I am completely loving Scintilla! Psyched to be in week 2. Today's Scintilla prompt: What does your everyday look like? Describe the scene of your happiest moment of
every day.
I love reading
about people’s day-to-day lives, so that is how I am going to approach this
question. Now, when I am doing a show, my everyday life is different – there
would be three hours of rehearsal in the evenings. And now that I’m doing the
wretched 17 Day Diet, I am doing my cardio in the evenings instead of first
thing in the morning, like I typically do. Normally, at this time of year, I
would be getting up at 5:45, but now that I don’t have to squeeze in exercise, I
am getting up a little later. So here’s what a typical weekday in my life looks
like at the moment:
Alarm goes off at
6:30 a.m. I get up. Notice I didn’t say, “I wake up,” because I will already
have done that, usually because Jane has already asked me many, many questions.
Like how to spell something. Or what a penguin eats. Or to button up one of her
princess costumes. Or to help her in the bathroom. Yesterday I was so tired when
she came in to ask me how to write the letter “V,” for some reason my answer was
to “put some extra legs on it.” What does that even mean? Was I half-dreaming of
an octopus?
6:30-8 a.m.: Shower,
hair, makeup, iron something, get dressed. Get Jane dressed and fed. Feed myself
something protein-riffic (eggs). Make my salad and snacks for work. Deal with
some sort of drama. (Today it was because Jane didn’t like her waffles. She said
they were “brown, not yellow.” They were the same waffles she’s had for days.
She was bawling like a lunatic.) Let the dogs out. Call the dogs in. Call them
in again. Beg them to come in. Check them for ticks. Feed the dogs. Clean up any
of Jane’s small toys on the floor so the dogs don’t chew them. Sometimes pry a
toy out of Junior’s gaping maw. Get Jane’s supplies ready for school (today it
was her nap backpack, permission slip for a field trip, and weekly sticker
drop-off chart). Wake Greg up at some point. He gets ready in five minutes. By
the end of this morning routine I often feel like my head is about to explode,
and I haven’t even left for work yet. Take Tylenol.
8-8:30 a.m.: Strap
Jane into Greg’s car, and make sure she can see me waving to her, because she
REALLY NEEDS TO SEE ME WAVING TO HER or all hell breaks loose. They head off to
daycare. I drive to work with a stop at Au Bon Pain for coffee. Get to work at
8:30.
8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.:
Work. Marketing. Still adjusting to the part-time schedule, despite the fact
that I have been there for six months already. It still feels weird but I know
once Jane starts kindergarten (which is part-time in my town) in September, it
will be ideal. Going part-time while she was in the early years of school was my
goal since she was born because I wanted to be around more before and after
school, and I am extremely fortunate to have found a job in my field that I
really like that offers benefits with the hours I have. I am a lucky
ducky.
12:30-3 p.m.: Chores
– grocery store, Target, cleaning, blogging – stuff like that. Today I have to
go to the AT&T store to get help for my ailing Blackberry. Poor, poor little
Blackberry, how I abuse you. Again – once Jane is in school, this free time to
myself goes away. It feels so strange to have it in the first place – I feel
guilty that I have it– so I try to use it to get stuff done for the house
and the family. Of course, I do sometimes take the time to do me stuff – like
the lovely, lovely pedicure I got last Friday. And I also often take trips to
the library. I used to also often stop at Starbucks but my wretched diet won’t
let me do that right now. Eh – my wallet’s happy, anyway.
3-5 p.m.: I usually
pick up Jane around 3ish. When I started working part-time, I wanted to pick her
up earlier in the afternoon – but when I’m getting out of work, she’s settling
down for nap at school. Waking that girl up from nap is basically saying you
want to take a hellfire beast home for the afternoon. So, you know, to avoid
that, I pick her up after nap and snack, and if I’m running late, while
she’s outside in the playground with her friends. It’s a rough life for Jane,
obvs. Then we hang, play, go outside if it’s nice – you know. Kid stuff. On
Mondays like today, we go from school to dance class. She dances from 4:15-5
while I chat with the moms, and then we’re home by 5:30ish. Sometimes there is
post-class sticker crying drama (she didn’t get the sticker she wanted from the
teacher). I repeat: it’s a rough life for Jane.
5-8 p.m.: And here
comes another whirlwind timeframe. I make dinner for myself and Jane (sometimes
Greg is home in time, sometimes not). For me, at this point, it involves some
fish and salad most likely, and she eat typical kid stuff, like pasta and
chicken nuggets. Whatever she has, she adds a healthy dose of ketchup. Feed the
dogs. Let them out. After cleaning up from dinner, I get her into her bath,
which can last up to an hour, no lie. She had a swell time for herself in the
bath. While she’s in there (assuming Greg is now home), I go out walking. I live
in a hilly area, so power walking around here is for serious. I come home, if
Jane’s out of the tub I get her ready for bedtime if Greg hasn’t already, then
she plays and/or watches some shows (Dora, Diego, Backyardigans, Barbie and
the Magic of Pegasus and Barbie and the Magic of the Rainbow are
current faves). During this time I’m either reading or messing around on my
computer, although lately I’ve been going through our closets and drawers and
doing a massive purging, so I might also be doing something useful like that.
I’m a lot more inclined to get my ass off the couch now that it’s light out in
the evenings.
At 8 p.m. the epic
bedtime battle begins. Jane. Does. Not. Like. Going. To. Bed. She employs every
stalling tactic in the book – needs water, bathroom trip, an extra hug, and
extra kiss, needs to be tucked in, needs some crayons, needs five books, needs
five more books, is scared, needs room checked for dragons, monkeys and
dinosaurs, etc, etc, etc until forever. After she’s come out and I’ve gone in to
her room about one million times, she will fall asleep. Sometimes this is as
late as 10 p.m. It’s insane. (Can you see why I love escaping the madness for
rehearsals when I’m doing a show??)
During this time Greg
and I are messing around on our computers and/or watching the shows we actually
watch together, like The Daily Show, The Office, Modern Family, Up All
Night, or maybe a movie. I can tell you for sure we will be watching my
beloved MAD MEN when it returns on Sunday night -awwwww to the freaking
yeaaahhhhh. A couple of times a week Greg has band practice in our basement so I
read or watch the shows he hates (Survivor, Biggest Loser, Parenthood).
Right now I am reading The Submission by Amy Waldman, which is my book
club’s current read (my choice).
I usually fall asleep
with a book on my face around 10:30-11. I typically wake up three or four times a night.
These days, the
happiest moment of my day often happen when I secretly watch or listen to Jane
playacting. She has started to act out all of the movies or shows she watches
complete with props and cast (her stuffed animals) and I freaking love it. LOVE.
IT.
Fin.