A Day in the Life

I wrote this for my husband so he could see what Serious Girl and I were up to while he was away on business, but then parts of it struck me as funny, so I thought I'd share it here as well. Please note that this is not a completely typical day, because (1) we had our nanny ALL DAY which is extremely rare, (2) I had a writing class this evening, (3) we are in the middle of a personal bookkeeping overhaul, hence my focus on paperwork instead of job-hunting or writing. Note also that (2) and (3) explain (1).

7:00am: Wake up.

7:15am: Wake up again. Read emails in bed, on iPod.

7:30am: Feel bad about pile of unfolded laundry on bench under window. Start folding/pairing up Serious Girl’s socks.

8:00am: Serious Girl wakes up. Hugs, potty, milk, dramatic readings of Emma’s Turtle and Elephant & Piggie books, breakfast.

8:30am: Nanny is late. Get Serious Girl dressed, packed for playgroup. More books, multitasking computer work with Serious Girl sitting on lap or playing nearby with blocks.

9:00am: Nanny and Serious Girl leave for playgroup. Consider showering. Decide not to shower until after sweaty errands are done. Compose several emails on PC for ease of typing, save them, then send from iPad instead because PC cannot be trusted not to crash. Check plants: all are still moist from being watered by Nanny yesterday.

9:30am: Start going through papers looking for certain financial documents, doing basic reorganizing. Realize need to run sweaty errands now, because we need more printer paper.

10:00am: Take shirts to cleaner, including Husband's white shirt with weird black spots on back. Cleaner apologizes, says they are steamed-in specks of lint because her person failed to clean the shirt-pressing machine again. Go to Staples for printer paper, shredder. Checking out takes forever. Get rebate forms, refuse warranty on shredder. Realize that the reason I can refuse the warranty is because my other credit card offers warranty protection. Return items, repurchase on different credit card. Lug items home.

11:00am: Back home. Check email. Fight with new shredder, which does not want to power up. Eat breakfast: grapefruit from [not-so-local fruit market]. Realize belatedly that we have no grapefruit spoons. Fruit is delicious, but manage to get juice on otherwise clean shirt, in eye. Shower. Change shirt. Realize new shirt is basically see-through. Layer tank over it rather than change shirts again.

11:30am: Serious Girl gets home from playgroup. Hugs and kisses. Nanny shows me cell phone photos of Serious Girl playing in what appears to be a kid-sized silver convertible, possibly a BMW. Serious Girl likes cars. Commence paperwork; like the document review I did as a lawyer, but without promise of high paycheck.

12:00pm: Attempt to file Staples rebate online. PC crashes. Try again. Feel smug for remembering to claim rebate funds right away, but also feel like I’m turning into my mother.

12:30pm: Remember how much I hate document review; you never find what you’re looking for, and you never know what to do with what you find. Loving the new shredder.

1:30pm: Have done enough financial paperwork that we are [amount redacted] richer. While going through the old papers, find Staples rebate form that expired in 2009. Earlier smugness vanishes; realize that my mother never feels this way. Take break before my head explodes: put in load of laundry (darks, because Husband is almost out of socks). Eat random leftovers from fridge and call it lunch.

2:00pm: Take down stinking garbage from kitchen, which starts leaking furiously in the elevator. Take second trip to basement with recycling and smaller garbage from bathrooms, clean elevator floor during the ride down. Return to endless pile of papers in home office. Try not to cry. Handle a few more matters, then start cleaning up. Since about 1pm, Serious Girl has been napping, Nanny has been cleaning the bathrooms for us (no housekeeper this week), ironing, finishing the laundry I started, and making a batch of her famous black beans for Serious Girl.

2:50pm: Crap! We’re going to be late for ballet!

3:15-4:00pm: Ballet class. Serious Girl is the only kid who pays attention. She is very literal during the games they play in class: she chooses to eat yellow corn, be a black-and-white penguin, and drive a black car, when all other girls choose pink or rainbow-colored everything. She also chooses a green scarf and blue ball to do her ballet exercises with. When asked where she wants to fly today, she says “to Daddy!”

4:40pm: Arrive home after class. Eat fruit and frozen yogurt together to celebrate last day of class and acceptance to preschool. Let Serious Girl and Nanny read Shark vs. Train while I reenroll Serious Girl in ballet, one level up, for the coming fall.

5:00pm: Nanny and Serious Girl head to playground. Finish cleaning up/organizing paperwork, finish putting away the folded laundry from this morning, pack bag for tonight’s writing class. Remove toddler ballet shoes, socks, hairbrush, sippy cup, and stuffed Backyardigan from my purse.

5:35pm: Leave house to meet fellow lawyer-writer so she can drive us to tonight’s writing class. Find Serious Girl in playground for kisses before I leave. She asks if I have to go to school, gives me a big hug, then goes back to playing the "wow, that's slippery!" game on a sandy slope.

6:30-10:00pm: Writing class, “Funny is the New Deep” with Steve Almond. Take copious notes so that I might be able to blog about the class days later when I finally have time.

10:30pm: Arrive home, thanks to lift from my lawyer-writer friend. Listen to friend's lawyer woes on the way home; unemployment suddenly feels awesome. Print out boarding passes for Nanny’s vacation (which starts tomorrow), register her international travel with the State Department, photocopy her passport & itinerary for security. Provide her with snacks for tomorrow’s stressful last-minute packing.

11:30pm: Buy Amtrak tickets for travel to NYC tomorrow. Write blog post. Decide not to bother looking for photo to go with the post, because I'm tired, and I still have to put away the ironed and folded clothes our Nanny handled while I was in writing class.

12:00am: Sleep.