Rant and Run

I had settled into a nice rhythm in life.
I'd wake up, do a little blogging, then some work, then an afternoon nap, maybe a little more work, then spend a quiet evening doing what I wanted.
My biggest client recently decided to turn the quarterly newsmagazine I write and edit into a monthly newsmagazine. More work, more meetings, and now travel.
So I am back from traveling, only to have to produce and write an entire issue by June 28.
I returned home from Dallas to frantic calls from my sister, the one who cares for my 89-year-old mother in Austin.
Seems Mom had a heart scare and had to be admitted to the hospital immediately. No blood clots, but her blood had thickened to the point where she wasn't getting proper oxygen, and she was getting pretty senile and sluggish as a result.
They caught it in the nick of time.
Now she's in the hospital getting her blood thinned out and being observed, after having a defibrillation or fibrillation or some kind of shock administered to her heart.
She's alert and sassy and her usual little pain in the ass self again.
Trouble is, Mom doesn't like the hospital and she's a night owl. So she calls my sister all through the night, telling her the nurse woke her up and scared her, etc.
That means one of us kids has to stay with Mom overnight in the hospital to keep her off the phone, keep her from getting dressed and leaving, etc. Basically, Mom is like a little monkey, chattering and wiggling all night when she's in the hospital.
As the only kid who is not living in the Austin vicinity, I usually draw all-night hospital duty to compensate for not having to deal with Mom's day-to-day upkeep.
That means I am expected in Austin asap to help keep Mom from going squirrely in the hospital all night long. That means I do not sleep while I am there.
They can't sedate her because they need her to be as natural as possible so they can get accurate heart readings.
I have no laptop, so I cannot work while I am there.
I'd go today, but I have a mammogram scheduled this afternoon.
So, soon off I go again, leaving my kitties and my comfy bed behind again this week.
It's pretty bad when getting a mammogram is the least of my worries this week.