Time's A-Wastin'

Doesn't two and a half hours sound like an awful lot of time?

I mean, in that time you could take a luxurious bath, or perhaps curl up on the couch and read a hundred or so pages of that great book! There are movies to watch, body masques to apply, hair to deep condition!

I have discovered, to my great dismay, that two and a half hours ain't squat.

Maybe I am too new to this thing called "free time" to know how to effectively plan for it. The second I am in the car, I am mentally going through a checklist of how long things might take if I chose to do them, and trying to prioritize them in order of greatest need.

So far, I have spent most of my time sans Mr. Personality cleaning various things around the house.

I thought I was going to leisurely peruse the aisles at Target, glancing at my watch and astonished at how much time I still had until I needed to pick him up. I thought I would be perhaps able to meet a girlfriend for lunch, and pretend for a bit that I had no child and was back to those carefree single days. Or even, fantasy of fantasies, sit down and write a meaningful, debate-provoking blog post that would leave people a little richer for the experience.

Today found me changing out of my "good" clothes to fold laundry, scrub sinks, floors, and toilets, while simultaneously exclaiming in loud disgust at men's inability to hit the inside of the damn toilet. Then, throwing the "good" clothes back on, it was off to Starbucks to buy a last-minute gift certificate for my son's teacher, whose birthday I discovered was today after a bunch of her students (not mine) presented her with birthday gifts at the beginning of class.

Is there some support group I could join? Something to help me transition from having a needy, whining child begging for me to entertain them at all times to seemingly long stretches of time that turn out to be just long enough to realize the time doesn't stretch nearly far enough.

Man, I'm pathetic.

Comments

Melodee said…
Well, hmmm. I say, once everything's clean, you'll relax. Also, two and a half hours seems like a long time, but really, it's not. I remember when my boys started half-days kindergarten . . . I thought I'd have time, but as it turned out, not so much.
11:16 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Onward

The end of the school year, finally! Did I tell you that my son went to public school this past year? Did I tell you that my daughter was in a regular Kinder classroom this year? Although it was nice to have them both in school, there were definitely things I was not so hip on, such as having to wake up at 5:20 every morning just to get everyone out the door on time.  And then after all the driving and dropping off, going to work. Such fun! I had forgotten the dreariness of having to complete mounds and mounds of homework (even though new research has shown that homework, especially for Kinder, is for shit).  Of constant deadlines and fundraisers and things I am supposed to volunteer for. My daughter had a good year, but was definitely not without its bumps. Her teacher, an older, highly experienced, practical woman with a Master's in Education, kept referring to my daughter as an "inclusion student."  It wasn't her name or just "student" but was...
Read more

Apples and Oranges

Perhaps some of you may have noticed, but the real estate market is beginning a tumble in prices that benefit us, prospective buyers. And we're going to wait. That is cold, cold comfort to those such as J and Py , who are attempting to sell their place as we speak. But, we're not going to wait too much longer, if that makes them feel any better. There is no sense trying to time the bottom of the market, and we have been putting off moving, oh, since Mr. P was born because of the huge runup in prices. So huge that at one point, we could barely afford to buy our own place from ourselves. We should be ok even if we sell at a lower price than we could have gotten say, two years ago. We have, however, a dilemma. We have narrowed our choices down to two cities. And we are stuck there. We just can't figure out which city is better, and they are oh-so-different. Let me give you a rundown. City 1 Older, smaller houses (in our price range) Larger lots Beach city Infrastructure...
Read more

D-A-N-G

As with all young children, for a very long time we parents rely on the old "spell the word out" trick for talking about things in front of them that we don't want them to know. Well, our time seems just about up. Hubba-hubba was trying to tell me about an upcoming event in which Santa would be making an appearance. As Mr. P is very much into Christmas this year, we knew that any mention of Santa would bring a long soliliquoy about how Santa is magic and how he makes the toys and how he has a list and on and on and on. And at that moment, we just didn't feel like hearing it. Don't judge people, don't judge. So, Hubba-hubba spelled out "S-A-N-T-A." "Hey, what did you just say?" said the five year old. "Nothing" lied replied his father. "I know what you said, Daddy! You said Santa!" Anybody know a place that sells semaphore flags?
Read more