Do you ever feel like your life is a first-person-shooter game? Running and shooting down each obstacle in your path while avoiding weapons-fire along the way?

That’s kind of how I feel about days like today.

Today was my “day off” so after I took the kids over to Lindsy’s (a neighbor who tends our kids part-time) house this morning, I relaxed for an hour or so before settling into work. I put in two hours of work before I went back over to Lindsy’s to get the kids at 1:00. It was pretty crazy — I had half a dozen people trying to get a piece of me- almost everyone’s issue was a red-hot issue. I fielded each and I don’t think I let any of them slip through.

Then I picked up the kids and immediately went to a local doctor’s office for Eli’s eighteen-month checkup. Everything went fine. He’s charting at 80% for his height and 80% for his weight. Both percentiles are up a bit from his last checkup. Doctor says he’s really healthy and to let him know if Eli’s speech doesn’t improve in the next three or four months (his vocabulary is limited to a handful of words like “no,”, “nuh uh,”, and “bye bye.“

I hadn’t gotten any lunch and Lindsy said Eli hadn’t eaten much for lunch, so we hit Wendys on our way back from the doctor’s office and grabbed some stuff to eat.

During the hour between getting back from the doctor and going to pick up Maya from school, I fielded a few more work-related issues and spent some time with the kids.

After picking up Maya from school, we drove out to Home Depot in Sandy (a 15-20 minute drive) and got some sprinkling system parts. I was going to get some more landscaping blocks while we were there, but I felt we were getting pressed for time. I told Maya I’d probably go to Home Depot or Lowes later tonight to get those, but little did I know I wouldn’t have time to do any of that.

I had promised Jennie and Dave I would help them move some items out of their storage unit tonight and Jennie called to confirm all that. I told her it would be about 6:30 before I could get there because I had to take the kids over to the library to get their pictures taken with their dance classes. She was cool with that.

After leaving Home Depot, we went home. I quickly unloaded the PVC pipe I had tied to the top of the car while the girls ran inside to get their dance costumes on. Eli slept peacefully in the car. I helped the girls get into their costumes and then we headed over to the Riverton Library.

When we arrived at the library, I could see Christine’s car so I knew she was there. I looked around for her and saw her near the stairs to the main entrance. She looked really unhappy and I wondered if I was late or something. It turns out she was just miserable from being sick.

Christine had told me last night she thought she was getting a cold. Apparently, while she was at work today the typical headcold symptoms were accompanied by a fever, chills, aches all over her body, and a general feeling of BLAH.

So, after doing the girls’ hair, makeup, and making sure their costumes looked okay, Christine asked me if she could go home and go to bed. I said sure.

Maya was supposed to get her pictures taken at 5:15 or so. It was probably about 6:15 before her class finally got their pictures taken. As the time wore on, I sent a text message to Jennie letting her know I was running late with the picture taking and didn’t know when I’d be available; it would probably be 7 or later now.

Finally, at 6:45, we were able to leave the library and head home so the kids could change their clothes. When Christine left the library to go home and go to bed, she told me I’d have to take the kids with me to help Jennie and Dave move the items out of their storage unit. Eli, however, had such a hard time being good at the library, I had just lost my patience with him and was going to ask Christine if he could stay home with her while I took the girls with me.

I found Christine in bed and before I could discuss Eli staying home with her, she told me I needed to take her to the hospital.

She said she’d never felt so sick in her life. I asked her to ellaborate and she told me about the fever and the aches. I felt her and she was really hot. I asked her if she had taken any ibuprofen and she replied that she had when she came home, an hour before.

I had to call Jennie and let her know I wasn’t going to make it out because Christine was sick and needed some medical care. I called my mom and couldn’t reach her. She called me back and I told her what was up. She was at a Lions Club meeting with my dad and agreed to meet us at the InstaCare in West Jordan.

When we got to the InstaCare, we were told there were four people ahead of Christine. Christine sat down in the waiting area and watched some TV. Maya and Lucy played with some of the toys they had in the waiting area. Eli was too restless so he and I went outside and walked around and played catch with a bouncy-ball.

After a while, I went back in and asked Christine if anyone had been called back. She said two people had been called back. It had been about 30-40 minutes since we arrived so it was obviously slow-going. The kids and I hadn’t had anything to eat since lunchtime, so I asked Christine if she’d be okay if we went to get some dinner. She said to go.

On our way to get some food, my mom called to confirm the location of the InstaCare. She was only a few blocks away at that point. I told her we were going to get some food and would return soon.

We went to a McDonalds because Maya and Lucy were adamant about getting some toys from The Incredibles. After eating (and getting a Toy Story toy and a Monsters, Inc. toy — they didn’t have any toys from The Incredibles), we headed back over to check on Christine.

My mom was there now and was waiting in the waiting area for us and told me she thought Christine had strep throat. I asked her why she thought that and she said she could smell it. Christine had been admitted so I asked a registrar at the desk where she was and she led me back to her room. Christine was laying on the exam table with an ice pack under her neck and another one on her stomach. Her face was pretty pale.

I told her my mom thought she had strep. She said, yeah, I do. The nurse had taken a culture and tested it and it was positive for strep. Christine hadn’t been seen by a doctor yet, so I stayed with her for a few minutes and kept her company. She told me my mom had left my dad at the meeting and was concerned about getting back up to get him, so I went back out the waiting room and told her she could leave. My dad called her on her cell phone shortly after that to let her know he was ready to go so she left.

Christine came out into the waiting room before my mom left and had a prescription for Augmentin and some samples to get started with.

We stopped at the pharmacy before heading home and I got Christine’s prescription filled and stocked up on some generic ibuprofen since we were pretty much out of it. When we got home, it was past bedtime for the girls, so I got them in bed and then got Eli a bottle and got him in bed.

So, there you go. My day as a first-person-shooter game.

Tomorrow, I’m planning to head up to Logan to visit our favorite vicious little accountant about our 2004 taxes, to fix Chadd’s computer, and to buy lots of cheese. Christine’s planning to stay home from work tomorrow. I hope she feels better.