Yup - that was about as bad as it could have been...

So today the hammer came down on the Cameron-Nadia-St.Sniffles situation. My wife has been trying to call Nadia - who has been on vacation - to tell her that we weren't going to be needing her services. Of course, that just turned up the burner on my wife's frustration level. Today, Nadia finally tried to call me (since I had been her contact up until now.) Of course, my cell phone was off during work... so when I got the messages, I relayed them to my wife, who had agreed to call her back.

Apparently, Nadia gave her an earful.

That turned into my wife calling me back and giving me an earful.

Now, here's where it gets kind of fuzzy - I may or may not be at fault for not having clearly communicated that I knew Nadia was on vacation - which I did (...know that she was on vacation, I mean). I thought I had made that clear when I told my wife that Nadia wouldn't be able to take Cameron until after Labor Day. Somewhere that point got lost.

I also may or may not be at fault for having sat on the paperwork for Nadia's services - after all I was the one who hesitated when she gave me the directive to fill the forms out. In my defense, I wasn't sure that she was sure about what we were doing - and going along with it now might have meant a lot of headaches later. So I even said "Think about it for a bit, then we'll talk." Somehow, that conversation got lost in recent memory as well.

I'm trying to figure out how guilty I should feel... and not for the above-mentioned "may-or-may-not" factors. You see, I knew that any conversation with Nadia wasn't going to end well, and one might say that I deliberately set my wife up. I knew we were breaking a verbal agreement, and I knew we were doing it in a really messed-up flaky kind of way. For me it was like being in a car barreling out of control - and looking up and seeing the person that you were about to hit - and being powerless to stop it. And being that I didn't yank the wheel in the first place, I didn't want to be behind the wheel when we collided.

I don't know... is that selfish? Is the husband supposed to shield the wife, even from the consequences (or side-effects) of her decisions? (remember dear readers... she was the impetus for our sudden return to St. Sniffles) Maybe I should have just called Nadia myself.... Maybe it's better just to have some Persian lady pissed at you, then have said Persian lady and your wife pissed at you.

All I know is that because we had to delay day care another week - Cameron went back to the in laws for the time being.... and tonight's dinner is probably going to be very quiet....