Spaced

Mandy is one of those kids that lives in her own little world. She has no trouble going off by herself and making up some elaborate fairy tale scenario that she plays out with imaginary friends. I have often found her talking to herself and have even made the mistake of answering one of her out loud questions. I was immediately corrected and told that she wasn’t speaking to me, she was just pretending. She really spaces out sometimes though. I think she may have inherited that from me. I totally space out sometimes too. Like this past Tuesday. A friend of mine was babysitting our niece Chloe while my mother-in-law was out of town. My friend’s daughter had a fever and probably an ear infection, so she called me to see if I could take Chloe while she took her child to the doctor. Of course I said yes and then I think I lost all consciousness of what day of the week it was. It was Tuesday. Dallin had soccer practice that evening. But after Chloe came over, I let them go outside and play. I played soccer for a while with them and then I began…oh wait, are you sitting down? I would hate to think that if you passed out from the shock of what I was doing that you might fall and hurt yourself. Ready, breath deeply….I began taking pictures (I know so unlike me to do such a thing) of Layton (football pictures) and the other kids. And so I let time pass and didn’t think for one more second about Dallin’s soccer practice. I came inside for a minute and the phone was ringing. I read the caller ID…it was Nathan. Oh, I thought, he must be on his way home from work. I answered the phone and he immediately asked me why I wasn’t at soccer practice. Oh, snap. I quickly try to cover my memory lapse by explaining that Chloe was here and I didn’t have room in my car for four kids. Good cover, right? Not so much. I immediately realized how lame it was that if that were truly the reason I didn’t come then I should have called Nathan and told him not to show up at practice. He forgave me. And I kicked myself in the bum. It’s all good. I fear for Mandy though. She is an awful lot like me. Poor thing.