Sunday Salon: Write It Off

 Write it off is exactly what I intend to do to a majority of this week.  My weeks are always generally busy, and sometimes crappy, but this one really took the prize.  

Before we enter The Week That Nearly Did Me In, please bear in mind that I was already hanging on by my fingernails.

My daughter started high school on Monday morning.  She also decided to try out for Cross Country, which required her to start her high school career at 5:30 in the morning with a 6 mile run (that means that she and I get up at 4:50).  My heart went out to her, knowing that the rushed, cold shower and the wet hair in her first class wasn't what she had in mind when she imagined this day.  But I am proud of her.  Guarantee I wouldn't have done it at her age.

On Tuesday, after dropping her off at the 5:30 practice, and going for a run myself, I raced to my jury duty.  I nabbed a good seat next to an outlet and settled in for some blogging time and reading.  15 minutes into it, however, I was called to come up to the "Penthouse Courtroom" on the top floor (the Casey Anthony courtroom) for jury selection.  Uh oh.  I soon learned that selection could take days, and if I were selected, the trial would take four weeks.  That's right...FOUR WEEKS.  I started waving my arms and whining that I had busy kids, no family in town, and a husband that will be gone for the next 9 out of 14 days.  However I was surrounded by people who were probably going to lose their house if they sat on this jury, so my complaints were ignored.  At least for the next three days.  It took me that long to get my head around the idea of HIRING someone to pick up and drop off my kids at their various activities, and begging friends to pick them up if they get sick or fall down and have a head wound.  I almost had a nervous breakdown.  After three long days (four long days for some potential jurors) all but 6 of the 104 jurors were gradually excused, and I reclaimed my life.  It was a totally surreal experience.  And so much for blogging and reading.

So this is what it would be like if I worked full time.  Interesting.  I know I did it once when my kids were little.  Not sure how I would cope with it now.  I guess it would take a village.  I missed my son's "meet the teacher" (my BFF covered for me there), his first day of school, and hired our old babysitter to pick up my kids after school.  

But it kind of imploded my week and put me even further behind where I was on all counts.  Reading?  Are you kidding me?  I DID finally finish "The Snow Child" on audio, and have just started "The Orphan Master's Son" for a tour.  In print, I am reading "The Meryl Streep Movie Club" which is nice and I'm totally sure I'll probably cry because it is that kind of book.  But it is all rather slow and pathetic and unblog-like.  I'm distracted and still playing catch-up from vacation in July.  Don't be surprised if at some point I go from cutting off my Friday posts to just cutting everything off.  I've made my peace with this possibility. It would probably do me some good.  

So enough with the complaining.  That is what this entire post is about!  On a rather positive note, yesterday my husband and I ran with my daughter's Cross Country team for 7 miles, which was a pretty big deal for the old farts.  And last night, my hubby and I celebrated our 20th anniversary (which is actually on Tuesday...prepare for a special event on the blog for that day) at a very nice restaurant.  Amazing food and wine.  Today is action packed, from 7:30 Mass, animal shelter duties, to my daughter having more driving lessons.  Cross your fingers that things maybe turn in a good direction this week, I get caught up on my real life duties and blogging, and I find some peace in my heart.