Even a Blind Squirrel

It was a morning of chaos. The routine chart on the wall is a big, fat joke.

Up by 7:15? Nope.

Out the door by 8:15? Not hardly.

All those show-offs who get their children to school on time – every blasted day! – have my admiration.

I have a Decision Making Deadline. No changes in the plan for the day after 8:20 am. At that point, no one may change his shoes, his shirt, his lunch choice, or anything else that requires last minute scrambling.

I was doing my “Out the door! Out the door! Out the door!” routine. It’s charming, really. In a frantic, frenzied way.

They sauntered to the van (their pace does not match my tone), and just before the door closed behind Tyler, he called my name. One more thing.

I was gathering the left-behinds (water bottles, fruit snacks, homework folders, etc.). He threw his blanket to me just as the door closed, and I caught it midair.

Click. The door closed.

Creak. The door opened.

“Tyler, I really need you to be in the car. What do you need, buddy?”

“Mommy! You caught my blanket! You have never caught anything, ever, in my whole life, and today you caught my blanket!” He beamed and sparkled.

I gathered the left-behinds and bent myself sideways to kiss his forehead.

“You’re right, sugar. Thank you for noticing.”

Jeremy says:

12 years ago

Two things:

1) So I’m usually good about getting out of bed in the morning. Of course, I don’t have two rascally sweet boys to round-up, but a 23 year-old boy in some cases can be just as bad, so I think I do okay. Today I overachieved…

I woke up this morning, showered, got dressed, at a banana, did my internet routine and left a little quicker than usual, determined to pick up a coffee on my way to the subway. Along the way a couple strange things caught my attention; there were more people out than usual, like a lot; it was slightly darker than usual too, but I guess 10 minutes earlier makes a difference?; wait, how come all the cafes are not open yet? Not one?

I checked my phone and read 2:45 am. I didn’t believe it at first, then it hit me that what I thought was my alarm was Dylan calling me on Skype. His call must have finished just as I woke up and in the haze(to be expected after waking up at 2:15) thought it was my alarm and I had turned it off. It wasn’t, so I chuckled(unable to get mad at such a drastic difference) and went back home to bed.

2) I feel it might be a little insensitive to compare this to drug addiction, but I missed like 4 blogs and reading them all back to back must have felt like a Speedball(Speed and coke, only from what I have heard I promise) feels to a retired junkie… It was glorious to read all the different styles in one go.

It would be nice to tell myself to do this more often, but frankly, when I know that any bit of my drug is available, I fiend for the slightest second and indulge.

This book might send me over the edge, Trish :-/