(no subject)
Restore from saved draft which I thought was important enough to write but not to post:
I watched the Yankees lose and felt nothing. I suppose it was disappointing but some of my people were on the ledge! Maybe I'm not as sad because the Giants are still hanging in there--though last night they beat up my favorite player in the MLB, LHP/recently RP too, Tim Lincecum. "The Freak," as he is known, is worth watching.
End of saved draft, as we know the Giants won the Series is it spring training yet?
A memorable, yet typical day (victories over the forces of evil are noted)
2:30 am Woke up (victory)
2:30-4:00 Read and re-read email, wrote scathing reviews then deleted them, checked over the kids' homework, wrote harsh criticisms of people who annoy me until I realized they were all about me. Caught up on all my online Scrabble With Strangers games, promised to not start new games when my turns were up: victory
I wish I could say I prayed 5 decades of the rosary, the chaplet of divine mercy, and day 1 of a novena to Our Lady of Mt. Carmel....sometimes God allows me to just pray without discipline (bad excuse)
4:00 Prayed half-assedly
4:20 Prayed for forgiveness for my half-assed prayers
4:21 God please don't kill me
4:22 Filled out permission slips for the kids--one is going to see a puppet show, one is going to see cadavers at the morgue, and one is going to do research on poet Robert Lax at the St. Bonaventure library...ok Sarah, it's very important that we concentrate now so that the right kids end up with the right forms...Jack is not ready for cadavers, Abe already finished his Lax project last year, and Missy is too old for puppet shows. (What?! No! Missy's still a toddler...fade to flashback sequence:
Missy: Mommy, Abie pushed me!
Mommy: That's impossible, Abie's at Joe's house, he's not even here
Missy, pointing at Nigel: THAT Abie!
So, you're telling me this didn't just happen yesterday?!
5:00 My role as Human Snooze Alarm begins
Wake up Abe, tell him he has 30 minutes; wake up Jack, tell him he has 2 hours
Jack got up, Abe didn't
Jack hits the sofa for a few zzz's, asks me to get him up at 5:49...he loves telling time
5:30 Wake up Abe, tell him he has, at most, 15 minutes. Wake up Missy, who does a very convincing "I'm up" in her sleep. Her room is the best: walls plastered not with teen idols, but black/white pictures of people like Edith Piaf and Mickey Rooney. (Side note: Missy adores old movies, even the Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers movies that were the light of my Dad's life, the sacred films, I think there were 9 of them and "Roberta" was the absolute favorite. How can I tell Missy to never watch them? Right, she should watch them if she enjoys them. Ok, learning and growing)
5:45 Wake up Ruby, the warrior princess, who gets up on the first call, grabs her homework, clothes, backpack, swim gear and heads downstairs to help Jack get ready. Where did this child come from?
5:46 Abe, it's Actual Up Time. Wake Up. Your alarm is blaring, it's very annoying. Make. It. Stop.
5:49 Jack, wake up for Realz, it's 5:49!
6:00 Everyone up, time for showers, backpack packing, toothbrushing (in that order)
No breakfast...the kids hate breakfast as much as I do...it's the most stupidest meal of the day. Abe does, however, grab the biggest mug we have (Lady Godiva on horseback, wait I just realized what he likes about that mug) and kills the pot of coffee I just made...now I have to make another one I hate cooking)
6:30 Take Abe to work. He cleans a bar: takes out the trash, sweeps then mops the floor. I tell him 100 times to do a good job, I have to meet with the boss today and he'll tell me if Abe skipped anything. Abe dismisses me but I know he'll do a good job, even without telling him 100 times.
7:00 Mis en place the kids lunches for Paul to make. I always call it mis en place, which would be a giant insult to anyone who does actual mis en place for anything. I just set up the plates, knives, peanut butter, grapes, carrots, plastic bags, juice boxes...Paul carefully does the rest.
7:20 Everyone out the door
7:30 Abe goes from work to school to the hospital where he is interning. He's only in high school, but when he puts on his white lab coat, he may as well be a doctor to me. It doesn't help that he looks exactly like my Dad. A few days ago, I said I was having a heart attack (just more fun Mom pranks) and Abe grabbed my arm...I was so confused because he never touches me...he started taking my pulse but not on my wrist, on my inner elbow and it was like going back in time, Abe looks just like Orest and he was doing the pulse thing exactly the same way, with exactly the same look on his face that said "hold still, I'm in charge here, you're a complete idiot," counting out the pulses, so focussed. When he said "You're fine" with a dismissive smirk, I could just see OJ in him.
Someday, but not yet, I'm going to open the drawer that has in it my Dad's stethoscope and take it out and give it to Abe. To do so, I'd have to move his striped Brooks Brother's sweater, and the scallop seashells, and the carkeys, and the Blessed Virgin card, and the picture of Orest, Colette and Jack in Chicago, 1962, and the scapular. Baby steps.
8:00 The gin is never strong enough
8:30 This is the start of my bizarre, normal, ironic, mundane, exciting, boring day. I have 50 pages to read by noon, 50 long, dry pages, 50 pages that would make you gouge out your eyes
9:00 I read slow
9:00 Laundry...the one thing I do that I actually feel like I'm good at.
9:45 Dexter Morgan is my role model
10:00 Why can't "Dexter" be on every day? I'm watching the most recent "Dexter." Please devote more of this show to the Ukrainian mob, thanks.
10:30 Talked on the phone. I've actually been doing this a lot lately. It doesn't seem too amazing unless you're one of those people who has tried to call me. Back again to Orest, sorry. Every night at 9pm he would call me if I hadn't called him before that. The silence at 9pm made me sad every night....worse was the phone ringing because my first thought was "not him." Now my phone ringing is sometimes joyful, there may be a friend on the other end, or a telemarketer or even an enemy...any of those is a real, live person calling me and I'm willing to talk again.
11:00 It is still morning but it feels like this day should be over. Another atypical activity: even though I already took a shower (I think it was between reading and Dexter, but don't quote me on that hahahaha), I head up to Nigel's room to lift his weights. Heavy! They must be 25 pounds! (ok, they're 8) Even though my stomach is sore from this yesterday, I do some crunches and pushups. It's been a while since I cared, but now I wonder why I didn't do this all the time? Also, it's ok, I can take another shower, no problem.
12:00 Time to leave the house. Victory.
I pick up my boss and it feels like we are in "Goodfellas," though I doubt he's seen it. The boss does everything in person, face to face, and I just drive. I'm probably not too intimidating, but I pretend I'm there for backup, if necessary. Between stops, I make sure no one's tailing us, no helicopters in sight and I need a hobby.
2:00 Drop the boss off, race home, this outside world is too much. I could slip into agoraphobia without any effort.
2:30 Check the mail, open it, read it, deal with it in various ways. Does this sound like victory? It is, considering that in the past 5 weeks, I've caught up with all the mail. I even read the letters I thought would be scary, paid the bill I thought would be huge but was actually $133.75 but didn't know because I was too scared to open it, and yes, opened the last card my aunt sent before she died. What was I saving it for? What was I hoping to accomplish? All I did was give myself needless worries.
3:00 Yippee my friends are here. By friends, I mean my kids. #Loser
Abe and Missy make some truly beautiful, healthy sandwiches...I didn't know we even had fresh mushrooms. And hummus? Tomatoes? Wheat bread? Dang.
3:30 Drove Missy to her guitar lesson. Tried to start a drag race at a red light, but no one takes me seriously in a Dodge Caravan. Stopped for drugs. (Paul's Lipitor)
4:00 I can handle another trip out to the world, so I volunteer to pick Missy up. Since she got home from France, I cherish every minute with her...she is truly amazing and I'm not just saying that because I have to. She's in love with late night talk show host Craig Ferguson which is fine with me, since he lives nowhere near us and he's semi-famous. We talked about Craig and stopped for milk and coffee and gum.
5:00 I've been up since 2:30 so this seems like night.
When Paul asks what he should make for dinner, I answer as I always do: "Nothing messy." He proceeds, as he always does, to make something super messy. Come on! I should be thankful I'm on cleanup crew and not in charge of cooking tonight, but why can't all food come in pill form?
6:00-9:00 TV Time!!!!! I wish I could just watch and not be distracted by the kids with their homework questions and all their other "needs." But no. More multi-tasking, 7th grade Biology takes me away from the second half of "Dexter," 5th grade spelling (surprisingly difficult) comes before The Colbert Report. Also trying to read a book: "The Sound and the Fury", I get through about 3 pages per day.
9:30 Lights out when I drop "The Sound and the Fury" on my face for the 5th time. (Resounding defeat, same as every night, miserable, start over)
I watched the Yankees lose and felt nothing. I suppose it was disappointing but some of my people were on the ledge! Maybe I'm not as sad because the Giants are still hanging in there--though last night they beat up my favorite player in the MLB, LHP/recently RP too, Tim Lincecum. "The Freak," as he is known, is worth watching.
End of saved draft, as we know the Giants won the Series is it spring training yet?
A memorable, yet typical day (victories over the forces of evil are noted)
2:30 am Woke up (victory)
2:30-4:00 Read and re-read email, wrote scathing reviews then deleted them, checked over the kids' homework, wrote harsh criticisms of people who annoy me until I realized they were all about me. Caught up on all my online Scrabble With Strangers games, promised to not start new games when my turns were up: victory
I wish I could say I prayed 5 decades of the rosary, the chaplet of divine mercy, and day 1 of a novena to Our Lady of Mt. Carmel....sometimes God allows me to just pray without discipline (bad excuse)
4:00 Prayed half-assedly
4:20 Prayed for forgiveness for my half-assed prayers
4:21 God please don't kill me
4:22 Filled out permission slips for the kids--one is going to see a puppet show, one is going to see cadavers at the morgue, and one is going to do research on poet Robert Lax at the St. Bonaventure library...ok Sarah, it's very important that we concentrate now so that the right kids end up with the right forms...Jack is not ready for cadavers, Abe already finished his Lax project last year, and Missy is too old for puppet shows. (What?! No! Missy's still a toddler...fade to flashback sequence:
Missy: Mommy, Abie pushed me!
Mommy: That's impossible, Abie's at Joe's house, he's not even here
Missy, pointing at Nigel: THAT Abie!
So, you're telling me this didn't just happen yesterday?!
5:00 My role as Human Snooze Alarm begins
Wake up Abe, tell him he has 30 minutes; wake up Jack, tell him he has 2 hours
Jack got up, Abe didn't
Jack hits the sofa for a few zzz's, asks me to get him up at 5:49...he loves telling time
5:30 Wake up Abe, tell him he has, at most, 15 minutes. Wake up Missy, who does a very convincing "I'm up" in her sleep. Her room is the best: walls plastered not with teen idols, but black/white pictures of people like Edith Piaf and Mickey Rooney. (Side note: Missy adores old movies, even the Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers movies that were the light of my Dad's life, the sacred films, I think there were 9 of them and "Roberta" was the absolute favorite. How can I tell Missy to never watch them? Right, she should watch them if she enjoys them. Ok, learning and growing)
5:45 Wake up Ruby, the warrior princess, who gets up on the first call, grabs her homework, clothes, backpack, swim gear and heads downstairs to help Jack get ready. Where did this child come from?
5:46 Abe, it's Actual Up Time. Wake Up. Your alarm is blaring, it's very annoying. Make. It. Stop.
5:49 Jack, wake up for Realz, it's 5:49!
6:00 Everyone up, time for showers, backpack packing, toothbrushing (in that order)
No breakfast...the kids hate breakfast as much as I do...it's the most stupidest meal of the day. Abe does, however, grab the biggest mug we have (Lady Godiva on horseback, wait I just realized what he likes about that mug) and kills the pot of coffee I just made...now I have to make another one I hate cooking)
6:30 Take Abe to work. He cleans a bar: takes out the trash, sweeps then mops the floor. I tell him 100 times to do a good job, I have to meet with the boss today and he'll tell me if Abe skipped anything. Abe dismisses me but I know he'll do a good job, even without telling him 100 times.
7:00 Mis en place the kids lunches for Paul to make. I always call it mis en place, which would be a giant insult to anyone who does actual mis en place for anything. I just set up the plates, knives, peanut butter, grapes, carrots, plastic bags, juice boxes...Paul carefully does the rest.
7:20 Everyone out the door
7:30 Abe goes from work to school to the hospital where he is interning. He's only in high school, but when he puts on his white lab coat, he may as well be a doctor to me. It doesn't help that he looks exactly like my Dad. A few days ago, I said I was having a heart attack (just more fun Mom pranks) and Abe grabbed my arm...I was so confused because he never touches me...he started taking my pulse but not on my wrist, on my inner elbow and it was like going back in time, Abe looks just like Orest and he was doing the pulse thing exactly the same way, with exactly the same look on his face that said "hold still, I'm in charge here, you're a complete idiot," counting out the pulses, so focussed. When he said "You're fine" with a dismissive smirk, I could just see OJ in him.
Someday, but not yet, I'm going to open the drawer that has in it my Dad's stethoscope and take it out and give it to Abe. To do so, I'd have to move his striped Brooks Brother's sweater, and the scallop seashells, and the carkeys, and the Blessed Virgin card, and the picture of Orest, Colette and Jack in Chicago, 1962, and the scapular. Baby steps.
8:00 The gin is never strong enough
8:30 This is the start of my bizarre, normal, ironic, mundane, exciting, boring day. I have 50 pages to read by noon, 50 long, dry pages, 50 pages that would make you gouge out your eyes
9:00 I read slow
9:00 Laundry...the one thing I do that I actually feel like I'm good at.
9:45 Dexter Morgan is my role model
10:00 Why can't "Dexter" be on every day? I'm watching the most recent "Dexter." Please devote more of this show to the Ukrainian mob, thanks.
10:30 Talked on the phone. I've actually been doing this a lot lately. It doesn't seem too amazing unless you're one of those people who has tried to call me. Back again to Orest, sorry. Every night at 9pm he would call me if I hadn't called him before that. The silence at 9pm made me sad every night....worse was the phone ringing because my first thought was "not him." Now my phone ringing is sometimes joyful, there may be a friend on the other end, or a telemarketer or even an enemy...any of those is a real, live person calling me and I'm willing to talk again.
11:00 It is still morning but it feels like this day should be over. Another atypical activity: even though I already took a shower (I think it was between reading and Dexter, but don't quote me on that hahahaha), I head up to Nigel's room to lift his weights. Heavy! They must be 25 pounds! (ok, they're 8) Even though my stomach is sore from this yesterday, I do some crunches and pushups. It's been a while since I cared, but now I wonder why I didn't do this all the time? Also, it's ok, I can take another shower, no problem.
12:00 Time to leave the house. Victory.
I pick up my boss and it feels like we are in "Goodfellas," though I doubt he's seen it. The boss does everything in person, face to face, and I just drive. I'm probably not too intimidating, but I pretend I'm there for backup, if necessary. Between stops, I make sure no one's tailing us, no helicopters in sight and I need a hobby.
2:00 Drop the boss off, race home, this outside world is too much. I could slip into agoraphobia without any effort.
2:30 Check the mail, open it, read it, deal with it in various ways. Does this sound like victory? It is, considering that in the past 5 weeks, I've caught up with all the mail. I even read the letters I thought would be scary, paid the bill I thought would be huge but was actually $133.75 but didn't know because I was too scared to open it, and yes, opened the last card my aunt sent before she died. What was I saving it for? What was I hoping to accomplish? All I did was give myself needless worries.
3:00 Yippee my friends are here. By friends, I mean my kids. #Loser
Abe and Missy make some truly beautiful, healthy sandwiches...I didn't know we even had fresh mushrooms. And hummus? Tomatoes? Wheat bread? Dang.
3:30 Drove Missy to her guitar lesson. Tried to start a drag race at a red light, but no one takes me seriously in a Dodge Caravan. Stopped for drugs. (Paul's Lipitor)
4:00 I can handle another trip out to the world, so I volunteer to pick Missy up. Since she got home from France, I cherish every minute with her...she is truly amazing and I'm not just saying that because I have to. She's in love with late night talk show host Craig Ferguson which is fine with me, since he lives nowhere near us and he's semi-famous. We talked about Craig and stopped for milk and coffee and gum.
5:00 I've been up since 2:30 so this seems like night.
When Paul asks what he should make for dinner, I answer as I always do: "Nothing messy." He proceeds, as he always does, to make something super messy. Come on! I should be thankful I'm on cleanup crew and not in charge of cooking tonight, but why can't all food come in pill form?
6:00-9:00 TV Time!!!!! I wish I could just watch and not be distracted by the kids with their homework questions and all their other "needs." But no. More multi-tasking, 7th grade Biology takes me away from the second half of "Dexter," 5th grade spelling (surprisingly difficult) comes before The Colbert Report. Also trying to read a book: "The Sound and the Fury", I get through about 3 pages per day.
9:30 Lights out when I drop "The Sound and the Fury" on my face for the 5th time. (Resounding defeat, same as every night, miserable, start over)