A long way for a hashbrown...

It was last Wednesday morning. Still suffering the effects of my ear infection (going on 2 weeks at this point), I had an appointment with an ENT doctor at 9:15 that day. I decided to see a more specialized doctor than the local clinic's doctor, to make sure my ear was okay....even though the ENT was across town, 30 minutes away. I had everything timed perfectly. I dropped Jack off at school at 7:45, got back home at 8:00, fed and changed Jason, and then pulled out of the driveway at 8:40 for my 9:15 appointment. I should arrive at the doctor's office around 9:10, giving me 1 hour to spend there before needing to turn around and drive the 30 minutes back to pick Jack up at school at 10:50. My plan was doable, and I was going to succeed!

Flash forward 20 minutes into my drive, and despite the heavy rain, I encountered little traffic on my way there. That's about the time I came to a sudden stop, and spent the next 20 minutes moving about one mile. This is what I saw:

Hopelessly optimistic, I thought I could get through it- that it was just a bottleneck that once I rounded the corner, I'd be okay. I called the doctor's office to let them know I'd be a few minutes late. (I'm so close to their office at this point, only 10 more minutes.) And Jason has been so good for the car ride, which is a major plus, because he typically despises the car. So now I'm stuck in gridlock with no hope of escaping, fading hopes of actually making my doctor's appointment, a baby who is starting to fuss in the backseat, and my older son needs to be picked up from school in an hour. On the phone again with the doctor's office, I tell the receptionist of my dilemna and where I am....please don't cancel I'm thinking, I've already come all this way and need to have my ear looked at, I've sat in this traffic for at least 30 minutes now in addition to driving 20 minutes before even hitting the traffic.....DON'T LET IT BE FOR NOTHING!!!! The receptionist informs me that her husband is in the same traffic jam, and has been for the past hour and a half. It's at this point that I come upon a turn around, and I decide to just go back home. I'm glad I took the turn around when I had the chance, because the receptionist told me I had to reschedule my appointment. Yay.

Luckily, traffic wasn't bad once I turned around. Not so luckily, 50 minutes into our car ride, Jason finally had had enough and began screaming. I think an angel was watching out for me, because Jason only screamed for about 7 minutes before conking out....and he never sleeps in the car. So I enjoyed a quiet ride home after that. Dejected over the whole debacle, I stopped at the McDonald's by my house and got myself a sausage biscuit and hashbrown, so at least I got something for my cursed car ride. It was really good too. Just ironic that I drove 20 minutes in one direction, sat on the highway for about 30 minutes, and then drove 30 minutes back (add an extra 10 mins on for a detour), just to pick up breakfast from the McDonald's a mile from my house. What I wouldn't give for a crystal ball.

The happy news was that I picked Jack up from school on time and as of a couple of days ago, my ear seems to be near normal now.