A Wednesday

Yesterday, I got the kids off to school, did some random clicking on vapid online magazines, and then took the car to Jimmy’s, our car mechanic. Last week, Steve noticed that the headlights were out on the Subaru and was rather annoyed.

“The headlights aren’t working! How long have they been out? I had to drive through town with the high beams on!” 

That explained why it was so hard to drive back from the meeting through the rainy country roads in the dark the night before.

I drove over to Jimmy’s to get the lights fixed. Jimmy asked me to pop the hood. I didn’t know how. He replaced the bulbs and hollered at me to put on my lights and high beams. I did that. He told me to put on the fog lights. Fog lights? What are those? After he rolled his eyes at me, we checked them.

After I paid for the lights, I stopped by my parents’ house. Mom told me to sit down at the kitchen table.

“You wanta sandwich?”

“No, no thanks.”

“OK. I’ll make you a nice mozerella and tomato sandwich.”

“You wanna a piece of pumpkin bread?”

“No. This sandwich is fine.”

“Here. Have a slice.”

“You take this loaf back to your family.”

“They don’t need it, mom. You keep it.”

“Alright, I’ll pack it up for you.”

Then my dad got on the kitchen floor and demonstrated some stretches that would help my sore back.

On the way back home, I checked e-mail at red lights. The director of swimming sent me a note saying that she noticed that Ian was put in a Monday class instead of his usual Wednesday class. She said to show up today and she would fix the schedule. That was fine, but it threw off the plans for after-school. No worries. Mental adjustments.

Ian came home. I got him dressed for swimming and we packed his bag with the goggles, dry clothes, and a towel. We swung by the high school to see if Jonah had finished practice. Not ready. We drove to the Y and realized that we forgot the swim bag in the house.

“Can you swim without goggles, Ian?”

“NOOOO!”

So, we drove back home, got the bag, got stuck in the after-school traffic. Jonah called and said that he wanted a ride home.

“NOT NOW, JONAH. WE’RE LATE FOR SWIMMING.”

Text from another mom who saw Ian and me sprinting across the parking lot at the Y– “Are you okay?”

We got back to swimming 25 minutes late for the lesson. I chatted with the other parents for twenty minutes. As Ian got out of the pool, I told him to hurry up, because Jonah was waiting for us in the rain.

In the family dressing room, Ian shed his wet bathing suit behind the curtain and in a panicky voice announed, “I forgot my underwear. I CAN’T WEAR MY PANTS WITHOUT UNDERWEAR!”

In the next changing stall, a voice cheerfully announced. “Yes, you can. I’m not wearing any underwear.”

Ian paused and then pondered the age-old philosophical question, “Why do I need underwear?”

I debated teaching him the term “free-ballin it,” but decided to hold back.

We ran out and got Jonah who immediately asked what food was in the fridge. I dumped the boys at home and drove off to pick up the CSA vegetables. Now, I was stuck in the after-work traffic. After I shoved my squash and potatoes in a bag, it was too late to actually cook any of those lovely vegetables. I dashed into Whole Foods for a rotisserie chicken and some frozen pizzas.

The CSA and the dinner shopping took about an hour. It was now 6:45. The pizzas were shoved in the oven, chicken sliced, salad assembled, glass of wine poured. I yelled at Jonah to wake up from his power nap. I told Ian to start his homework.

At 7:15, Steve walked in the door. We ate dinner with the bags of vegetables still on the dinner table. Homework, keyboard practice, showers, clean up. And we finally relaxed.