Living On Moroccan Time

My plan was to get to bed last night by 9:00 after packing, get up about 5:00am, load my daughter into the car, head to my sister's house, and hope to arrive (in LA) by 10:00pm.

What actually happened was I got to bed just after 11:00, woke up at 3:00am in pain, couldn't get back to sleep, gave up around 4:30, got up and started putting last-minute things together.

I was still hurting and as I calculated that I'd had about four hours of sleep. Realizing that while a 17-hour drive while sleep deprived wouldn't be the dumbest thing I've ever attempted, it would be close, so I decided to go back to bed at about 7:00am, at which point I was able to fall asleep again.

Woke up around 10:00am, and realized there was NO WAY I'd be making the trip in a one-day drive, I started looking online for an inexpensive hotel somewhere in the Sacramento area (I started to write "cheap hotel" but realized that just sounded bad).

Since I was leaving later than planned and expecting to spend the night somewhere, I figured I might as well get in a couple of errands prior to leaving. So I packed my daughter into the car with all of our stuff and departed the house about 12:00. After running the errands, instead of heading off on our way, I returned to the house at about 12:45 to pick up a bag I'd packed but hadn't put in the car, my daughter's teddy bear, and the cooler of food I'd packed for the trip (minor details).

At 1:00 we were finally on the road. Only 8 hours later than planned. Like I said, living on Moroccan time.

Around 8:00pm we stopped at a Motel 6 that I'd booked by phone after seeing a billboard advertising 39.99+tax/night. It was cheaper than any of the ones my husband had tried to look up for me over the past 45 minutes.

We arrived, hopped into the pool (which turned out to be a nice temperature for my overheated self but way too cold for my daughter), went back up to the room, took hot showers, and then answered all the phone calls from my dad, husband, and sister who were all wondering where we were and why I wasn't answering the phone since I hadn't updated any of them on the stop. Oops.

I watched an episode of "LA Ink" (about a Tattoo shop in Hollywood) and fell asleep thinking up details of the design that I want someday...