4 September 2012

A typical day or atypical day?

Wake up, offer very minimal help to getting the child off to school--lunches are already made, I just forgot to lay out clothes. Since I don't have to drive her now, my day is so different. Get back in bed, write a book review. Decide I must get dressed and walk the dog now that it is already 10.

Get dressed, walk dog. Plan day; not only this day, but plan to adopt a more rigid schedule, one with timers. Two hours for this, two hours for that, see, you can be productive I tell myself. Decide what needs to be done today. The paperwork for my mother's estate, can't keep procrastinating, it is due soon. But laundry, there is so much of it, the counter in the laundry room now has a pile above my head, and like a gold mine, the efforts at getting a pair of underwear for the kids takes more work and yields crappier results with each sifting.

Come back in house, carry a giant armful of laundry to the living room, dump it on the man's chair. I am declaring my absolute intention to deal with laundry by doing this. Now it has to be folded today, it's on his sitting place. Think about how it's too bad the second season of Downton Abbey isn't on Netflix, otherwise I'd get all the laundry folded. Feel guilty about estate paperwork, stop myself from running upstairs to get it. Tell myself sternly, no, two hours for laundry, then you can work on paperwork.

Turn and see counter across from chair, it is full of papers, they are messy. Decide to shred the man's trash papers in his "for the shredder" pile. Throw away some of my own papers--not all of them, naturally not. Find paper that needs to be mailed or turned in by Thursday. Decide to mail it today even though it may not make it by Thursday, and then I will have to explain I decided to mail it on Tuesday, when I am seeing the person face-to-face on Thursday.

Go to drawer to get pen to fill out paper. Can't find pen? Why not, I have plenty of office supplies in bags on top of the counter, but can find nothing in the drawer. It hasn't been cleaned in 5 years. Decide it absolutely must be cleaned now. NOW! Start pulling everything out and setting it on the kitchen table. Imagine the categories into which I will sort these things, imagine which can be thrown away. Find pen. Fill out paper, get purse from car, write check. Look for address for envelope. Can't find address. It must be in a directory upstairs in the computer room, where the Estate paperwork is. Suddenly realize that going upstairs is an anathema, it somehow blasphemes all that is holy in the world. I can't go upstairs! I had to physically restrain myself from running up earlier, but now, no. Can't do it!

Look on phone for address. It's not there. Think about checking computer. No, no way, if I log onto computer, that is the ABSOLUTE END OF THE DAY! Check e-mail on phone for roster. No, still no address. Google it. OK, there it is. Wait, is that the right address, I thought that was whatshername's, not so-and-so's. Consider running upstairs for directory. Nope, still an evil choice. Boot up computer.

Find whatshernames address--oh, see, very similar, not the same. Decide google address for so-and-so is correct. Fill out envelope, put on stamp. Again consider it will just be quicker to hand it in face-to-face on Thursday. Go to mailbox anyway, so I don't lose the paper before then. Which, you know, could easily happen.

Somewhere in all of that prepare and pour a cup of coffee. Look at mess of drawer on table and start sorting. Paper clip pile, safety pin pile, eraser pile, pen cap pile--why so many pen caps? I don't know. I think their pens are gone, but I decide to keep the caps for the time being, until I'm done sorting. Throw a small amount away. Coffee is now cold.

Look at bedragged laundry on chair. Think about how it and all the rest of the laundry still in the laundry room needs to be folded. Sit down and drink coffee and go on computer. Get up and throw a few things away from the pile, because I can see them staring at me. Look at rest of mess, knowing I will probably cram most of it back in the drawer. Write this blog post while drinking coffee. Decide to leave out many pronouns and articles for no apparent reason.

Now it's noon, yay, I can finally eat breakfast! Decide to drink more coffee and catch up on SongPop first.