A Return to Normalcy

Normal. Simple word. When applied to our lives, not nearly so simple. PDQ has been on the waiting list for before school care since May, before the conclusion of last school year. I was sure that with moves something would open up over the summer. I have been hounding the woman in charge of the waiting list, very nicely, through e-mail since the week before school started (so a month now). She was #2 on the wait list and finally on Monday she has a spot. Our current county executive ran on a platform that promised to provide before and after care for everyone who needed it and eliminate the wait lists. Guess he hasn't gotten around to that yet.

Normal for me is to get into the office between 7:30 & 8 to try and get some work cleaned up from the prior day and a jump start on the meetings of the day. Its quiet in the office until close to 9. There aren't many meetings, I talk to my colleagues, we go to the coffee machine for a caffeine hit and fill up our water bottles. But not for the last 3 weeks. For three weeks I've been getting up most mornings at 5:15AM, going to the gym, riding my bike or walking. Then its home to get dressed and get the kiddos up. Then its off to to take Boobah to preschool-she doesn't like to be the last one there and they start the academic part of their day at 9AM. PDQs bus doesn't come until 9:05, I could drop her off at the school which is right near Boobah's but then I'd be even later in getting to work since you can't drop them off until 9:15. Then I race into the office having put off anything that started at 9 for at least half an hour. No time to prepare. No coffee talk. Just feeling like I'm jumping in the fire.

Then there is that little issue of being up for 4 hours by the time I get to the office. Quite frankly, I am more ready for a nap than a day full of meetings and problems to solve. My mind also stops high functioning after 4PM. Being here until 5-5:30 makes me cranky, the extra 20 minutes the commute can take makes me even crankier and the time I am not spending with my girls makes me sad. At hour house, morning time is NOT quality time. It's frustrating because I am not at my best at home, I am not at my best at work and I feel like I am barely hanging on. The exercise really feels like the only thing that is happening when and how it should. Thank goodness for something I can control.

So here's to Monday and a return to our warped version of "normal."