Sooooo close.....

Took all of our documents to downtown St. Louis this morning to get apostilled. Had to make copies, go over them again, and go have the last letter signed before we left, so by the time I was at the window, it was 11:15. About 11:30 the girl at the window says they probably won't get done before lunch so why don't I give them my phone number and they'll call when they're done? So I asked how long this would take and of couse, no one knew but lunch was at noon. Now what? Jack and I are too far from home to go there and come back. It's downtown so no hanging out at Target. There is a Macy's, so we went there and wandered for awhile, then paid the meter, then went into a Culinaire (which I now think means small grocery store that carries EVERYTHING you'd ever want to buy plus prepared foods you can buy for lunch plus has a place full of tables so you can sit and eat) and got a chicken salad sandwich, small cesear salad, and a bottle of water. We shared that, paid the meter, found a bathroom, and went back up to look for our documents. Still not done, and now it's 1:30. I asked the girl if she had any idea when they would be finished and the answer, of course, was no. At this point I had given the meter ALL the change I could find and it was about to run out at 2. The kids would start getting out of school at 2:45, and rush hour down there starts by 3. Jack is kinda loony by now. He's tired, bored, and found out that the ceilings are high enough to produce a nice echo if you're loud enough. He was.

At 1:55 I asked one last time if they were nearly done, answer no, so can they be mailed? Yes but they still need to be paid for. Yeah, I can do that since I was under no delusion the state would take care of the bill for me. I tried to quickly pay, get Jack back into the stroller (he was having a great time jumping from chair to chair) and get down to the van before the meter reader came. I had already decided if I was staying I'd eat the ticket (no more change) but now that we were leaving I did not want to pay for a ticket. Drove back into town a few minutes before the big kids came home, and Jack slept in the van for about an hour.

Now I'm home, no documents, hoping they don't get lost in the mail on the way back home. Unfortunately, I'm a stress eater. I so wish I was a stress no-appetiter.