Do you have any obsession? Some people are "blessed" with a few more than others. I am one of those few. Someday I will write a blog outlining them all. In no way can I claim that I am severely oppressed by my obsessions, but occasionally they come to the surface with a vengeance.
Just recently, one of my daughters developed some kind of stomach bug. For the second time in my life as a parent my car was christened with the castoffs from my child's stomach. I had no idea/warning/foreshadowing that it was coming. None. Nor was I fully prepared to handle the onslaught. As I frantically drove home, she continued to flow forth with the fury of Mount Vesuvius upon the little town of Pompeii. Nothing in her path was safe. Once I had her home and quarantined, I set out on the unenviable task of cleaning up a carseat/car/toys/clothing/shoes/etc. Talk about a herculean task involving a good deal of bleach.
So, the purpose of that story is to tell you this one. I hate germs. I love bleach and Clorox wipes and Lysol. Try being a parent to two small children with this particular obsession. Generally, I am able to keep it under control. I am able to clean without going crazy. However, the intrusion into my world of something as vile as vomit makes the balance between obsession and normalcy teeter wildly. I basically lost it for an hour or two. I Lysol-ed every surface I could. I stripped down beds and replaced sheets (after Clorox-ing the beds of my two children). I washed stuffed animals that have tags that say specifically, "DO NOT WASH!" (By the way, they all survived.) I even took my husband's pajamas to be washed, completely disregarding the fact that he kind of needs them to sleep in. Sarahbug watched me with round and amazed eyes from a safe vantage point on the couch, (which had already been Lysol-ed) as I rushed around the house trying to wage a one-woman war on the germs invading my household. My house had the delightfully antiseptic smell of the cleaning aisle at Wal-Mart.
In fact, I might still be doing just that if not for an unfortunately timed occurrence that forced me to a standstill. No, I didn't throw up. Instead, I got a migraine. I hate migraines almost as much as I hate germs. Migraines cause me to do a variety of things: lose my sight, get dizzy, lose my ability to read (seriously), and, yes, occasionally they cause me to vomit. So, I did the only thing I could do. I called my mommy to pick up BigE at preschool and keep her away from me, put Sarahbug down for a nap, and curled up on the couch with a pillow on my head and Excedrin in my tummy. Ahhhh.....that's the life.
