Our Well-Planned, Not-Going-To-Take-All-Day Outing

So, I wonder if someone could explain this to me. Yesterday, we have to go out. I have to go to the library, mail a parcel and hit the grocery store. 4 HOURS later, we get home. 4. Hours. Why can I not be efficient and quick about these things??

Contrary to my intentions, we did not get to our bookwork before we left the house yesterday morning. I thought it might be prudent to prepare for our outing instead. So I signed into the online library website and checked my account. Due to past experiences with library fines, I thought renewing books I wasn't going to return would also be prudent. (Look, hun, I just saved us another $17!!) Just to outdo myself, I also took a few minutes to look through the flyers and make a grocery store list. So, we were ready to go. Easy-peasy, right?


Our Well-Planned, Not-Going-To-Take-All-Day Outing.

10:30am
Drive Brian to work after his lunch break.
Cross town to Library.
Allow Kori to arrange for the parking pass.
Walk a block to the bank.
Get some grocery money.
Take the 'secret passage' back to the library, much to the amusement of the children.
Help kids find books.
Chat briefly with an acquaintance and her little guy.
Find a few books for me.
Drop books at the car.
Retrieve package and cross parking lot to the post office to mail said package.
Load into the car.
Attempt to call Brian and get stuck on the cell-phone for 5 minutes with the Bell Mobility operator.
Resist urge to pitch phone in the river.
Cross town. Admire all the pretty red lights.
Detour to Timmy's as it's now noon. Yes, NOON.
Grab a coffee and TimBits to placate children into an obedient grocery shop.
Call Brian from a sticky payphone at the grocery store so he doesn't send out search parties for me.
We shop. We pay. We load the car.
The kids grab a yogurt drink. That just bought me another 30 minutes, minimum.
Kids shriek about seeing Grandpa's truck at his new workplace.
We have to stop in.
Finally find my dad.
He comes to the car as it is essential he pull toonies (that's a $2 coin, Cristina, my State-Side friend) from my children's ears.
He steals the last of the TimBits and runs back to work.
Raiden reminds me we have no tennis balls at home.
Detour to the Dollar Store. It looks busy.
Kids decide to stay in the car, reading their newly selected library books.
I park directly in front of the store and run in only to eventually be caught in the line-up from hell.
30 minutes later I return to the car $15.96 poorer.
We drive home.
My sister is blocking the driveway looking for me.
Her cell phone doesn't work either. Thank goodness she caught me.
We invite her in to use the phone.
She leaves, we juggle the cars around.
I unload the car.
It's 2.22pm.
So much for bookwork.


So that's it. Our outing in a nutshell. After we got home, I had to put the groceries away and feed the kids. We managed a quick tidy-up and then had to dash off and pick Brian up at work. See how easily a day just disappears? But hey, at least we can eat. And we can play hockey in the basement because, thank goodness, we remembered tennis balls!