Here's how weekdays go at Chez GamersBabes. Example, this morning, May 21, 2018:
5:50: Make sure fifteen-year-old is awake so she can get ready for school. She takes the bus, and a trusted neighbor with a kid in the same school drives them both to the bus, as it's almost a mile on a country road with no sidewalks. At least this time of year I don't have to worry about it being dark, too, though there's always that niggling back-of-the-mind concern about them getting shot at school, these days. Yes, she can get up and going by herself, but the couple of times she has overslept her alarm made an impression; it's a pain to get her to school if she does this. And I was pretty sure she wouldn't have slept well, as she had a callback for a part at Studio East yesterday and was having trouble settling down last night.
Attempt to go back to sleep, but don't really relax enough to do so until front door slams on her way out. You have to slam it if the lock is engaged, so if I don't hear that slam by 6:25, I go out and check it. She's only forgotten once.
7:45: Get up and make sure ten-year-old is awake and moving. She needs more help, as she is a creature of routine, so we lay out her clothes the night before, in the proper order. From bottom to top of the pile, this is: top or dress, undershirt, socks (or tights if she's wearing a dress), pants or skirt (or modesty shorts if she's wearing a dress but not tights), undies. That way they're in the correct order for putting on in the morning. Today is a red striped top, black pants, pink and black socks (her choice, folks, not mine), and the underwear. She had a shower yesterday so she doesn't need one until tonight or tomorrow.
Mondays she has PE, so it's not a dress or skirt day, and - thank the god(s) of your choice - she's buying lunch today, so we don't have to negotiate that. But also, today is SBA (state testing), so she didn't sleep well; in fact she came out of her room at nine last night to inform me she was panicking a little because she couldn't sleep and testing is today. This is after telling me that this was the easy part of the test, because the writing portion is Tuesday, and she hates writing, but Tuesday is also Music, and she loves Music, so they should balance out. Plus on Tuesday, because it's Music and not PE, she can wear a dress, which makes her feel more confident. So it should really balance out, right, Mom? Right.
Also, today she informs me that she needs a "bigger breakfast than usual" (I don't starve her, I swear it, but it's sometimes a challenge to get her vegetarian self enough protein in the morning). So today she had oatmeal with nuts and berries, a banana, and some cheese. She says her plate looks like "a Cyclops talking on the phone," so we're all good.
I have coffee with creamer and a banana. I'm out of yogurt, and we used up our boiled eggs yesterday. The cottonwood is drifting like snow out there, so I should probably stay away from my allergens (like whey) anyway; why tempt fate?
8:45: Ten-year-old gets off to school, and Mom gets moving on her own stuff. I empty, reload, and run the dishwasher. The not-dishwasher-safe things are washed. I make a huge pot (gallon and a half) of iced tea (several tea bags, a ripe strawberry, half a cup of sugar, and a bit of lemon juice). Boil a dozen eggs in the Instant Pot. Throw in a load of laundry, as I didn't get all of it done Sunday with other things going on. Make ice and leave the trays out so I can rinse them before I make more. Make my first run of the day through LinkedIn. Nothing new, but then it's barely nine on a Monday on my coast.
Run through Facebook. Block someone making racist and misogynist comments on a friend's wall. Snooze someone who thinks that school shootings are because of medication for depression; wish that everyone in the country could take a Logic 101 class and learn the difference between correlation and causation. Commiserate with a friend who is having a "my baby is growing up" moment. Friend someone who really likes the profile pic I designed (I had stickers made!). Get the heck away from Facebook for the morning, because between the constant school shootings and Mad (in more than one sense) President Tweets and picking apart the royal wedding, I need a break.Start writing a blog post.
10:45(ish): Lookit that, I'm almost ready to post. Cool. Now, for the rest of my day, I will write textbroker articles (probably netting me a grand total of ten bucks for the day), continue the job search now that the job market has had its coffee, fold the laundry that I threw in, empty the dishwasher, do some tidying up, figure out how to hang up Lizzy's chalkboard in her room, figure out how to hang a pretty ornament thing she got from her grandma, and work on organizing the shed a bit (if I can take the pollen count). I'll get a shower in at some point; my water heater is not capable of showers and the dishwasher at the same time. Lunch somewhere in there. At 4:15 I get Lizzy from the bus and go to my mom's for dinner. Vegetarian tostadas, yum!
A day in the life. I'm unemployed. I'm fat. But I'm not (although I have my moments) lazy.
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