Tuesday. October 16, 2007 .
I woke up Tuesday and got to hug my friend Debi good bye. She and I had been out until 11 the night before, to see Henry Rollins speak at the First Avenue Club in Minneapolis, and had stayed up another hour after that, just talking. She had to sleep on the couch because a CAT was getting prefenential treatment and getting the guest room. Our cat-owning friend is back in the psych ward again, our other friend who often takes the cat most of the time is out of town, and we have to keep the cat in there, out of the way, because my husband is so horribly allergic we shouldn't be taking the cat at all. So that room is kind of stuffy and cat-boxy these days.
Every Tuesday morning at 10:00 am, now, I have to give a 2 hour web seminar regarding proper use of our software to any customer who wishes to log on and attend. The pressure is on, because these web seminars are recorded, and posted on the company web site for anyone who would like to watch and listen in , later. As usual, it went just-ok, those in attendance didn’t say much, so it’s a lot like talking to an empty room for 2 hours , and only after I hung up and thought some more did I suddenly remember a few more points that I really should have included.
Then, that afternoon, three employees of a customer of ours, who I know well, who I flew to California and visited in person (under duress) last summer, basically called me up together and accused me of not following through on several recent problems, in spite of email proof , including replies from some of them, themselves, that yes of course I had. They wasted probably about an hour of my time. I had countless other things I could have done with that time at work that I really needed to get to.
My son’s swimming lesson was 6:40 to 7:10, but he had Scouts 7:00 -8:00, just less than 6 blocks away from swimming..
We needed laundry done, at the laundromat, because the spin cycle has stopped working, on our washer, and my husband needed to return some Lions Club cooking trays of some kind to a Fydors grocery store in Mounds View.
So we came up with this. At 6:30, after dinner, which I cooked while trying to encourage our son to finish his math homework now because we wouldn’t have time later tonight, I would take our son to swimming, and my husband would return his Lions Club items to Fydors, in the opposite direction. He would then meet me at swimming, we would trade off our son. He would take our son swimming, and I would take the laundry out of his car and take it to the laundromat. We would meet at home, later.
And yes, it would have probably been slightly more efficient for me to be the one to take him to Scouts late and my husband to do the laundry. But I prefer my husband to accompany our son to Boy Scouts. He 's the one who signed him up for it, he was in Boy Scouts himself as a child. And he hates the laundromat. So he can be Scouts, I'll be laundry.
So I’m at swimming, on the parents bench, watching my 8 year old son open up, grinning, bobbing up and down, enjoying the water, and just beaming, he loves swimming so much. I wish we’d known this years ago. So I’m breathing a temporary sigh of relief because I don’t have to do anything for up to the next half hour or until when ever my husband gets her to trade off with me. And the dreaded incident happened, one of the other parents, sitting next to me, actually wants to talk to me. It usually starts out ok, but then they go on to brag about juniors accomplishments in sports and school and sometimes even church. The last one who did this to me at swimming had already decided which advanced placement high school her 5 year old was going to go to, 10 years from now. Apparently, I’m the first person to inform her that the high school she thinks she’s decided on now could quite possibly not even exist 10 years from now. 10 years from now is a long time!
So, anyway Swimming Mom pretty much started out by listing all her scheduled events for the day, and the ones she needed to do after this one. A novel approach. I actually thought it was kind of refreshing I admitted to her that my day was similar and that my husband and I had to plan this hand off so he could take our son to Scouts and I could do laundry. Well maybe it was the word “husband” that set her off, but from there on it was the lament of the single full-time working, part-time student, mom who can’t collect child support blah blah blah. The “martyr” one-upmanship parental conversation, as opposed to the “above average child” parental one-upmanship conversation. I should have seen it coming. I really should.
So my husband shows up, all stressed out, just before swim class was over. He’d got lost on the way to Fydors, and couldn’t find it.. Those Lion’s Club heating trays were still in his car. I said good bye to Pouty Mom, thank heavens. And I escaped. To my husband’s locked car, with the laundry inside! Then I remembered I do have a key to his car. But for some reason, my key set off his car alarm! So there I am pulling a tall basket of filthy laundry out of the back seat of a car whose car alarm is going off in the middle school parking lot, and putting it in my car. Where’s Ms. Single Pouty Mom so I can show her the glamor of married life now??
It occurs to me to just drive off and let my husband come back to a car with its alarm going off. He’s the one who locked his car knowing I needed to get something out of it. Does he really thing someone wants to steal our laundry? Let them! But I feel sorry for all the neighbors and also I don’t want anyone to call the police. I go back in to the school. Way down the hall. Ask my husband for the remote, on his key ring. He gives it to me. I go back out, and aim the remote at his car , once I’m close enough. The noise stops. I go back in to the school. Way down the hall. Give him back his keys. By this tiem our son is dressed and we can all go back out in the parking lot together. Why did I bother ?
And on our way back to our cars, I just pass another parked car in the parking lot. I didn’t even touch it. And its car alarm goes off! Honk ! Honk! Honk! My husband points his remote at this total strangers car, and his remote works to turn off some total stranger’s car alarm!
I go to the bank. Park. Walk in the doorway where the ATM USED TO BE! Now it’s a drive through. When I didn’t have a car I hated it when the only ATM was a drive through. It makes you have to walk through a drive through! So I got back in my car , drove through to the ATM. Which is still a little bit ridiculous for me. To use any kind of drive through I have to stop, park, roll down my window, and often open my car door, and stand one foot on the ground outside my door, to make my arms long enough to reach. Backtracked and went back to the laundromat and successfully did two loads of laundry. And also found some fast food meal toys in the laundry hamper.
I got home in time to see my husband pulling out of our driveway shortly before 9 pm. He didn’t have to explain to me he’d just got back from taking our son to Scouts and was now taking his Lion’s Club items and his newly Mapquested directions back to Fydors. About 15 minutes later he was back. Fydor’s was closed. Try again tomorrow. And our son had cried all through Scouts. He was too tired. It's a good thing our daughter didn't have anything that night.
There was nothing particularly unusual about this day. It just go to me, more than usual.
I woke up Tuesday and got to hug my friend Debi good bye. She and I had been out until 11 the night before, to see Henry Rollins speak at the First Avenue Club in Minneapolis, and had stayed up another hour after that, just talking. She had to sleep on the couch because a CAT was getting prefenential treatment and getting the guest room. Our cat-owning friend is back in the psych ward again, our other friend who often takes the cat most of the time is out of town, and we have to keep the cat in there, out of the way, because my husband is so horribly allergic we shouldn't be taking the cat at all. So that room is kind of stuffy and cat-boxy these days.
Every Tuesday morning at 10:00 am, now, I have to give a 2 hour web seminar regarding proper use of our software to any customer who wishes to log on and attend. The pressure is on, because these web seminars are recorded, and posted on the company web site for anyone who would like to watch and listen in , later. As usual, it went just-ok, those in attendance didn’t say much, so it’s a lot like talking to an empty room for 2 hours , and only after I hung up and thought some more did I suddenly remember a few more points that I really should have included.
Then, that afternoon, three employees of a customer of ours, who I know well, who I flew to California and visited in person (under duress) last summer, basically called me up together and accused me of not following through on several recent problems, in spite of email proof , including replies from some of them, themselves, that yes of course I had. They wasted probably about an hour of my time. I had countless other things I could have done with that time at work that I really needed to get to.
My son’s swimming lesson was 6:40 to 7:10, but he had Scouts 7:00 -8:00, just less than 6 blocks away from swimming..
We needed laundry done, at the laundromat, because the spin cycle has stopped working, on our washer, and my husband needed to return some Lions Club cooking trays of some kind to a Fydors grocery store in Mounds View.
So we came up with this. At 6:30, after dinner, which I cooked while trying to encourage our son to finish his math homework now because we wouldn’t have time later tonight, I would take our son to swimming, and my husband would return his Lions Club items to Fydors, in the opposite direction. He would then meet me at swimming, we would trade off our son. He would take our son swimming, and I would take the laundry out of his car and take it to the laundromat. We would meet at home, later.
And yes, it would have probably been slightly more efficient for me to be the one to take him to Scouts late and my husband to do the laundry. But I prefer my husband to accompany our son to Boy Scouts. He 's the one who signed him up for it, he was in Boy Scouts himself as a child. And he hates the laundromat. So he can be Scouts, I'll be laundry.
So I’m at swimming, on the parents bench, watching my 8 year old son open up, grinning, bobbing up and down, enjoying the water, and just beaming, he loves swimming so much. I wish we’d known this years ago. So I’m breathing a temporary sigh of relief because I don’t have to do anything for up to the next half hour or until when ever my husband gets her to trade off with me. And the dreaded incident happened, one of the other parents, sitting next to me, actually wants to talk to me. It usually starts out ok, but then they go on to brag about juniors accomplishments in sports and school and sometimes even church. The last one who did this to me at swimming had already decided which advanced placement high school her 5 year old was going to go to, 10 years from now. Apparently, I’m the first person to inform her that the high school she thinks she’s decided on now could quite possibly not even exist 10 years from now. 10 years from now is a long time!
So, anyway Swimming Mom pretty much started out by listing all her scheduled events for the day, and the ones she needed to do after this one. A novel approach. I actually thought it was kind of refreshing I admitted to her that my day was similar and that my husband and I had to plan this hand off so he could take our son to Scouts and I could do laundry. Well maybe it was the word “husband” that set her off, but from there on it was the lament of the single full-time working, part-time student, mom who can’t collect child support blah blah blah. The “martyr” one-upmanship parental conversation, as opposed to the “above average child” parental one-upmanship conversation. I should have seen it coming. I really should.
So my husband shows up, all stressed out, just before swim class was over. He’d got lost on the way to Fydors, and couldn’t find it.. Those Lion’s Club heating trays were still in his car. I said good bye to Pouty Mom, thank heavens. And I escaped. To my husband’s locked car, with the laundry inside! Then I remembered I do have a key to his car. But for some reason, my key set off his car alarm! So there I am pulling a tall basket of filthy laundry out of the back seat of a car whose car alarm is going off in the middle school parking lot, and putting it in my car. Where’s Ms. Single Pouty Mom so I can show her the glamor of married life now??
It occurs to me to just drive off and let my husband come back to a car with its alarm going off. He’s the one who locked his car knowing I needed to get something out of it. Does he really thing someone wants to steal our laundry? Let them! But I feel sorry for all the neighbors and also I don’t want anyone to call the police. I go back in to the school. Way down the hall. Ask my husband for the remote, on his key ring. He gives it to me. I go back out, and aim the remote at his car , once I’m close enough. The noise stops. I go back in to the school. Way down the hall. Give him back his keys. By this tiem our son is dressed and we can all go back out in the parking lot together. Why did I bother ?
And on our way back to our cars, I just pass another parked car in the parking lot. I didn’t even touch it. And its car alarm goes off! Honk ! Honk! Honk! My husband points his remote at this total strangers car, and his remote works to turn off some total stranger’s car alarm!
I go to the bank. Park. Walk in the doorway where the ATM USED TO BE! Now it’s a drive through. When I didn’t have a car I hated it when the only ATM was a drive through. It makes you have to walk through a drive through! So I got back in my car , drove through to the ATM. Which is still a little bit ridiculous for me. To use any kind of drive through I have to stop, park, roll down my window, and often open my car door, and stand one foot on the ground outside my door, to make my arms long enough to reach. Backtracked and went back to the laundromat and successfully did two loads of laundry. And also found some fast food meal toys in the laundry hamper.
I got home in time to see my husband pulling out of our driveway shortly before 9 pm. He didn’t have to explain to me he’d just got back from taking our son to Scouts and was now taking his Lion’s Club items and his newly Mapquested directions back to Fydors. About 15 minutes later he was back. Fydor’s was closed. Try again tomorrow. And our son had cried all through Scouts. He was too tired. It's a good thing our daughter didn't have anything that night.
There was nothing particularly unusual about this day. It just go to me, more than usual.
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