Let me back up. Last week, my wife and I had a bit of a scare regarding our pregnancy that required her to need an unscheduled doctor's visit. Being responsible parents, we called her doctor the night this happened and he explained the number of the scenarios that may be the cause and that we'd know for sure once they performed an exam...in the morning. What a sleepless night. Almost without exception, these scenarios meant that she would be bedridden until the delivery. With a two year old in the house and two months to go, this would have been tricky. Anyway, I'm nervous, she's nervous, her parents are nervous and none of us got a lot of sleep.

The next morning at 8am sharp, her parents arrive from Richmond to watch Zack and to be with her. I had an appointment that would have been extremely difficult to reschedule so I went to work while Sue and her mother went to the doctor's appointment. Turns out that it was in fact the "best case scenario" which wouldn't require her to be bedridden until the delivery. He did, however, direct her to limit or stop all types of physical activities that involved heavy lifting or were a strain in general. Okay, makes sense and we can do this. Well, except that out son is about 28 lbs and always wants to be held. Now he will not be able to be carried by his mother for at least three months (two till delivery, one for recovery). During that last month, he will be able to see his little 6-8 lb brother being carried by his mother. Yes I'm concerned about resentment but that is where daddy will have to step up to the plate and carry his end of the load. My son and I play a lot, wrestle a lot and tickle a lot. He never fails to make me smile.

This gets us back to the Sunday trip to Pittsburgh. This weekend my extended family, which all live in North Carolina, celebrated my father's 60th birthday (happy b-day old man!). I very much wanted to be there and we originally had planned to attend as a group (Sue, Zack, and myself) but as of now, two hour trips is about Sue's limit. We discussed what we were going to do and she felt like although she couldn't make the trip that she very much wanted me to be there. And since I was to leave from Richmond at 11am Sunday morning, it made sense for me to drive from Virginia Beach six hours south and then back to Richmond to stay in a motel. This is what happened.

Drove down south Saturday arriving after getting lost due to poor directions 5 minutes AFTER my father arrived for the big surprise (damnit). Left my parent's house sometime between 9-10pm and, due to frequent stops, I don't make it to Richmond till around 3am. I don't find a motel till almost 4am (long story) and I don't fall asleep to damn-near 5am. The courtesy call from the motel office arrives at 9am which gives me enough time to shower, get breakfast, shine my shoes, and get to the meeting place to catch my ride at 11am. I make it there by 10:30am so I pull out my shoes and apply another coat of polish while listening to the NFL Draft coverage from a channel that was 75% static (this area apparently doesn't have an ESPN affiliate). 11am comes and goes. 12am comes and goes (I start looking for contact numbers which I somehow forgot). 12:30pm comes and goes (where the hell are they?). I decide to give them till 1pm then I'd head to the nearby Internet cafe to get their phone numbers and figure out what's up. 1pm the first guys roles into the parking lot...wearing jeans. I didn't even pack tennis shoes so my eyebrows raise.

"Why are you guys so late?"

"What do you mean? I'm 2 minutes early. We moved the departure time to 1pm."

"Okay, would have been good to know that. Where is your suit?"

"Oh, it is a 6 hour drive...I'll change at the hotel. We don't wear suits with these guys anyway."

"???"

"Just business casual."

"But I only brought suits."

"No one told you?"

"Well, no. Would have been something I'm sure I'd remember as I never look forward to getting them pressed."

"Ah, well, nobody in manufacturing ever wears ties as it is a safety hazard. Some places don't even allow long sleeves. By the way, it is currently 40 degrees in Pittsburgh, did you bring a coat?"

"No, I was counting on my SUIT JACKET to suffice."

Ten minutes later my boss shows up and we fill his car up with our luggage. I hand over the printouts that were needed for tomorrow and sit back to catch some Zs. Boss man asks how my wife is doing and I tell him about the scare. He makes an immediate decision that it would be better for me to stay in town close to my wife and that they would catch me up when they got back. What a great guy! After just a couple of seconds of "are you sure?" "yes" we all exchange cell numbers and pull back into the parking lot. You see, it turns out that our Director of Marketing who was 7 months pregnant, had just made a trip to New Jersey to visit her sister. While there she began to throw up. Her husband took her to the hospital and 6 hours later she had a very premature 2lb 8oz baby. Since I was riding and not driving, he didn't want to leave me without a way to get back in the event "something happened." Again, what a great guy!

I call my wife to let her know my part of the trip was cancelled and that I would be supporting the meeting by being the guy on site with the server to handle issues (there actually were some but that is another story) and that I was heading home to get some sleep. The odd thing is that her father and my father's birthdays were both this weekend. They had just gotten back from lunch and invited me over for some cake (I can hear the bed calling my name).

Sigh. Here her mother and father rushed to be with us and to help us when we had a scare and all they wanted was for me to come 30 minutes the other direction for a little b-day cake. How could I say no? Besides, Sue had just drove up with Zack that morning and didn't feel up to driving back to Virginia Beach that night so I wouldn't see her and Zack until Monday or Tuesday night at the earliest. So I drove out for some b-day cake.

It is now Wednesday morning and all my efforts to get back to Richmond to see them have fallen through. Yesterday's attempt to have lunch with them and Rich was cancelled due to my need to meet with a NEW general manager for my company (another story), while today's efforts have been squashed by my need to schedule a plumber to tear up my wall in the laundry room to get at a leaky pipe that is destroying my foundation (yet another story).

My sincere hopes are that tonight I'll see my wife and son and that I will finally get a good night's sleep. I have horrible sleeping habits when my family is not home. Call it nerves or can it freedom...it is difficult for me to close my eyes.

Let's sum up.
1) I didn't go on the trip.
2) Sue can't drive more than 2 hours.
3) I miss my family when they are not around.
4) I've now seen Rudy 58 times.
5) I will only be attending one event this summer (Gem Joust) because traveling is not an option I like right now.

Anyway, for them what read it all, there it is.