Snakes, cakes, and a bit of crazy brain.

I'm having a rough week. Well, in the terms of my life, that is. Because I full well know that anything I have to complain about doesn't nearly compare to what millions of other people go through on a daily basis. But still, it's in terms of my stinkin' life.

Mateo's birthday is next week, and I have to host a party for him in his daycare room. I already have the favors - miniature play-doh - and the favor bags, but I keep forgetting to talk to the center director about the actual "I'm hosting a party for him" part.

Yesterday when I picked up Mateo, one of his daycare ladies asked me if I was doing anything for him for his birthday. I immediately said yes, yes, yes, and that I just keep forgetting to actually tell anyone about it. I live in this world where once I decide something is happening, then it simply is - never mind that I actually need to inform others of what is going on. Pshaw, that is silly.

I told her that I was bringing in cake on his actual birthday, and then I asked if I should talk to the director about it. She said yes, but that they (the ladies) just needed to know the day and time. Then she informed me that whatever I bring shouldn't contain the "usual" stuff, like nuts and chocolate.

Chocolate? No chocolate? What kind of crazy talk is that?

Oh no, I thought. See, my dear mother has a Costco membership, and she buys me stuff almost every week so I can save a few pennies, and then I pay her back and it's all good. So I asked her to look at the cupcakes the next time she went and to tell me how many in a container and for how much. But I couldn't remember if she said they were chocolate or not.

Then I started thinking that 20 cupcakes wasn't going to do it. Twenty is how many you get in one container. That means I'd have to buy two containers, which equals 40 cupcakes, which is way too many cupcakes.

Not only do I have to worry about this, but I'm also bringing cake over to my parent's house on Sunday for a small birthday get together for Mateo. I had planned to go to Safeway today to see about getting a nice cake made for him with dinosaurs or cars or something on it. Which means we'd have to go pick it up from Safeway before we go to my parent's house. And Safeway isn't that close to us.

So what do I do? I wake up at 3am this morning (a mere hour before my normal wake-up time) and start obsessing over cake. I forgot to ask my mom the night before about the cakes at Costco, so I started thinking, what if they don't have non-chocolate cakes? What if this? What if that? Yes, people. Over a stupid cake.

And this is what I endearingly call "crazy brain," and I am a huge sufferer of its evil demise.

So much so, that I take tylenol with sleep aid each night. I usually take just one, which is enough to help me get to sleep but not necessarily keep me asleep and it allows me to wake up at 4am as fresh as a daisy in the springtime sun. Sorta. Last night, since I was in a rush to get dinner on the table, and was a-flutter about yet another issue that came up in our lives, I took two tylenol instead of one. Which is why I never talked to my mom - I was half-asleep by 7 and fully asleep by 8.

In the wee hours, while I was trying to shut my brain down, I started thinking about the man who was going to come snake our pipes because our condo HOA is having the drains to the common rooms cleaned and that requires all of us to allow some snake man in to snake our drains.

(If I could do it all over again, I so would not buy a condo in a building such as ours. Snake men, alarm men, any type of man I have to let into my condo is one man too many.)

Then I started thinking: Did my husband do the dishes last night? Because I remember him drying the dishes off that were still wet from the dishwasher, but I don't remember him actually putting the dirty dishes in the dishwasher, but considering that I was asleep at 8pm, he could be inviting girls over for all I knew.

I almost, almost got up to look, and if he hadn't done them, I was going to do so then. But by 3:40, I had passed out again, only to be woken up at 4am by my husband.

Turns out he didn't do the dishes (which is okay, if you're reading, Mister). So I thought, okay. I have to get the dishes done before I leave to take Mateo to daycare because I need to go to the grocery store to buy food for a dinner we're hosting on Saturday, and I need to be back by 8am to let the snake man in, that's if he comes at that time because I said I would be around at 8 or 8:30 or 9am.

I rushed to get the dishes done, worked a bit, Mateo woke up, got him out of the house by 6:30 am, dropped him off at daycare, went to the grocery store, and was home by 7:40 am. Phew. more than enough time for the snake man to show up.

I called my mom to discuss the cake issue, which really isn't so much an issue as something I turned into a bigger deal than it needs to be, decided on getting a cake instead of cupcakes, confirmed Costco does have regular white cake/white frosting, got off the phone and started working again.

Eight o'clock hit. No snake man. Eight-thirty hit. No snake man. At 8:50 I decided to pour myself some cereal because I was really hungry and didn't care if the snake man showed up while I was eating.

And then it dawned on me. The snake man is coming next Thursday, not today.

And this, this pretty much threw me over the edge (that and some other things). And still to this hour, I keep thinking that the snake man is going to show up and that I'm going to Safeway to get a dino cake made for Mateo, even though I know the snake man isn't coming because if he was, he would have been here by now, and I pretty much decided to forgo the whole dino cake idea because my kid is turning two and doesn't really care about cake as it is and would rather play. We'll just pick up a cake at the grocery store nearest our house.

And remember, the snake man is coming - next Thursday.