Mom is Temporarily Out of Order

by Jen Singer

Out of order signMaybe it's in the pile of papers that came home from school on Friday. Or maybe it's lost in the newspapers. Or most likely, maybe I recycled it. Either way, my dad's Father's Day present is missing and so, apparently, is what's left of my ability to organize.

My son, Nicholas, and I had created a comic strip based on my father's nickname: "Captain Red Pen." My brother had bestowed the title upon him back in high school after Dad had edited an essay he'd written for school, leaving the paper full of red ink. This was back before computers, so my brother had to type the entire thing all over again.

For Father's Day this year, Nick and I thought it would be fun to create, "The Adventures of Captain Red Pen." I wrote it and he illustrated it with the intention of presenting it to my dad on Father's Day. Only, we never made it to my parents' house on Sunday.

A week earlier, my fourth grader had suffered an eye injury, courtesy of an errant soccer ball kicked by an opposing player near the end of their game. As a result, we rushed to the ER, my son missed a week of school, and I spent every day commuting 30 minutes each way to a pediatric ophthalmologist, a word I no longer need to spell check. Also, there were numerous visits to the pharmacy to pick up numerous bottles of eye drops, which needed to be administered numerous times per day.

Plus, there was the fifth grade band recital, and the end-of-year fifth grade class party to plan (I'm a class mom) and lots of TLC to administer to one sad and sick fourth grader. And then there was Father's Day.

That morning, my little patient felt too sick to leave the house, so we cancelled the Father's Day picnic at my parents' house, but sadly, not the giant plate of sandwiches I'd ordered for the event. (We are still eating the sandwiches.)

Somehow, once we cancelled the event, we lost "The Adventures of Captain Red Pen," but I have no idea how or where. Nick and I searched through papers and piles and under bottles and bottles of drops, but it's gone. And so, apparently, is the last of my organizing skills.

Since then, I forgot to bring the ice cream scoop for the class party, so we used a gardening trowel the teacher had received as a gift. And, I forgot to buy eggs and toilet paper, but wound up with five cartons of milk. I've lost the cordless phone, missed an appointment and let the laundry pile up on top of the dryer taller than I am. It's like that soccer ball hit my son's eye, but affected my brain.

And maybe that's to be expected. Maybe, it's even okay. Maybe it's taking all of my organizing energy to remember which drops go in what eye and when. And maybe my worry over my son's eye pushed out everything else from my brain. All I know is that Captain Red Pen understands.

We wound up re-creating the "Adventures of Captain Red Pen" in the car en route to my parents' house after school on Tuesday. We promised my dad that we'd bring it home to color it in, but we couldn't promise that we'd be able to bring it back. I'm just not that organized anymore.