Thursday, April 09, 2009

THE WEEKEND FROM HELL (part 1)

It started off like any other weekend...........................





Saturday night I went out with some friends and arrived home in the wee hours of the morning.


Bubby thought he would be the good husband that he is and let me sleep in. He set the kids up with a movie, fed them breakfast and dispensed their meds for the day.





That is when the terror started. The unthinkable happened. Bubby fed Leroy his sister Tori's pills by accident.





Let me preface this by saying that I have accidentally taken their medications and we have also dropped them on the floor and had to give two of our dogs hydrogen peroxide to make them immediately retch for extended lengths of time. But we have never, NEVER given a child the wrong medicine.





After a phone call to the pharmacist, Bubby was reassured that he did not need to use Ipecac on Leroy or rush to the emergency room. Leroy would just have to ride the pill out. We did however discover that Leroy needed to be watched 24/7 because he was acting odd (think knives and t-shirts and the destruction of them).





Bubby felt so bad. I felt bad. No one ever wants to give their kids a drug they aren't supposed to have. So Bubby decided that since we had to watch Leroy so closely, why not engage in a family activity? Leroy decided that we should go to the movies. Bubby also decided to treat him at his most favorite place on earth to eat.............

I hate this place. I despise the gluttony. I get nauseous when I witness HUGE people filling up their plates over and over and over again. I went in to labor here. Need I say more?

But the kids love it! They love being able to pick out their own food (no one is saying "eat your vegetables or else"). They love seeing all the fancy desserts and being able to pick out one (just one) of the plethora of sweets. It's a fun treat for them. So on special occasions I suck it up, put a smile on my face and trudge in.

As we loaded up our plates and sat down, Leroy started sinking further and further down in his chair. He asked if he could lay on the floor and take a nap. The accidental medicine was not serving him well. Bubby asked him if he still wanted to go to a movie and he quietly replied, "No." The other kids still wanted to eat their lunch and go to a movie so we called MeMa (who happened to be on that side of town) to come pick up Leroy and myself and take us home.

I told Bubby that Leroy and I would wait out in the parking lot for MeMa. Leroy was fading fast. If you look at the picture above. We were sitting on the sidewalk between where the blue truck and the brown SUV were. It was a warm, sunny day and Leroy promptly curled up in the fetal position on the sidewalk and fell asleep.

The next thing I see is a man and his daughter walking on the sidewalk towards me. I thought we might be taking up the whole sidewalk so I said, "Excuse me," and tried to move Leroy and myself out of the way.

Man: "Where's your bucket?"

Me: "What bucket?"

Man: "Don't you want some money? I have a couple of dollars for you if you need it."

This is when I burst out laughing and explained to the nice gentleman that we were just waiting for a ride.

But now it's got me thinking............

Is it really that easy to obtain money? Bring a kid along that's skinny and tired and people will feel sorry for you? I didn't even have a sign for christ's sake!

I'm actually thinking of trying the homeless thing for a day and then donating the money to a homeless shelter. I wonder....how kind are people? How rude are people? What kind of experiment like this will being homeless for a day teach me? Would I be jaded or more compassionate? Would I get arrested?

Have you ever been homeless or begged for money?

Stay tuned for part 2 of the Weekend from Hell saga. So much excitement I know. You can barely stand it.

4 comments:

Jennboree said...

I was NOT expecting to read that a man offered you money for you and your homeless kid. Was this all the while sporting your Peeps 'do?

Poor Leroy. He went from violent with t-shirts to snoozing on a restaurant curb.

I can't wait for part II of this story!

Jodi said...

Wow, I'm glad Leroy's ok. Actually, I've thought about the EXACT SAME THING with trying the begging thing - just to see how much money those guys make and then donating it to charity. Only I was going to hold a sign that said "Not hungry, not a vet, don't need gas - just lazy". But I was going to wear a paper bag over my head with eyeholes cut out - you know, like the unknown comic on The Gong Show.

So if you ever see me (in disguise) standing on the corner at Albertsons, flip me a buck or two, will ya?

Anonymous said...

Wow...
I wasn't expecting something so simple would cause such havoc.
Loving the blog, cant wait for part II!

QueenOfRelationships said...

My first job EVER was when I was 18 and it was at Golden Corral. I won't even tell you the things that went on there. You would never eat there again. I can't believe he asked where your bucket was. I mean, how could he have been so sure that you were homeless? lol Hell, I would have told him my bucket was in the car and any spare change he can spare will go in my pocket. NEVER PASS UP FREE MONEY! lol