". . . little shall I grace my cause

In speaking for myself. Yet, by your gracious patience,

I will a round unvarnish'd tale deliver . . ."

(William Shakespeare's Othello, I.iii.88-90)

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Monday

From time to time some of my blogging friends post a round-up of a typical day. I haven't done it in a while, so here goes, in probably more detail than anyone cares to read. I can't help it. "Thorough" is my middle name.

5:00 Alarm. Snooze for 10 minutes, then up and at 'em. Sick 6-year-old hears me and calls; spend 15 minutes tending to him. Make coffee. Check email. Pour coffee. More email, blogs, headlines, Facebook. Cake for breakfast. Shower and get ready for work. Chat with husband on way out the door.

7:00 Drive to work. Listen to Don Wade and Roma interviewing Bill Kristol, then New Testament on tape, Matthew 12 & 13. Arrive at school, accompany freshman girls' chorus, have interesting discussion with choir and orchestra teachers about writing, English teaching, Strunk & White, George Orwell, and the TV series Glee (which I have not seen but which, from my colleagues' description, is no friend to music education or traditional values).

9:30. Leave work early to get home to sick child. Drive to junior college to pick up Trevor from math. Listen to Mancow and Cassidy interviewing the guy who wrote the article about the new series V being an allegory on the Obama administration. He says the former director has been fired and the show is going on hiatus to be retooled despite excellent ratings for the pilot. Hmmm, wonder why?

10:00 Pick up Trevor, who smilingly tells of his statistics teacher ranting against universal health care, the Great Society and the New Deal. ☺ Yes, there are some bright spots in academia. Discuss career/college options with Trevor on the drive home. Get home, check on Evan. 102 fever, Caitlin has given Motrin. No kindergarten today, student is still sick. Help Evan move to rec room sofa and watch Tom and Jerry DVD with him while checking email. DVD over, time to start lunch.

11:45 Lunch (fish sandwich) with Evan and Caitlin (Trevor is deep into chess study). Load and start dishwasher. Watch last 15 minutes of The Young and the Restless while tidying up bedroom. Wish Eric Braeden had not had a contract dispute and left the show. Pick up house, gather dirty clothes, fold towels, move socks to dryer, start another load. Call 5:30 piano student to see if she can come earlier since 4:00 student cancelled.

12:50 Turn on Fox News. Hillary's giving a speech at the Berlin Wall celebration. Turn it off. Maybe a nap? First Caitlin needs help with a math problem. Check on Evan. Playing quietly with drawing board--Motrin must be kicking in. Still thinking about that nap. Lie down & hope.

1:10 No nap. Evan's calling. Go see what he needs. He wants "Troll Attack" book he got for his birthday. Can't find book. Instead help him to start putting together castle Lego set he got for birthday. Help Caitlin with another math problem.

1:30 Lego set only halfway done, but need to leave to take Caitlin to day school for junior high choir, after school choir, and Mentor Night. Drop off Caitlin, go to allergist to get shot. Darn--meant to listen to last 10 minutes of Rush's show. Too late now. At doctor's office, push button to ride elevator but change mind and take stairs. Might be the only exercise I get all day. After shot, stop by Trader Joe's to pick up a few things on the way home. Business is brisk today! Stop at coffee bar for free sample. Do a little shopping, go back for another free sample. Do a little more shopping, resist urge to go back for a third free sample. Check out and head home. On the way listen to Roe Conn interview Pete Roskam about health care.*

3:00 Home. Check on Evan. Yay, Trevor helped him finish putting together Lego set. He is still doing okay, playing with his DS. Put away groceries, wash some dishes, take socks out of dryer and switch wet clothes over. Go outside to check mail--wow, it's getting cooler! Work on blog post and read & answer email. Teach piano students--only two since other two cancelled today.

6:00 No time to cook, must take Trevor to church for Mentor Night (high school youth mentoring Confirmation students). Drive through Taco Bell and get supper for everyone. Only $10.85! Drop off Trevor and food. Go back home and eat supper with Evan. More Tom & Jerry and computer time over a glass of Charles Shaw Shiraz. Glad I stopped at Trader Joe's!

8:30 Fever's up, time for more Motrin, stories, prayers. Feel better, honey. Chat with husband and teenagers, who have returned home from church. Get ready for bed. Sit in bed with husband watching the premier episode of V online. Yay, we can watch the next installment tomorrow night! Toward the end of the show, Evan calls. What's the matter, honey? Lonely. Promise to go back and lie down with him in 10 minutes when show is over.

11:00 Fall asleep with Evan while listening to Trevor practice the third movement of the second Rachmaninoff piano concerto.

Sometimes I wonder why I don't get more done. Looking back over this day there's so much that wasn't there (like piano practicing, personal reading, and more involvement in my teenagers' studies). But then I look at everything I did do. It was a lot. And not every day is like this. For example, tomorrow and Wednesday there are no classes at the high school. Yay! Two mornings at home! Maybe we'll start that new readaloud . . .

*All of these shows are broadcast on the Chicago talk station, WLS. I do like WLS, but one of the reasons I am listening to it so much these days is that the antenna on my van is broken (car wash) and it is one of the few stations I can get.

1 comment:

Ariel said...

V is going on hiatus? That's a shame. I didn't like the show as much as the original, but I at least wanted to see how it played out.

I agree with a lot of what that columnist wrote about the themes of the show. I think a lot of it is about right in the middle of a lot of turmoil happening in our everyday lives, people want some big huge "answer", no matter how improbable or how untested it may be. For a lot of people Barack Obama was that "answer".

I think it's kind of interesting, a group of people from my local congregation that I meet with periodically are going over The Shack (much to my distaste, but I figure for a free lunch every Wednesday I might as well grin and bear it), and I guess V has a lot in common with how I see The Shack--people are worried and disenchanted, and they want some kind of big sign that THEY can understand, saying "it's okay, something's out there". I think it's human nature to want that, but it's a fallible part of human nature.