6:00: I am awakened
by Chuck and am almost immediately bright-eyed.
I go to bed much earlier now, than I used to. Alarm clocks are forbidden – Chuck wakes me
up at whatever time I ask. I know! How does he DO that? I wake up the
kids, get the kettle on and Sara joins me to go for the newspaper. The paper delivery guy is at the mailbox when
we get there and hands it straight to me. Breakfast, sack lunches, dishes.
7:00: I get a cup of
tea and Chuck’s vitamins ready for him before I leave. He pulls me in and whispers in my ear that he
loves me so much that I make him cry sometimes. It has been a long time since he has spoken
to me in this way, and I carry it with me for the rest of the day.
7:20: Out the door
and off to school. The sunrise has not
hit the canyon yet; but the Oquirr Mountains on the other side of the valley
are pink.
7:40: I drop Sara at
her middle school and then drive over to the church parking lot from which
Nathan’s bus will leave in about 45 minutes’ time. This has been awkward ever since the
divorce. His school starts more than an
hour later than Sara’s. Do I leave him
at home and go back for him? Waste of gas and time. Drop him off at his school? Too early.
The bus stop is so close that I can see his dad’s house while we sit
waiting. But it isn’t fair to the
custody agreement to drop Nate off and have him wait at his dad’s. We have a routine now: we both have our books and we read while we
wait. In the coldest part of winter, it
sucks and we freeze. Otherwise, it’s not
too bad.
8:20: Nate sees his
friend Ethan headed to the school bus stop and leaps from the car. They race every morning to see who will lead
the bus line. As soon as he has a
companion to wait with, I leave and go to the Rec Center.
8:50: It’s a
fat-burning day! This means I lounge on
the exercise bike, keeping my heart rate at a mellow 114 beats per minute. At that rate, I can read my book! For an hour!
YES! Today, I get a fair amount
of ribbing from the peddlers of the other bikes when I drop my book
spectacularly (lunging to catch it, missing so that it bounces off my finger tips and goes
flying, etc…). The old guy next to me
asks me please to do it again.
9:50: I’m reluctant
to stop reading; but my butt is sore from sitting on the exercise bike – and
it’s time for work. OK… I drive downtown.
10:15: I arrive at
work and transform myself from sweaty fat-burner to semi-groomed
semi-professional.
10:30: Unpack the
crate of work I took home over the weekend and start working on phone
calls: Will one sanitation company offer
me a lower price than the other to pump Chuck’s sewage holding tank? Can I persuade any of the commercial radio
stations to air a public service announcement, requesting volunteer
tutors? I have been working on one of
the local media conglomerates for several weeks, and am finally invited to come
to the corporate office to be interviewed by the producer of the X96 morning
show, “Radio from Hell”. I think that
the company will probably just interview me and air sound bites in the wee
hours of the morning. BUT! What if I am really hip and funny and the
producer of the morning show is entertained by me? Could I get some sort of morning show
exposure?
11:00: Time for
e-mail. The bottomless pit: teacher licensure questions; meetings to
schedule; Thanksgiving food donations; student payments for textbooks; ordering business cards; following up on
broken technology; volunteer recruitment; Sara’s English teacher. With interruptions to review the latest draft
of the rules for our childcare; giving teachers advice about which textbooks to
choose; interpreting Spanish / English at the reception desk. By the time I have finished scaling Mt.
E-Mail, it is...
1:30: OK, the main
event for today is supposed to be updating volunteer and student enrollment for
the new month. I start working on that,
with breaks in the action to deal with:
someone calling from Brigham City to find out whether there are English
classes up there; discussions about how to organize a baby board book lending
library for parents. And could I have my
picture taken leaning out of a school bus tomorrow? Sure.
2:45: A little lipstick.
I know I am backward about this; but I get prettied up before I go home,
rather than before I go to work. I want
to look nice when I walk in the door.
2:50: Time to pick up
the kids. Time for hectic, but of a
different sort.
3:20: Sara and Nate
are waiting behind Nathan’s school. Sara’s school lets out earlier, but I’ve
told her that she has to walk up to Nate’s school, and that I’ll pick them up
together.
Quick stop at their dad’s house, because Sara can’t find her
shin guards, then home. The house is
cozy and welcoming: my ginger chicken
has been bubbling in the crock pot since early morning; Chuck tosses another
log in the wood stove. I have about 30
minutes before I have to go out again, and daylight is at a premium, now; so I
head out into the yard, tossing my “dirt coat” over my work clothes. There isn’t much to do out there
anymore: oiling and stowing tools,
coiling hoses. Little things.
4:15: Time to drive
Sara to her soccer practice.
4:30: Drop off Sara
and boogie over to Blockbuster. Chariots of Fire for Monday Movie
Night. Chuck is on a “sports movie”
jag. I get home a little before 5:00. Just a few minutes to get a bunch of things
done. I kinda simultaneously get rice
water boiling on the woodstove, mop the upstairs floors and drill Nate on his
spelling. Chuck keeps his eye on the
rice and I leave again at 5:30 to go get Sara.
5:45: I pick up Sara
and we head home. Like many
thirteen-year-old girls, she is ready to talk about things on her own time
frame. The drive home was spent talking
about “cutting” among teenage girls:
“cutters” that she knows; their motivations; the dangers involved.
6:00: Ahhhh… Supper
was so delicious. Crock pot every
Monday! Talk about a time-saver! Supper table conversation also get a little
edgy: Aids; condoms; bodily fluids! Man! Dishes, ice cream. Chariots of Fire.
Late evening conversations with Chuck about firewood, sewage
removal, snow tires, whether or not I am sufficiently pretty for him. That’s a whole other blog entry…
A real slice of life. I liked it.
ReplyDeleteEnjoying your blog as I work my way backwards, one post at a time.
ReplyDelete