schedule conflicts

[chhotii]

D'oh! I should have asked Mom to come back from her trip to NJ today. She is coming back tomorrow. Her train gets into South Station at 3:35. There is a talk at MIT that I had wanted to go to at 4:00 pm tomorrow. If Mom knew her way around these parts, and felt comfortable driving on highways with Massholes, I could just manage to make the talk by: picking her up in her car, driving to MIT, and handing her the car keys to get herself (and Sophia) home. But I don't think I can ask her to do that. She'll do a lot for me and Sophie-- babysit, fix supper, stay up late, get up early, bring baby meds upstairs in the wee hours of the morning, buy every toy in the catalog-- but drive home during rush-hour on Massachusetts highways? Even find any highways from the MIT campus? (Where to exit Mem Drive to find the highway is very non-intuitive.) I don't think so. Of course, Mom could stay in NJ longer, and then I wouldn't have to pick her up, but then I couldn't go to the talk because I wouldn't have anyone to take care of Sophia. Of course I could hunt up another babysitter but then I'd have to leave Sophia with the babysitter until after my lab that night, which would be way after her bedtime. Hard on Sophia, and really, really hard on a babysitter. Crap.