Nothing Is Ever Easy

At least not with me.

Yesterday in the car I spent 10 minuets searching for my CD player, only to have Dawn (a girl we're traveling with) point out that it's been on my lap this whole time.

Then someone from the tournament called telling us we didn't make the deadline so we couldn't compete.

Us: "But we got permission to arrive late.... right?"

*phone tag for an hour*

Them: "Oh yeah... never mind. But you have to come in extra early tomorrow."

Us: "Whew! We'll have to get up at 6 tomorrow which will feel like 5 to us, that'll be fun."

About half was through the drive I started to feel sick. Lots of fun in an 8 hours drive.

We got to our hotel and I took a relaxing warm shower.

I'd left my clothes and pajamas on the floor of the bathroom and as I got out of the shower I stepped on my pajamas ... my wet pajamas. It seems I didn't close the curtain far enough on the shower so there was an inch of water on the floor. I wrung my clothes out several times before giving up and leaving them to dry over night. I patched together something to sleep in and drifted off into a peaceful sleep.

Sort-of.

Between 9 and 10 our time (8 and 9 Midwest time) all off our family called or texted us at one point or another. Just as we would drift off mom's phone ring. We were near the point of sending out a general text. "We are trying to sleep, please leave us alone!"

This morning seemed to go a little better. My clothes weren't dry but my hair behaved (wonder of wonders) and I went to register with renewed confidence.

Registration Lady: "Lydia where are your copyright and title pages? You can compete if you don't have them."

I went weak at the knees. We'd forgotten something we really, really shouldn't have forgotten, and if we didn't fix it we would have come all this way for nothing.

Mom spun into action calling home. At home it was 6:30 in the morning and nobody was answering the phone. We called and it rang and rang and rang. Susie told us later that she was having a dream about a phone that wouldn't stop ringing.

Finally we called sisters and they went over a woke Susie up, then after much trial and error (and Lydia almost fainting) we (somehow) got the pages scanned e-mailed and printed out in less that 15 minuets.

According to the Registration Lady we were good to go, but Mom and I both said we felt like crying from relief.

Me: "Finally I can breathe easy."

Then I got a nose bleed.