Roland Garros 2008 - Day 7

Woke up in a really bad mood.  Not being home has really taken its toll.  I need to be with Colleen.  I'm too far away to be there for her, with her.  I am eaten alive with guilt over the possibility that she'll go into labor and I'll have to scramble to fly home to get there in time to see my daughter in the birthing room.

Today was laundry day.  I don't know if they have service on the weekend, and Friday is risky enough, but I did need to get it done.  I realized that I didn't have enough bags to hold all of it, so I called down for some additional bags.  I took a different approach this time and put one form in each bag with the counts that were in each bag.  That was a lesson I learned from Wimbledon.  If they got separated, they'd all have accurate counts of what was in them and all tagged for my room and hotel.

With that, I went back to sleep.  I wasn't tired, just annoyed with myself and thought maybe some extra sleep would shake the mood.  Oddly, the hour and a half of extra sleep only served to annoy me more.  I'd overslept free breakfast and most restaurants in the area aren't serving lunch until after 11:30.  ARGH!  Oh well, I decided I would get cleaned up and go into work early.  At least sitting in front of my laptop I can lose myself in work.

Calling Colleen at 1:05 is pretty nice.  I know she's giving up part of her time in the morning which is of course important for her, but I do appreciate the chance to hear her voice. :-)  We chat about nonsense.  What is going on there, what is going on here, how the dogs are, how the walk to work is, etc.  Really just trying to make it seem less like I'm several thousand miles from home.

I learned something interesting today.  The cafeteria for media has been serving what they call a galette, but the English translation says pancake.  Now, I know that a true American pancake is most commonly known as a crepe in France.  So, what gives?  Leave it to the Internet to help me find out.  I actually like the ones they serve and I chose to have dinner here at the venue and it was a galette and some sort of whole grain with corn, carrots, and peas.  Very tasty.  I just didn't want to go out anywhere and I was a bit nervous about whether or not my laundry would be there.  Not only was it a risk because it was Friday, but it was a risk because I was running out of clean underwear, shorts, shirts, and pants. :-(

I got back to the room and yes indeed all my laundry was there.  Having done it with three sheets, one for each bag I sent out was the right way to handle it.  Now for the annoying part.  They stapled on some clothes, pinned on others, and just stuck on yet others the tag to indicate my room and last name.  Can't leave that on there, and so I spent a bit of time peeling, unpinning and staple removing.  Of course, it left some spots on a couple of items that could be construed as damage, but overall I was pleased.  One of the pair of socks were very threadbare so I won't be bringing them back to the US with me.

Colleen was still working when I got back to the room so she couldn't talk much.  We tried to work out me calling her cell phone, but had to wind up playing a little phone tag.  Of course, she also misunderstood where I was calling her from and called my cell number.  We may have played a $1.99 per minute version of it while I worked out calling her back using the French cell and International calling card, but that was OK.  Of course, with my bad mood, I probably was a bit more uptight than I should have been and I hope I didn't take it out too much on her.  She's having to be strong for two right now, she doesn't need to have to be strong for three.

It was a bit after 12:30 when I asked Colleen to let me go.  I was still tired, feeling emotionally exhausted due to my sour mood.  I can only hope things clear up or it will be a long week and a half.

Cheers!