A Rhetorical and Whine-filled question

Okay, I've got a question for y'all. One of you stays home, or has an "alternate work schedule", the other pulls the old 9 - 5 8 - 6 shift, which is still sort of flexible here in the valley. Who gets up and gets the kids ready for school?

The person who, well, has to get up anyway? Or the one who doesn't have to be somewhere at a certain time? Or in my case, the one who is physically able to pull her a%# out of bed at the ungodly hour of 5am when someone, no naming names, starts whining about some random thing at 5am, and never got back to sleep? Actually, in my house I do get help if I specifically ask, but whether or not I take the kids to school, I pretty much also get up and get them, and myself, ready, while hubby sleeps. In fact if he's taking the kids, I work extra hard to make sure they are ready, although that's partly because I can finish getting myself ready after he's gone. And if I'm responsible for getting the kid there by that ungodly hour of 8:10am, I end up a mad-hatter, rushing around and yelling get your shoes on for the upteenth time, all while he snoozes peacefully with a pillow over his head to block out the sound.

On TV the mom gets up, makes pancakes, gets everyone off to their respective places (okay, drives them in the land of no buses) and, I presume, hits the sack after everyone's gone, am I right? Well, after she cleans up, does a little laundry, bakes cookies for the next day's elementary school celebration-of-the-month, pays some bills and, stuffs envelops for the PTA or something. Then she can relax, right?

I know, we don't live in TV land, and I'm running on very little sleep, but let me in on this detail of your lives, K?

Back in the fold but still whiny

I'm back from blogfesting, as my husband has deemed to call my trip. I got that great "slamming right into your leg" welcome from my boys, one of whom took up this odd "Love Mom" chant while smothering me with kisses. Not much beats a couple of little tykes greeting you after a trip, as Charlene can attest to.

My bag made it too, a mere 12 hours after I myself landed, much to the kids' dismay since they were even more interested in the swag than their mommy ("Lets fly to Chicago to get your bag!"). I guess I should count my blessings that I got here on time, given the non-existent wake-up call, which I know I didn't miss as I brought the phone into the shower to make sure I didn't wake my last-night Chicago Mom roomie up (my original lovely roomie left the night before so she could see her darling daughter that much sooner). Irresponsible me also got to the airport only about 90 minutes before my flight, which left me checking in (starting in the parking garage, which okay happens in San Jose as well) "late" (only 40 minutes before the flight) which meant my bag was not guaranteed to arrive with me.

Back to the oh so swanky and extremely loud W, where it takes 45 minutes to get a glass of water (I know, I know, I should be buying drinks if I want to partake of there free wifi geeking it out in the lounge). Sure they have excellent pear martinis, bathrooms doors that take 10 minutes to figure out how to close (or was that just me?) and a lovely store where they compliment even your non-designer dress, but they sure don't understand the supply and demand concept, as evidenced in their attempts to explain why a hotel room I booked two weeks ago and subsequently canceled was more expensive than the one I stayed in, which was booked more than three weeks ago. Ah well, it's only money, grrr. And finally (swear I'm almost done), I'm still hoping they "return to sender" the box trapped in the annals of the W's no doubt hip and funky receiving area, where my overnight fedex box seems to have escaped (signed by J Binglish if any one's keeping track).

I did get to meet two loverly women also from Blogher on the flight back (sitting right smack in between them due to my "C" class Southwest ticket). I had fun talking to Cindy Li from the oh-so-cool Scrapblog, who's t-shirt I'm wearing RIGHT now, to work, looking like I'm at a software company and not a conservative semiconductor one. The shirt is really soft and comfy. And darn-it, another lovely woman whose name and company escapes me. She explained her less than six degrees of separation from AOL, contributor of the super cool laptop bags. And while waiting for the luggage (since it was my fault it was late I was supposed to retrieve it myself, but that's another even more boring story) we took a trip to my favorite cafe, where I'm sure I worried way too much about my hyper husband and kids bothering the rest of the coffee drinkers.

All in all a truly excellent trip with super cool swag I'll be blogging about now that it has finally arrived. I also met lots of funny, interesting and beautiful woman, who's business cards I am busy fishing out of their various hiding places.