Heaven help me

I work with adults with developemental disabilities. This is a demanding but very rewarding job. Most of the time I enjoy what I do, mostly. I was given the pleasure of driving 2 hours to pick up 3 clients (2 were mine and 1 was from another house I used to work at) from camp and drive them home. (and stay with my 2 clients the rest of the day of course) I got to the camp with no mishaps, checked them out and picked up their meds and any left over money that was not spent. I hunted down my clients, did a lot of creative packing as they all seemed to pack for 2 months instead of the 5 days they were actually there for. Then we put on our seat belts and were off I put some music on, my 2 clients sang away for 2 songs then lost interest. They quickly all put on headphones and listened to their own music. Blessing, right? Wrong! They all sang to their own music out loud. I should tell you at this point that they are all tone deaf too.
What a drive home right? Well to top it off, an hour into the homeward trip I got a phone call telling me I needed to head back to camp because they packed someones I insulin in with my clients meds. Are you kidding me? I explained that with tolls, gas and the fact that it was 12:30 and none of my clients had eaten lunch ( and are very big on schedules) this wasn't an option. They offered to send someone down to retrieve it, but again I explained that I would not be subjecting my clients to sitting in a parking lot for an hour while we waited. They finally decided to have a camp councilor's mom who lives in the town over come and pick it up. I agreed, and stopped at the commuters parking lot and got down to waiting. However, if you remember from the beginning of this story, I picked up the meds first. This meant I had to take everything out of the back of the vehicle to get to the meds and repack. Did I mention that the temp was in the 90's? And it was very humid?
Finally the woman got there, I gave her the med, then she tells me her cell died and she needs to borrow my phone because she wants to change the meeting place with her child to hand over the insulin. I give her my phone, she doesn't know the number, I have to redial the number that I was called from, then she had a lengthy discussion on why the meeting place should change. I finally got my phone back and we were on our way again, but now 2 clients need a bathroom break. We stop, I fill up the gas tank at this time. They come out, only to have the other decide they need to go too. Finally on the road again, listening to 3 tonedeaf clients singing to 3 different songs at the same time.
Our 2 hr return trip became a 3&1/2 hr trip fraught with bumps, and headaches, ok only one really big headache, but we made it home, belongings were brought in, lunch was made and eaten ( to some very uncomfortable noises, they sounded like they enjoyed their sandwiches way more than they should have. I almost left the room to give them privacy) but we did make it home.
Moral of this story: always double and triple check meds for clients when you are picking them up from camp, and bring earplugs (or your own Walkman with earphones). Enjoy some silence once in a while. It will do your mind and body good. In health.....