10/07/2011

How I spent my day off.

When I quit my job last year to become a full time stay at home Mama, I was certain that I would love it.

I was right.

I love playing pretend and going to the park and coloring and swinging and just being here for my boys.

They seem to love it, too.  Oh, we've had a few bumps along the way, but mostly, I think, the whole family is better off for it.

The one thing I never even considered, though, is that I don't really get days off.

No personal days, no vacation, no sick days.

When I've tried to call in, oddly enough, nobody answers.

What's up with that?

Anyway, I've learned to work around it (i.e. lay on the couch with a temp of 103 while two wild children circle me like I'm prey.  I'm convinced they can sense weakness.)  and to occasionally, just occasionally, send them to the sitter for the day.

I had such a day this week.

I coordinated it, I planned it, I budgeted it, and I made it happen.

I also spent that day in my mind a million times before it came around.  I was like one of those people who spends all his time fantasizing about what he would spend his imaginary millions on - a Porsche! a yacht! A home in the Hamptons! - if only, just only, he could ever remember to buy a lottery ticket so he could win.

I had a list of things a mile long.  I divided them into Want to Do, Should Do, and Definitely Must Do.

On the want list were things like watch the season premieres of Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice, go pee without someone banging on the bathroom door the entire time, get a haircut, go for a run, do some much needed landscaping in the yard, and call up a friend so we could meet for lunch.

On the should list were things that needed to be done, and that I could do with the kids, but that would be ever so much easier without them, like run some errands, do the grocery shopping, and clean the house.

And on the definitely must do list was one thing: paint the new shed.

I got up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed that morning, packed the kids off to the sitter, and got started right away with my Must Do.  It started out looking like this:


I have been saving up for this shed for years - literally - because every time I walk into my garage my eye starts to twitch and my left shoulder shrugs up a la Quasimodo because of all the junk in it.  So of course, no ordinary brown shed would do.  I wanted to paint it to match my house, with all the bright colors I love.  Never mind that the only person in the entire world who cared was me.  It needed to match the house, dammit.  

As I poured the first paint out into the painter's tray, I was mentally calculating how long it would take. An hour?  Maybe two, tops?  Then I could go do all those other things on my list.  Oh, how wonderful to have a whole day to do whatever I wanted!

Two hours into painting, I started mentally marking things off my list.  I didn't really NEED a haircut, right?  I mean, it's only been 11 months since my last one...  And it's not like the shows I had Tivo'd were going to EXPIRE or anything.  I could do that any time.

Four hours into painting the shed, I was cursing and marking more things off my list.  I could take the boys with me tomorrow to the grocery and to run errands.  And I could get up early and run tomorrow, too...

Six hours in, I wasn't even sure I would get the damn shed painted in one day, and was cursing my BRILLIANT idea of using THREE colors.  Good grief.  It's like shed overkill here.  I mean, really, who cares if the trim is bright glossy white?  Really, mj?  Can't you do anything the EASY way once in a while?

Eight hours in, I could see the light at the end of the tunnel, and I thought that maybe, just maybe I could get done in time to get in a quick shower before I had to pick my kids up at the sitter.

So at the end of my day off, I had accomplished exactly one thing:



And I'm already planning my next day off, probably sometime in 2012.

4 comments:

  1. Day off.................hmmmmmmmmmmmm, pondering what exactly that is..............................


    Sorry, fell asleep there for a minute... LOVE The shed! LOVE IT!!!!!

    I do know that feeling(1-2 hrs.tops) ya, I know that feeling well........ :)

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  2. @Janet, I don't know why I always do that. In my mind, pretty much everything will take an hour or two... Or 12. Close enough, right?

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  3. Um, Worth it. That shed is cute as shit!

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  4. your right, close enough :) I'm done with 1 chair to go with my table and have decided to "scrub" the other chairs that I already have to re-stain and hopefully have them blend better with the table and chairs that go with it... It'll only take a day or two right?? :)

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