and getting up early will do that to you) so that I could get to the conference in time to register before my classes began at nine. So I was up about 7:30, left the apartment about 8:00, and somehow made it downtown (about 15 minutes from my place), parked, got registered (short lines, praise the Lord for small miracles), and made it to the classroom by 8:30. Thirty minutes of unallocated, unaccounted-for time? I had no idea what to do with myself. So I called Heidi briefly and played on my now-functional laptop. Class ran until 5:15, and as always on Monday nights, I had to be in my class to teach at 6:00, so I rush out, jump over the hood of the car like Bo Duke over the General Lee, dive in, fire her up, and tear butt down Broadway to the school. After a bit of meandering, I make it there at 5:40, better even than usual. Class until 9:30 or so, head for my PoR and call Heidi again on the way, then do my homework and work some on the laptop. YET AGAIN, BEDTIME: 1 AM.

WHEEEEWW!!

Today was pretty much the same as yesterday, only what I learned in class was different (and frankly, BETTER!!). Maybe I'll be able to get in bed before 1 am.

Pray for me, please. Thanks for reading along.