Our nanny called in sick yesterday. I felt like a She-Woman (think gender equal of He-man circa 1988) after making it through the day. Maybe it’s more, She-Ra. Between the hours of 7:50am when I got the call and 5:50pm when I sat down to dinner with my little boys I :
- Kissed the husband goodbye.
- Convinced Grandma to watch O for the day.
- Packed up O’s things, along with the dog, threw them (okay not really) in the car.
- Got F ready.
- Dropped L (the dog) & O (the boy) both off at Grandma’s house.
- Took F to day number 2 of preschool. He clung, cried, clawed for me to stay. Heart-breaking.
- Arrived at Children’s by 9am. Thank you very much. I take a bow.
- Finally published a blog post on chlorine, drowning, swimming lessons, and my opinions on a bad study.
- Returned e-mails. Many.
- Realized I forgot my Iphone at home. Then realized I sat at a desk for the day that had no phone.
- Realized I was nearly undetectable for a few hours. Motivating. Got work done.
- Called Grandma to make sure O was okay, informed her I had no phone or pager on.
- Went to a local radio station downtown and recorded public service announcements. This only after my genius decision to have milk for lunch for the first time in 2 decades. Cleared my throat an extra 12 times while recording.
- Returned more e-mails, went to meetings.
- Corrected spelling mistakes. Note: spell check has officially ruined the spelling cul-de-sac that once existed in my brain.
- Picked up F. Hurrah!
- Picked up O at Grandma’s. Double Hurrah!
- Picked up L (the dog). Woof.
- Arrived home and made dinner for the boys. Annie’s Mac & Cheese, broccolini, ham, palm hearts, apple, and avocado. Yes, this felt gourmet under the circumstances.
And yes, I am patting myself on the back.
I do feel as though it would have been easier to lift up the left corner of our house for 3 minutes.
Luna (the dog) turns Cringer, then Battle Cat(Dog). The Husband turns He-Man.
You know you have your He-Man-She-Woman-She-Ra equivalent moments, too. When no one else knows what a Herculean task it was just to get your body to work. Some morning disaster like kid vomit or car breaks down or car won’t start or no milk in house or no child care or kid spits up on the first 2 outfits you put on or power out or ice storm car door sealed shut or phone call with bad news or ummm, I dunno, the dog ran off. But you find your Master of the Universe from within and you triumph, arriving at work on time. Or at a reasonable time. You slip in, grab your pencil and put your head down as if it were nothing. As if you’d had a long shower, a nice breakfast, read the paper, sipped a cappuccino, and strolled into work while chatting on the phone. Yup. You got ’em fooled.
Hopefully, me too.
rick dekoven says
zeke remembers He-Man-he and his big brother-father of four and celebrating the saints win cause he lives in louisianna where their mom is from-they were both very into He-Man and comic books-there use to be a comic book store at the end of our street and when zeke was seven he entered a comic-book art contest judged by the pencil artist for X-Factor-looks like a relative of wolverine-the next youngest entrant was 20-zeke’s age now-and Zeke won cause he is a crazy gifted illistraitor and when he was showing his work to the comic book artist he had a story about each character-what happens to the wonder and artist and imagination in us as we “grow-up”? – also, could not agree more about the article mis- used- a common trait of too many construction workers i run into but we can do our part to help end it
Margo says
Love this post for a few reasons. 1. It is so nice to see I’m not the only one running around like a chicken with my head cut off. Success on a weekday = The kids get to school on time (with lunches actually in their backpacks instead of left on the kitchen counter for the cats to gut while we’re all out of the house) and navigate all of the after school activity pick-up and drop-offs…all while working full time. I’ve really done well if I manage to get a yoga class in at some point before bed. 2. My 2nd grade alter ego was She-Ra. I’m sure this was annoying to both my parents and teacher. But now I realize as an adult I have actually become her (minus the sweet outfits and weapons). Maybe I could pull off sporting the cape in my yoga class….