Stress-cation?

It is total meltdown mode. This week was complete Murphy’s Law. For those that aren’t familiar, in short it means that everything that can go wrong, will.

And, for me, it seems I can never get out of town on vacation without the week prior going to hell in a hand basket. Someone is trying to make sure I am at maximum stress before I am allowed to de-stress in any way.

This week, as you saw from my last column, started with my 5-year-old son smashing our television screen. (No, we still haven’t gotten a new one, and no he hasn’t quite worked off his debt, despite generous contributions from the grandparents.)

From there, we had a flat tire in the truck. This is the truck, of course, we are driving nine people to the airport in, too. Right before we had to go out of town Friday for my future sister-in-law’s shower, our fridge died. It wouldn’t get cold at all, and we had to toss half of its contents in the trash. The other half we moved to our mini-wine (OK, we use it for beer, really) fridge until a repair man could come out to charge us $200, oh, I mean fix it.

I, as always, had to go to the doctor last week and thusly started a new medication that has made me run down and sick to my stomach all week. Lovely timing, wouldn’t you say?

I had cool T-shirts made for our family’s trip. I had to wait for those to ship, pick them up, do the house shopping, get new trucks, new sneakers and new shorts for various members of this household.

My mom’s best friend passed away in the middle of the week, so we also squeezed in a viewing. I wanted to be there for her, and it was incredibly sad to see her children.

My son had his last two days of school. We had to make arrangements for the insane dog we have, and God bless my friend who loves me enough to take him! (Love you, Sarah!)

The list goes on and on. This all was happening as I tried to prepare my new intern at work to start her job, transfer my new assistant into his role and prepare my staff for me to leave for the first time since I’ve had this job.

Did I mention I had to pack up four people to fly to Disney? Yeah, I did that, too. I will soon board a plane with nine of our 12 family members that will be vacationing together. Yes, we call that “vacation” in our family. And, yes, we know we are crazy.

I suppose it makes me appreciate my vacations that much more. But, I don’t know why everyone on earth feels the need to test my patience before I go.

Have no fear. In a few short hours, I’ll be sipping bloody marys at the Philadelphia International Airport, awaiting my flight. Don’t worry, I’ll tell Mickey you said hello.