Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Finding the Right Groove

Whew, Nelly!  It's late!  I'm listening to Bruce Springsteen singing:

Git out the way of Old Dan Tucker,
He's too late to eat his supper!

I've really struggled to write lately.  Sometimes I write entire blog entries that I don't publish.  Sometimes I start writing and am suddenly consumed by weariness.  I need to keep going and work my way through this monumental writer's block.  Unfortunately, this means that I may have to just...'blog some more, so see if I can find the stories I used to find so easily.

Eek!  What is I have a complex?  Do I need to be riled up in my mind in order to write? 

Trial and error.  First though, tea.

So, a day in the life of a single mom whose kids are out of school.

7:45 AM.  My alarm goes off.  I turn it off and surrender to the siren of sleep.  What did I think could possibly tempt me at this ealry hour?

9:00 AM.  I wake up on my own and realize that I have slept for ten hours.  Remember when I could thrive on almost no sleep at all?  Now I am a total sleep-tramp.  What's more, I don't even get up at 9:00 AM.  I doze and reflect on life, love and the universe until 10:00 AM.

10:00AM.  Enough of this!  Rise and shine.  Roust Nate, who has also been seduced by his mattress. Oatmeal for him.  Cheerios for me.  Tea all around.  I open my Salt Lake Tribune to this story.  Silvia Alfaro is a student in our Adult Education program.

I tidy up the apartment, run a load of laundry, and check the mail.  Newsweek again?!?  I did NOT subscribe to Newsweek.  Much as I like getting it, I suspect I will not enjoy paying for it. I call Newsweek and cancel the subscription (or whatever we want to call it...).  I text Sara's Girl Scout leader to find out where they are in their drive home from a weekend camping trip.  What should I make for supper?  Hmm... chicken soup?  I have some chicken that is getting a little freezer-burned around the edges... 

11:30 AM to Game Stop!  Game Stop!  Game Stop!  Game Stop!  Nathan has been a picture of helpfulness and compliance ever since Chuck told him yesterday about how he can take old games to Game Stop and trade them in for other games.  Best!  Thing! Ever!  (Emphasis Nate's, not mine...)

12:00 PM  Text coworkers Melanie (who is Silvia Alfaro's teacher) and Kristen (who helped Silvia pass her citizenship test) and let them know that Silvia is in today's Tribune.

To Smith's Marketplace, for which I have a gift card.  Time to buy an iron.  I realized that this morning when I looked in my chore basket and saw my unironed skirt in there.  I meant to take it up to Aloha Road and ask Cliff for the use of his iron, but I forgot.  I figured I would buy an iron and ironing board, but then I found the holy grail of laundry!  Finally, after much searching!  A drying rack!  Now, I have a drier, thanks to Chuck.  But a drying rack will do nicely for smaller stuff when the weather is  nice and will save me some pennies.  OK, but if I buy the iron and the drying rack, that pretty much uses all the money on the gift card.  What to do about the ironing board?  Nathan and I debate for a while.  Should I get one at the thrift store?  Will a thrift store ironing board be any good?  Why do people get rid of their ironing boards, after all?  Not because they have gone out of fashion, or they got a new and improved version for their birthdays.  In my opinion, people only throw out their ironing boards when here's something wrong with them.  Still...  OK, I will check Saver's for an ironing board.

As we leave Smith's Marketplace, Nate asks me where Saver's is.  "Oh, just a little way from here.  You can almost see it."  "Well, let's just walk down there."  As we walked along, he asked about why Silvia Alfaro is in the Tribune,and I told him all about the cheating, lying immigration lawyer who ripped her off.

At Saver's I buy a few picture frames for something like $4.  No ironing boards today.  Fate does not want me wearing that skirt right away, I guess.

1:15 PM - Drive back  home and make a little lunch.  I make a shopping list and do a few more little chores:  water plants, clean out the microwave. I am hating my sofa.  I detest the baggy, dingy slipcover almost as much as I loathe the ginormous holes in the upholstery.  Today I took the cover off and put it in the wash.  Then I looked at the holey sofa and thought: holes or no holes; I kind of like you better without the fucking slipcover.  I'm telling you:  this sofa is so bad that I often see sofas in dumpsters that would be an improvement.

2:30 PM - Sara is sin Scipio.  I get some frozen dough out to thaw and rise for rolls.  Fold a load of wash.  Change into my running clothes. 

2:45 PM - I go over to Cottonwood and run my favorite hill-route; mindful of the time, because I have to take Nathan to soccer practice at 4:00.

3:55 PM - I am very pleased with my timing as I pull in the driveway of the apartment complex  I won't be able to shower before I drive Nathan, but I should be able to take a quick hand bath and -

I get a text from Sara.  "Hi, I am at the Scout Leader's house.  Can you pick me up n 20 minutes?"  I am frustrated because the scout leader lives in Cottonwood, and I was within 100 yards of her house while I was running.  Now I am about 15 minutes away and I have another pressing engagement.  Wishing very much that they had told me that the plan was for mothers to pick up the girls rather then drop them off, I realize that I will have to drive all the way to Draper to drop Nate off for soccer practice, then drive to Cottonwood to get Sara, then return to Draper.  Oh, barf.  Can you hear the gas being slurped out of the tank?

Nate is not ready to go, despite the fact that, beofer I left for my run, I told him to pay attention to the time and be prepared.  I notice that his milky, empty cereal bowl in still on his bedroom floor, when I had admonished him to wash it up over an hour ago.  Despite the lateness, I sit on the end of my bed and tell him that we are going nowhere until his cereal bowl is washed up.

4:10 PM- I pull out with Nathan.  He remembers that he left his cleats in the apartment and has to go back for them.  I still managed to get him there on time somehow.

4:30 PM - Drop off Nate at soccer practice in Draper.  Back up to Cottonwood.  I knock at the screen door and Julia, the Scout Leader answers.  The girls are playing Wii downstairs. Julia is a major talker! She recounts some of the high points of the trip.  Do I have time to look at the photos?  "Well, actually, I still need to get groceries and make it back to..."  "Oh. that's right, you have a busy schedule," she says, getting out her camera regardless.  I love Julia and enjoy looking at her photos, but  the little voice in my head wants me to remember that we have a DEADLINE!  Yeah, yeah, OK.

Sara and I drive over to Macey's for groceries, then back to Draper.  The traffic is tight.  I am sweating it with the clock.  Again, though, I pull in at precisely 6:00 PM

Home.  Set Sara to unpacking and cleaning up her camping stuff.  Homework as well, while I bake the rolls and make soup.

7:30 PM - I text our friends Mike and Mark Wolf and ask them if they are ready to hang out.  We jump in the truck and drive up to the Avenues to see them.  Mike just got a driver's licence again, after working to recover from a brain injury.  We pile into his car and make him drive us to Hire's for root beer floats. 

9:30 PM - After stuffing ourselves with root beer floats and bullshitting for a long time, we figure we had better get home.  School tomorrow. 

10:00 PM.  Home sweet home.  Showers, sack lunches.  Kisses good night.  Accounts and bill-paying.

I have also been working on another piece of writing, to which I dedicated an hour or so.  And where are we now?  2:00 AM.  It doesn't mater that I just about slept the clock around last night, I am done in.  Night-night.

2 comments:

  1. I have to say something here because I don't want to say it in the Trib comments and get crucified. Those people are disgusting haters! All of them on all sides of the issue. I was physically ill after reading the comments there. New rule: no reading of comments on news sites.

    I'm glad you are sleeping lots. It's good for you! There is no such thing as truly thriving on little sleep. You might think you are, but you're fooling yourself. Sleep is always better.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree with Lillian. Are the Tribune comments an accurate representation of the degree of bigotry in SLC? If so, I feel sorry for you for having to live amongst those people!

    ReplyDelete