happy anniversary to me (and Jimmy, of course)

Well today is our 12th wedding anniversary. It was meant to be spent at church followed by a wonderful and relaxing afternoon at my best friend Caroline's house. Caroline and Willie had very graciously stepped in to take care of me on this special day in Jimmy's absence.

You know what they say about the best-laid plans of mice and men?

Yes, our plans have gone awry.

Mac woke up at 5:30 this morning with the vomit virus. I really hoped it was food poisoning and it would be a one-vomit wonder. But alas, we've started hour 4 and it's pretty constant.

I decided we need to stockpile some vomit rations, like ginger ale and saltines. But then I faced the quandary that single mothers must face every day with a sick child who's not old enough to stay home by himself:

- do you take the child to the grocery store and have him walk around holding a vomit bag? (answer: only if you want to be told never come back to the neighborhood Publix again.)

- do you take the child to the grocery store but leave him in the car with a vomit bag? (answer: you could but he's so pathetic that dragging him to the car seems like child abuse. Plus you really don't want to take the chance that he misses the bag and vomits on the car.)

- do you call your backup support team to go to the grocery store for you? (answer: your backup support team is either out of town or can't go for one reason or another. As a side note, this is when you feel really, really alone in the world.)

- do you call a taxi service to go the store for you and do your shopping? (answer: you google "taxis, Summerville, SC" and there's only one company listed. It's called Mr. P-Nut's Taxi Service and you decide you're not that desperate yet.)

- do you Skype your husband in Afghanistan and ask him to cyber-babysit using the webcam while you run to the store? (answer: yes. I positioned the laptop so he could see Mac vomiting, grabbed my cell phone so he could call if there was a real emergency, and ran to the Publix and back in less than 10 minutes.)

If you have a good memory, you'll remember that Mother's Day 2009, the very first full day of my geographic single motherhood, found me in the emergency room with Mac having pneumonia. My wedding anniversary has found me home alone in an uncelebratory mood with a vomiting child. I get goosebumps thinking what fun can be in store for my birthday in a few weeks.