WHY ME????

I just need to face the facts: something is out to get me this week! It must be payback for the easy labor??? I don't know - but with heavy coffee pots nearly hitting my head, Andy getting an ear ache and staying up all night, the general sniffliness around our house with a new baby, our nanny having a melt down that I still haven't figured out how to address, and the relative lack of sleep, I was already pretty much at the end of my rope... AND THEN, I decided to go shopping. Bad move - I should have stayed home and shopped on line like a sane person!! Instead, Sylvia and I went for an outing to Woodinville's outlet stores. True, I got some good deals at Osh Kosh for long sleeve shirts for Andy, but then I headed over to Hanna Anderson. UGH.

Between me and the store was a parking area that was roped off with caution signs. I, being one can short of a six pack, followed a family of FOUR and another woman right under the tape to cross the empty parking area to get to the store. It appeared to be roped off for no reason other than to keep cars out. Unfortunately, while all of those other people apparently had hiking boots on, I had on flip flops and about four steps in I went SWOOSH, feet into the air, and fell on my ass into the thick FRESH OIL that they had put on the parking lot. My feet, hands, and jeans were absolutely covered in this thick layer of wet, black crude. Thankfully, Sylvia was in the stroller -- I was not carrying her in the car seat -- so she was fine. The woman who I had been following turned around and helped first get the stroller back to dry land and then, after I scrambled out of the muck, she gave me a roll of paper towels and helped me wipe off the thicker layers. Once I'd cleaned off the thickest layers of crud and wiped down my flip flops and the stroller wheels, I headed into the store looking like a freak covered in black. Luckily there was an understanding saleswoman, seeing as I was the idiot for crossing the tape, and she showed me to their back bathroom and found me some sweat pants I could buy. My jeans went straight in the garbage (as did my flip flops once I got home). I was able to wash most off my hands there, but it took paint thinner once I got home to get my hands and feet really cleaned up. Below, a photo of my feet AFTER an initial cleaning. I'm not leaving the house for another week.