Bad day

I can't believe I had to resort to a one-word post so soon! But I knew yesterday might be a problem for this challenge. I had to take my dad to another appointment and that meant another 3-hour drive to get to him, plus all day there and 3 hours back. I thought I might still be able to post, but by 9pm my brain could not think and my fingers could not type, so I crawled into bed, told Greg to write "URP" on my blog for me, and promptly fell asleep.

For this trip to my dad's, I had to drive out Wednesday night and stay over. That was 3 hours across the flattest place on earth in the dark. There is something extremely depressing about Illinois farmland at night. You're surrounded by an endless expanse of nothing and that nothingness is covered in darkness. Like a sheet is pulled up over the entire world right up to the edges of your car. It's the only time I ever find myself listening to Christian Rock, so if I'm ever saved, it will probably be while driving on Interstate 88 past Dixon, Illinois.

I don't want to go into much about the medical issues with my dad, though you might be wondering what's going on given all of my posts about driving back and forth. I'll just leave it that he's not a well man. And he deeply resents having to go back and forth to get water every day. (Bad joke that I'm pretty sure only Aunt Lalie laughed at. But I can't resist!)

When I got back home Thursday night, I was exhausted. Thank goodness my wonderful little family was up for playing a game of Trivial Pursuit with me! Ellie knew nothing about any of the questions, but it turned out to be great reading practice for her. We started out with me reading the questions and then giving Ellie the card so she could read the answer out loud. She got to practice reading and she felt like she "knew" the answer. Of course, I did pick a card where the only answer she was able to decipher was "Larry Flynt," which resulted in me asking my 7-year-old daughter, "Who is the controversial publisher of Hustler?" and her answering correctly. After Ellie read the answers for awhile, we switched so she read the questions and Greg and I answered. That was even more fun because we all had more or less challenging tasks.

So for a 24-hour period, I had 22 crappy hours and 2 fun ones. Eh... that's okay. I'll take those 2 hours where I can get em.