Today was one of the good days. A day when everything just flowed, there were no snags or snafus, and I actually crossed most of the things off of my to do list. (Actually, to be technical about it, I bitch slapped that list into next week, where it now lies, dizzy and shaking it's head).
Today, Gung-ho, almost a responsible Adult Jamé woke up and kicked ass and didn't bother taking names. On other days, Slacker Jamé loafs out of bed...and that's generally as far as she gets. It was such a successful day that I want to write about it, but just writing about it from my perspective would be boring. So this will be a two part post (and no, I won't make everyone wait a month between posts either). Tonight's post will be from my perspective; tomorrow's will be a typical day as I imagine Kaeden sees it. Complete with pictures, tears, snot, and throwing food in Momoma's car. Without further ado....
I love our new blackout curtains, I really do. We've been here three weeks now, but yesterday was the first time we actually went shopping and remembered to pick up a curtain rod, because I've learned that curtains cannot be hung without a curtain rod. It's like they go together, or something. But I love curtains (and curtain rods) because with my crazy, cram hours in whenever Tristan is home to babysit schedule, I catch sleep whenever I can, which is often in the middle of the day, when it's hottest and brightest out. My body clock is set firmly to the sun, so I had to do some fairly interesting things to be able to sleep BC-before curtains. I'd reverted to the survival techniques I used while dying in Florida (to this day I disagree with my parents that THAT was a good idea), namely taking a cold shower, cold as I could stand, then hiding under the covers until I fell asleep and started to thrash around from being too hot. Needless to say, I've not been the best rested these past few weekends.
But curtains! With black out curtains, I can fool my stubborn clock into thinking that 11am is really 11pm and it's really time to just conk off now! I love sleep and so, I love my curtains. That is one reason today started off wonderfully. I was able to sleep yesterday after my 12am-10am shift ended, so when I crawled into bed (not really as quietly as I could, I HAD to brush my teeth) at 2am, I was ready for bed, but not falling over drunk with exhaustion (a state I only like to visit after a day putting up hay or logging with horses). Tristan was nice enough to let me sleep in until he had to leave for school at 10, so I spent eight blissful, uninterrupted, quiet hours, sleeping the sleep of the just-the just plain happy.
My wake up consisted of the typical soft shoulder rub and Tristan's insistent voice-he had to leave for class, you know, and if he's not out the door by 10:05 he breaks out in hives-and the kid hauling himself onto the bed and Maggie following.
So I got up and felt human for once, and all Tristan asked me to take care of that day was the laundry and the dishes. I didn't stop there. I switched the laundry then plopped Kaeden in his tower in the kitchen with snacks in front of him within 10 minutes of Tristan's leaving for class-I didn't even bypass my computer, which is usually a good 30 minute time suck at least. I tackled the previous nights dishes to my current favorite song, Flo-rida's "Whistle", while Kaeden showed me his dance moves with Nilla wafers sticking out of his mouth. I set the dog meat to defrost in the sink and stuck the sweet potatoes and yams in the oven before setting Kade in front of my computer and Skyping his GT for her morning break, where he showed her more of his dance moves and his ability to do things to my computer I hadn't thought possible, like opening 100 Chrome windows. Maggie, of course, hid under my desk, randomly releasing those farts that make me want to dive out the nearest window, a trait unique to the boxer breed, or so I've been told.
Exhausted from a morning of dancing and shoving things in his mouth, Kaeden went to his nap with a sigh of relief and a thumb in his mouth, freeing me....to sit in front of my computer and play a game of Tetris. Okay, it was three games, but only because I kept loosing (my fingers were not warmed up).
Eventually, the bill that my parents had shoved in front of my face during our last Skype over the weekend intruded on my happy brainless Tetris game, so I sighed and, with a 20 minute phone call, updated my address so the Feds could find me to pound money out of me and got my loans in deferment-again. I really hope that I can start paying those suckers off by the time I'm 30. Or so. I also got out budget all shined up, current, and sad looking as always, got a meal list planned for the week, the bill calendar filled in, some paperwork for work sent in, the laundry folded and put away, my lunch eaten, the back yard picked up, the floors cleaned and the dog food made-all before Kaeden started kicking the back of his crib, a sure sign of his wakefulness.
In the next half hour, I managed to pack the diaper bag, load the car full of dog, kid, recycling, paperwork, water, and myself and head off to take care of the errands that required me to venture off into the world. We dropped the recycling off at the transfer center (sadly our landlords pay for trash but have no curbside recycling set up) drop off the needed paperwork at the state offices and crossed my fingers that Kaeden and Tristan will get health insurance and we'll get SNAP benefits (again...I feel a little deja vu here) and made it to the dog park in Medford, the only place I know safe to let Maggie off leash for the first time. We also had to evaluate how Maggie was with other dogs, and she passed with flying colors. She's quite the submissive one, but friendly and thrilled to be able to frolic and explore and play and sniff butts. So many butts to sniff! Kaeden played in the water and walked around with his hands out, pointing at the dog nearest him, asking me "Pup? Pet put put pet pepput?" which roughly translates to "PLEASE I WANT TO PET THE PUP!" or climbing into other people's lap, which meant I had to blush and go redirect him while other people looked awkward-because while it's weird to have some random toddler climb into your lab and demand attention, it's also hard to feel mad when it's my son involved.
We only stayed for an hour until it was time to go home for dinner and work again, but on our way out I grazed on the black berry bushes lining the path back to the car. I used it as bribery to get Kaeden to walk to the car, then I handed him the berries once he crawled into his car seat. He stuffed all 10 berries into his mouth like a starving chipmunk. Kid digs black berries.
Back at home I was again pretty much on my own, as Tristan had locked himself inside the office to freak out about his math homework. I made a *completely nutritious and delicious* utterly fake meal of mac and cheese and hot dog. Everybody ate it up like it was crack, which I'm pretty sure it is. I haven't fed this meal in almost a year, but it seemed perfect for today, and required a lot less effort than, I don't know, anything remotely healthy.
As I lolled around in post cheesy bliss, watching Kaeden chase the dog around with his lawn mower and trying to get up the energy to tell him to not do that, Kaeden started screaming his head off because he couldn't get the thing outside into our backyard. This was my cue that it was bedtime and past bedtime, so I scooped him up and determined he was clean enough to pass by a bath by sticking my face in his belly and figuring he didn't stink that badly. We settled down in the recliner in his room and I sang to him-all I know are camp songs-until he passed out on me, thumb in mouth, blankie in one hand, one arm around my neck.
As you can see, I didn't die from the overwhelming cuteness and rightness of it all....but only because who would want to give that up?
I even managed to do the dinner dishes and give Maggie her treat and pick up the toys strewn everywhere in the house before I had to be at work in 20 minutes. Booyah!
Here's to hoping that I have this kind of day tomorrow:
Instead of this kind of day:
The plan is go hiking at Prescott Park today after nap time, then hit the library. I'm going a little stir crazy, and as it's summer all of my favorite shows don't come back until September and I have yet to find a good new series that really captures my attention. I feel the need, the need to read!
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