Busted

I was busted today on both the work front and the home front.  Needless to say, both ”busts” ended up being comical. Remember, no whining for me! In the honor of getting busted and confessing, I’m dedicating this post to the new site True Mom Confessions, which must be the most blogged-about new site this week.  (My take of TMC: Maybe I don’t really “get it.” I guess if you need to divulge that you’re having your best-friend’s-hubby’s-second-child out of wedlock or something, then it must be nice to have a place to vent. Me? I think I’ll just visit to read what everyone else writes. Don’t you all already know what I’m thinking?)

Anyway, back to my “hey, aren’t you supposed to be working?” busted moment. Riiight. It was a slow day at work, which happens from time to time.  So after catching up on my blog feeds and answering the necessary important e-mails in my inbox, I went on a little jaunt outside my office perimeters. Destination? My favorite lunch time spot, H&M. Unfortunately, there is no sneaky path to weave around downtown Chicago during a work day unless you take the underground “pedway,” which I really will only use if it’s bitter cold out because otherwise it freaks me out and smells sickeningly of sweet popcorn.  I took the high road instead, and as luck would have it, I passed a very senior colleague of mine (who I very closely with) on the street chatting on her cell phone. I started to make eye contact and then diverted my gaze when I realized what I was up to. I could picture the conversation.

Her: “Where are you going?”
Me: “Oh, I have a lunch date with a really cute knockoff ‘swing’ jacket.”

Yeah right.

If you care to know, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with running a quick errand during lunch if you’ve covered your bases back at camp. But who knows what others think? I thought I had escaped squeaky clean until I got an e-mail upon my return from her which said, ”hey, did I see you outside Macy’s earlier today? I was on my way to get a new travel bag.” Hmmm. Does that mean I kind of busted her as well? Me thinks a ”double-bust” saved my butt. 

Now to “busted” #2 of the day.  Lovely nanny calls at 3 pm today to tell me we have two diapers left in the house.  I’m not joking. Two diiiiaapers. (Pretend I just said that in the voice of the kid on the bike from “Better Off Dead” and it’s kind of funny.) Great- I could use my slow day to my advantage again.  I didn’t have anything on my calendar until 5 p.m. so I figured, what the hell? I’ve been busted once already today, why not take the plunge and rectify my “bad mommy” moment?  We all know a “bad mommy” moment trumps a “bad work” moment.  That’s the bad news.  The good news is that getting busted by your nanny for leaving your son without skivvies is nothing that a little trip to the grocery store won’t fix.  (Yes, my nanny could have picked up the diapers, but then I wouldn’t have been able to purchase my lovely Swiffer WetJet.) I may have overcompensated for my forgetfulness just a bit:

Darling son, I would never let you wet your pants. So I bought you 96 diapers, plus 46 overnight Huggies, organic milk, YoBaby and lots of your favorite jarred baby fruit. I’m sorry for neglecting you. I’m an ass.

I returned home to a happy nanny, a son who agreed with my late-day assessment that he’s not ready to be potty-trained and two really cute dresses. I think it may have been worth getting caught, after all.

Tags: mommy guilt, working mom, H&M, shopping at work, Chicago, pedway, True Mom Confessions