Calming Breaths

[fivecats]

Maddy-O-Line #2
August 2005 Asheville, NC
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Saturday was Show Day -- a long day spent selling jewelry in the not-nearly-as-hot-as-usual-but-still-hot-enough streets of the nearby town on the Right Side of the Tracks .  It was a successful day, even though it left both of us physically and mentally drained. 

The one big benefit of the show was that Bonn went ahead and rented a big SUV for us to (a) do the show in and (b) take care of The Boy's remaining belongings with.  The SUV came with Sirius Satellite Radio and after playing with it for a minute or so I found Sirius' 22 "First Wave", a station that came as close to the vintage days of WHFS as I've ever heard.  All I wanted to do for the entire weekend was sit in the car and listen to First Wave.

Instead, Sunday was Move The Rest of The Boy's Stuff Up From Wilmington Day.  Now, this did include a 2 hour drive down, wherein I did get a chance to listen and bounce around to some great tunes (without commercial interruption).

That was the positive side of things.

For the rest of the story,

The Boy's Stress Response has always been the same since he came to live with us.  He responds to stress by falling into The Sleep of the Dead.  My guess is that this trip was really stressing him out because he slept, slack-jawed in the back seat for the entire ride down.  (Despite me cranking the music for several songs)

Once we got down there we went to his apartment where we knew his roommate and his roommate's mother and father would be waiting for us.  Or so we hoped.

I had The Boy go to the door and knock while I was locking up the car.  I watched him knock.  And knock.  And knock. 

I got to the door and asked, "Where's your key?"

"I dunno," he said, groggily.  "I left it at home."

Calming Breaths, I thought.  Calming breaths.

I turned around and walked The Zombie Boy back to the car.  Driving down the road I said, "Maybe they're just at church or running an errand" but The  Boy was already slack-jawed again.

Breakfast sounded like a good component to my Wait and See plan, so I pulled into a chain Biscuit World parking lot.  Loudly, I said, "I'm getting something to eat.  Are you hungry?"

The Boy stirred and patted down his pockets.

"I think I left my insulin at home."

I started adding up the time in my head.  Two hours down, two hours back.  He'll probably sleep all the way back up.  He should be safe from going into a diabetic coma for a while, providing  he took some insulin before we left.

"Have you taken any insulin today?"

"No."

Calming Breaths

My head started up again.  Best case scenario, we're out in an hour and a half with all of his stuff, then two hours on the road.  That's three and a half hours with him helping out.  His blood sugar won't remain stable for that long.  We'll have to go home, get his insulin and his key and then drive back.

I still needed to eat before driving all the way back, so I went in to get my eggy-cheesy biscuits.  On my way out The Boy met me, saying "I found my insulin."

Another drive down the road to find a working pay phone later (where did all the pay phones go?) I called Bonn who said that the roommate's mother had called saying they were in town and at the apartment.  We drove back to the apartment and started the packing and loading process.

My back was not too happy about any of this, but I managed to survive it on AAA -- no, not the American Automobile Association but Anger, Annoyance and Adrenaline.  Four hours later, we were back on the road.

Driving back, The Boy slept.  And I noticed "First Wave" plays way too much Duran Duran.



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