Rainy Wednesday afternoon, May 16, and I feel like for the first time in about 10 days I get to exhale. C is doing his homework without procrastinating and whining. He wants to go to the mall later because new Disney cars have entered the Swiss market ;-)
Do you know the feeling of constantly being on pins and needles, always half expecting to drop the ball unintentionally? Yes, that feeling.
Let's rewind. I mentioned a couple of things in a recent post, like the fact that I don't always get notes from school that were supposed to be delivered by the youngster (for some reason our 20-something teachers operate very old school and don't believe in communicating via e-mail with us parents. They prefer to hand out notes that end up crumpled on the bottom of our kids' backpacks.)
I got one of those notes the night before the four-day Ascension weekend during which Colin went camping with his Boy Scouts group.
The note said the kids were going to complete their bicycle riding test in June.
Whaaat? In fourth grade, really?
Shoot. Even though he only got his new bike last summer it wasn't in the best shape, and it doesn't have a working taillight. The note included the requirements that the kids bicycles were supposed to meet.
We, actually, I dropped Colin off on Thursday for his camp and went to work on Friday. Went out for a nice, adult dinner in my favorite panorama restaurant, and I was too exhausted to fully enjoy it.
Why was I so tired and kind of bummed, too?
We're planning our annual customer event for which I am in charge, and it is a great project, but it's also tough to juggle with my regular responsibilities at the office condidering the limited time I spend there, so I was running around back and forth in my "free time", too.
Like Wednesday before the long weekend.
The inmates at our local high security prison assembled the mailing for us: letter, flyer, voucher and giveaway. They were not going to be working between Thursday and Sunday, so I was positively surprised when their supervisor called Wednesday after lunch that everything was ready to be picked up.
Great, just, I didn't really have time, even though I excused Colin from practice because he was going to attend the annual village race. Because there was no practice I had promised to take him to a shopping mall that was holding a Panini soccer sticker swap meet. He was very excited and looking forward to it.
Also I had to schedule an additional dentist's appointment to check on my post-dental-surgery wound. Time was tight. I debated in my head whether it was supportable to drop a 9.5 year old at the mall and use the time to race to the dentist's office? I asked said almost 10 year old if he preferred to accompany me to the dentist's or to attend the sticker meet on his own? He decided he could handle himself at the mall. I gave him some pocket money in case he became thirsty and left. Not the greatest Mom moment, but hey, whatwasIgonnado.
The oral surgeon was happy with my progress and sent me on my way.
Because of the long weekend I assumed post offices were going to close early. like 5pm, so when I pulled into the parking garage at the mall at 3:45 I thought "brilliant. I'll check on Colin and quickly drop my 650+ letters to be mailed."
The ladies behind the counter didn't think so. "Your letters are not stamped, and we're closing at 4" they said. "Yeah, I'm paying you to stamp them, see, I brought the delivery note." (These days you have to come prepared. You need an online account where you announce a mass shipment which is more than 500 letters.)
While the post office ladies were talking to each other about how to handle it (me), the line behind me started to fill up, and the clock was ticking, my already tense condition turned into internal boiling until I said "look, I'm sorry, I had no idea you guys were closing that early. Would it be of any help if I stamped those letters?"
They looked at me as if that was the absurdest thing to suggest. Don't they know I am a hands-on girl who is used to get shit done?
"What is the problem, is it hard to do? Do I need to operate a complicated machine?"
"As a matter of fact no. It's a simple hand stamper, we're just not sure we're allowed to let you do that."
They didn't wanna do it because they were closing shortly, and they were wasting time even though a paying customer offered to do their work???? I convinced them it was in our common interest, and I got my little handheld stamper and put myself to work.
While I was stamping and stacking my letters the lady told me how hard it was to be working here, and how they kept working harder for the same pay, and I nodded, smiled - and stamped.
4:10 I picked up Colin who had been successfully doing his soccer sticker business with kids he had never met. Such a brave boy!
At home we watched ice hockey world championship Switzerland vs Belarus until Colin had to run and get his jersey number for the race. He came back home, and we watched until it was time for his age category to gather for the start, and we ended up running to the sports field. There, warm-up, done!
I almost forgot the happy hour I had chilled for the occasion. Almost.
Did I mention I was on antibiotics? It's called Dalacin C, I just mention it for my own future reference's sake because it sure made me moody, and I can't have that. The doc said a glass of bubbly was OK, though. I may have had more than a glass. I also had chocolate cake. I like to think I deserved it.
As I was saying, come Friday night, I wasn't much of a good company, also I was feeling somewhat irritated, which culminated on Saturday morning when hubby got ready to go back to work (he didn't quite get the concept of a long weekend), and I asked him to drop Colin's bicycle at the shop on this way. Bike test coming up, remember? We live a 10 minutes' walk from the office. The "detour" via the bike shop makes it 15 minutes' tops. He was annoyed, I could tell. Like "why can't you do it, I have shit to do." Well, I do shit all week, that's why.
I don't usually like to ask for help, and this incident reminded me, why.
We later had a fight about it. We fought over hubby's favorite dinner that I slaved over all afternoon: homemade shepherd's pie.
He clearly feels with him working at the office six days a week, he should be excused from household chores, while I was like "excuse me, only because I work part-time at the office I'm supposed to take care of everything?"
"I took out the trash just the other day" - he said it, and I think he realized that wasn't smart. So he is keeping a list? Plus I asked him to take care of the trash because he never volunteers - because he never seems to remember that it's trash pick-up day on Fridays. Every week. Ever since he is living here, which is 25 years, I believe? More like 30, actually. God, he must be old.
Fuming.
So today I start working earlier because I have to leave earlier to get him at the indoor trampoline playground where his friend's birthday is taking place. He can only stay for an hour until it's time to drive to off ice practice which I would theoretically allow him to skip for once - only not today, because after practice he's invited to yet another birthday / sleepover party. That guy is popular.
Oh, I'd like to mention that he brought another note. They do a practice run for their bicycle test. It's next Friday. Want me to tell you when the bike shop expects to be done with the maintenance job? Saturday. (Two week from drop-off. Geez, I understand it's spring, and it's high season, but shouldn't they be prepared for that, so paying customers don't have to be without their bikes for two weeks?)
So I had to call and ask them to a) speed up and get it done a day early or b) let him use a display model or something. They promised they are going to be ready next Thursday.
My colleage left for vacation so I have to work as full time as possible for the next ten days.
If I need a minute to breathe and smile I'm gonna look at the following pictures.
See the two smoothie bottles Colin chose for his snack the other day? He started to play with them, pretending they were hockey players on opposite teams. He knocked them over in different ways and made me guess what kind of foul they committed. Tripping, cross check, roughing. It was fun.
My turn, My bottles impersonated specific players provoking the opponent, falling without being pushed, jerking their head as if their neck was a hinge: Maxim Lapiere, Chris DiDomenico, Cory Conacher, so much fun!
This doesn't require explanation. Except a remark, there was no coffee in that cup that day! Chai tea, and they got my order right. Usually I tell them "Chai Tea, just tea, and they will promptly proceed to type Chai Tea Latte...
Happy Friday, friends!
Switzerland made it to the semi-finals, and we're playing vs Canada tomorrow - keep your fingers crossed, will ya?
Comments
Post a Comment
Thank you for your comment. It will be visible as soon as I had a chance to verify that you are not an anonymous user and/or a spammer.