Two and a Half Hours

I was thinking about posting on the filibuster or something today, but there’s just too much going on around here. It’s a mostly personal post.

With Ian now in pre-school five days a week for two and a half hours, I’m suddenly looking at twelve hours per week of child-free time. Twelve hours without kids that need feeding, stories, and help finding additional Lego wheels for an extra long battering ram.

Twelve hours is such a luxury. In the past three years, we’ve been babysitter challenged. It was too complicated to arrange in the city with the kids in different places, and it was also ghastly expensive. More recently, we were too afraid to put Ian in childcare because of his speech disability and therapy schedule. So, for three years, I’ve always had a kid in tow.

Yesterday, after I dropped Ian at school, I sat in the coffee shop daydreaming about all the things I could do with that time. It’s like someone dropped a thousand dollars on my lap.

I look with envy and awe at the parents whose kids are in school the whole day. Sometimes I ask them what they do with all that time. They usually do the foodshopping, pay bills, clean, and deal with the kids’ papers. (God, they come home with a lot of crap once they start school.) One woman said she washes the kitchen floor every other day, does two loads of laundry, and makes everyone’s bed.

Was it Betty Friedan who said that a day can easily be filled with senseless chores? I’m guarding my twelve hours from the bed making syndrome. Our place will continue to be tidy but dusty. Cleaning will continue to happen while on the phone and over the weekends. I am using my precious twelve hours to work on The Big Project.

You know what else I won’t be doing with that time? Blog. I could very, very easily blow all that time writing witty comments and roaming freely around the blogosphere. What’s that bipolar, bisexeual biographer doing today? What’s the latest gossip on Drudge, Huffington, and Instapundit? What is Lileks collecting today? I have to keep my addictions in check.

This fall, the twelve hours might even increase to fifteen or more (if my mom can help out), so I’ll be able to adjunct again. I’ve been calling local colleges who’ve been very eager to hire me. It’s doesn’t hurt that I have healthy CV and the willingness to work for nothing.