All in a day's work

I'm still in survival mode.

I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but still. On Saturday, for instance, I left the house at 11:00 am and returned home around 1:30 am. Yes, I was gone for 13.5 hours. That day consisted of (in this order) tap class, ballet class (with a trip to Starbucks, of course!), auditions for a show Curt and I producing, a friend's 40th birthday party and finally a little thing like a performance in front of a LIVE audience that evening . . . followed by a debrief of our preview weekend over drinks. I'm tired just writing about it.

I was pretty worthless on Sunday. I still managed to get my lazy ass to church with my girls (and yawned through most of it). I went home and promptly took a nap on the couch next to Vivian who was hanging out on pbskids.org on my laptop. Damn. Elmo's voice is annoying. We also had more auditions on Sunday and then began the agonizing task of casting our show over dinner at Grizzly Peak.

So Monday was my first official evening OFF in weeks!!! And boy was I looking forward to it! Only, it wasn't really a day off. I have this knack for filling every idle second of my life with something.

I've been feeling guilty that Curt has hung out at home so much by himself. I told him days ago that he should go out for drinks on Monday night. Unfortunately, his best buddy is usually not available until later in the evening and by that time of the night, Curt turns into a frog or something because he hates to get started that late. So . . . drinks turned into just a happy hour after work. But then there was Monday night football so he had to go watch the 1st Qtr at least. But I digress . . . he was home around 9:30ish. Not too shabby.

I had the extreme pleasure of taking Audrey to the first religion class of the season AND her first Girl Scout meeting of the year. That meant I had to leave work and drive back to our neighborhood to pick Audrey up, then drive back downtown to our church. We sat through a parent meeting before Audrey went to her classroom. That allowed me only enough time to go pick up Vivian from daycare. We shuttled back to church to pick up Audrey when I realized I should probably FEED my children before we head to the next thing.

Quick trip to Wendy's.

Vivian was devastated when I packed up her food before she was finished because we had to GO! Nevermind that she spent what seemed like an eternity peeling the paper from her straw and then playing with her milk. [Mind you, the ONLY reason we didn't just eat in the car in the first place was because Audrey had to go POTTY!! Of COURSE! Also nevermind that I had asked her to go before we left religion class. Oiy!]

We get to Girl Scouts and it's totally mentally taxing for me. I had to sit through yet another meeting and then fill out paperwork and write them a check. Paperwork? Really? Do you really need to have my insurance information and my work phone number? I did meet some nice moms there so I guess it wasn't a total bust. They also had some great snacks.

We finally get home shortly before 8:00 pm and I cracked open Audrey's backpack (being Monday and all -- that's when all the good stuff comes home.) Yikes! This is her first week of real homework. Shit.

Audrey has to practice spelling words, read for 15 min., complete a math worksheet and write a book report. WTF??? A book report???

Now, I have the dilemma of WHEN we're going to squeeze this in . . . before or after her bath. I decided to go for before since she was still pretty pumped about Girl Scouts. We got right into it.

Needless to say, everything was backed up a bit last night (Why oh why did I say Curt could go out for a drink??) We finally got the homework done, baths complete, teeth brushed and everyone in jammies (including myself). This would also be a good time to mention that I also cleaned the kitchen, emptied the dishwasher AND threw a load of laundry in.

So . . . I'm ready to sit down . . . otherwise known as collapse . . . on the couch and watch a little bit of "Dancing with the Stars." Vivian likes to "watch dancing" with me so I figured it would be good to cuddle on the couch for a bit. It's late, but what the hell. Audrey was at least tucked in and all set.

We watch literally 5 minutes when guess who comes home?

His first words to me were, "What is she doing up? You know, she never stays up this late when you're not here."

ARGGGHHHH!!!!!

Curt was all smiles and happy, but still.