Ok, before I pass out…

For the record, driving 4 and a half hours one way then turning around and driving the same route immediately in reverse sucks hard.

I left Hattiesburg to visit my wife and kids over the weekend, and all seemed to be going well. Lily did pretty well with me leaving on Sunday; Laurel was having some stomach troubles, but nothing major-league. I was about 30 minutes from Hattiesburg when I got a call from Karri:

“Hey, you probably ought to turn around and head back now.” (Uh-oh)

“Why, what’s up?”

“Laurel is being admitted to the hospital. She’s running a fever of 100.3 and the doc says that with her being less than 60 days old, there’s a whole battery of tests they have to do. He said it could be anything from a stomach virus to meningitis.”

“Oh f*ck me sideways with a lead pipe and no lube.”

“Yeah.”

After about an hour, some cheap deli food and Frito and Betty telling bad inside jokes for me to chuckle nervously about, I turned around and headed back to Montgomery.

Long story short, and since I’m a little vague on the details anyway myself having gotten about 6 hours of sleep in the last 72, I ended up babysitting Laurel in the hospital while Karri took a short and pointless break on Monday. We tag-teamed out that night, and Lily ended up coming down with a fever over 103 that night, complete with involuntary muscle spasming and inconsolable crying. We were at the ER not 10 minutes after that started (about 4-5 AM) and didn’t leave until lunch (about 11:30 AM). She has a moderate case of strep throat.

Laurel endured test after test and finally was released Tuesday night around 9:45 PM after I had left town to meet the movers in Hattiesburg, who, oh, by the way, packed the house up on Monday while I babysat Lily a while. Yeah, talk about insanity. We’re moving, my wife is outprocessing the military and Murphy decides to add a little flavor by putting both kids in the hospital at the beginning of our last week in Montgomery. Thanks Murph. Feel free to kiss my ass anytime.

Karri’s niece and sister left in the middle of all of this. The niece had been here for several, several weeks helping out, so I’m a bit more understanding there, but my sister-in-law may have permanently worn out her welcome. That remains to be seen, however, and it’s not my place to comment right now. I am, however, less than impressed and more than slightly pissed, for a number of reasons. I’ll leave things be at that, since it’s my wife’s family and not really my bone to pick until she hands it to me. I’d much rather she handle it than I get involved and feelings really get hurt. I’m not exactly known for sensetivity or understanding when it comes to such things.

My family, however, has dropped plans and made sacrifices to be in Montgomery to help. I put out the distress signal to my Mom this morning and she was in town (a 3 and a half hour drive for her) at lunch. May I take this moment to say, definitively, that this is real love and family in action. My sister is also dropping plans to come down tomorrow to help Karri get everything ready for the Big Move this weekend, and will likely even be dodging some commitments back in Georgia to come all the way to Hattiesburg on Friday and Saturday. My family rocks. For those of you not blessed with this kind of familial love, you have my pity.

So, I’m in Hattiesburg now and so tired I’m hoping my attempt to iron work clothes after I save and push this to the site doesn’t produce burns and/or ruined clothes. After that I’m going to take a shower to ease some of the tension in my poor shoulders and lower back and try to wash away three days of body stench. Starting to get the shakes now. Signing off. Expect a more philosophical post tomorrow.