Julie's views from Texas: Take Your Kid to Work Day!

Hallelujah!! I was counting down the days, hours, minutes... Wednesday, August 5th was "Take Your Kid to Work Day" at Dow. I was looking forward to a day all to myself. What would I do with no kids to worry about? This hasn't happened since the start of summer vacation. Sure, I run errands by myself and stuff, but I usually get about 5 calls from my kids telling me "he did this" or "pick up subway" or "can you hurry home so I can go to my friend's house?"

I was going to have a good 7 hours of pure "me time." After all, I take my kids to work EVERY day.
But, I should've known that was too good to be true. On Friday, Greg came home from work with the news. "I have a meeting in Freeport on Wednesday that I HAVE to go to," he says. "Maybe you can take the kids to work. Cindy (Greg's secretary) said she'd keep an eye on them."

Uh...OK

On Tuesday night, Greg decides he'll have time to drop them off. I just have to pick them up at noon, take them to lunch, and then go back to Dow for an ice cream social. And he SHOULD be back by 1:30 p.m. Do you hear that? That's the sound of "me time" slowly slipping away. (Let's see, to get there by noon, I have to leave home by 11:30 a.m. )

It's Wednesday morning. Greg wakes me up at 6:15. (Remember me, I'm not a morning person.) "Can you get the kids up and ready to go?" No problem.

I slipped back to bed for a few more winks before Pedro started edging under my bedroom window. Time to start the day. Off to the gym. Then rush, rush, rush, so I could pick up the kids and take them to lunch. Unfortunately, nobody told me Indigo Joes is a terrible place to eat. Oh well, live and learn.

After lunch, we head back to Dow. Greg is back, thankfully. I'll just go run a few errands while the kids stay here, I thought. After all, they haven't seen their father in action yet. But that is not to be. He has yet another meeting to attend.

"But I should be able to leave work a little after 4," he tells me.

Uh huh. And I have some oceanfront property to sell you in Oklahoma.

So, I took the kids to the pool at Lifetime. Em and I swam a few laps. Then, out of nowhere, the lifeguards blew their whistles. It wasn't adult swim. It was time to close the pool: some kid pooped in the kiddie area. Good grief!

This is the story of my life. Sometimes the best-laid plans don't always work out. We just go with the flow...and sometimes get to see Greg ;-)