Fail.

It's been one of those days where no matter how hard I try, I just can't do anything right. Not one thing. Three events in particular are standing out in my mind:

1. La and I woke up a few minutes late this morning. I scrambled to get us ready, and just as I'm shoving her lunch into her backpack in preparation to leave, I notice a piece of paper sticking out of her take-home folder. I unfold the damn thing about eight different ways, and discover that it's a colossal, life-sized poster that La was supposed to "fill in" with photos and stories and drawings about herself over the weekend. It is now Tuesday. Attached to the gargantuan poster is a yellow sheet explaining that La has been chosen to be the much-esteemed "Big Cheese" for the week. Something she has been waiting for her whole life, according to her. I look down at La and ask her if we can possibly work on this "when we get home tonight." She immediately bursts into tears and wails, "BUT I'VE NEVER, EVER BEEN THE BIG CHEEEEEEEEEEESE BEFORE." So, I quickly shoot an explanatory email off to my boss, get out the glue sticks, markers and photo albums, and we go to town creating a semi-passable Big Cheese poster. Yes, that's right. I make a living as a Graphic Artist, and my poor daughter goes to school with The World's Most Half-Assed Poster.
2. Today was Nacho Day at school. And I never even glanced at the school menu to see what was for lunch today. Because even if it happened to be something La likes (which is very rare, being that the only school lunch she likes is NACHOS), it wouldn't matter because I didn't have any cash in my wallet to pay for it. I know. What kind of mother doesn't have $1.80 in her wallet? ME, THAT'S WHO. I'm not even sure I have that much in my checking account. So I just blindly packed a boring old lunch without the slightest notion that it could possibly be Nacho Day. And let me tell you. I paid dearly for my oversight.
3. La has show-and-tell every Wednesday, and if it weren't for a recurring event in my Google Calendar that goes off every Tuesday night, she would never bring anything in to share with her class. Tonight I got my trusty e-mail reminder to find a show-and-tell item that begins with "O." La and I pondered this for a while, trying to find a toy ostrich or an orangoutang or something relating to the ocean. We came up with squat. Then I had the brilliant idea of bringing in one of her little plastic McDonald's Happy Meal "Shrek" figurines, because he's an OGRE!!! ... But right after I blurted that out, I remembered that I threw every single one of those away while she was in Florida for Christmas. Ouch. I spent the next 15 minutes pretending to help her find them, when I knew in reality that they were disintegrating in a landfill somewhere.

As I see it, my biggest problem is my ineptitude when it comes to planning. I just don't have the capacity to plan out a routine and stick to it. Usually things just fall into place despite my disorganization. Today they didn't. But, there's always tomorrow!