6:30 a.m. Up and bustling Hazel off to school. See you at lunch, I promise!
9:00 am Fully intend to go to deep water fitness at YMCA. Wait! It starts at 9:30, Lilah still asleep. Can we make it? Throw on bathing suit, jam clothes into tote, remember underwear! Wake sleepy Lilah, dress and force feed her bagel and cream cheese. Please go potty! Nope.
9:45 Arrive at YMCA, harried, late, but ready to exercise, where is my YMCA ID? Use driver's license- frustrated desk person manually enters. Finally in! Deposit Lilah at kid center, walk quickly to Ladies Locker Room.
9:50 am Open door and don't know where to look or step. Lots of exposed, elderly, lady body parts, wig on floor, giant tote bags, towels, assorted strange underthings litter the small room. I attain tunnel vision, head to locker, whip off my outer clothes, jam tote in locker, rush to pool.
9:55 am Everyone getting out of pool from now-over deep water fitness. Oh! I thought it started at 9:30? No, it starts at 9, but you can join the shallow fitness class starting right now. Instructor pauses, says quietly- you will be the youngest one in the class. She sounds ominous. I turn to look behind me, the elderly ladies and few gents are in the pool now.
10:00 am Okay, I will do this! Big smile on my face! Get in pool, hello! smile! Met with glares. Turns out doing a work out with the elderly is like working out with 1st graders. They don't listen to the instructor, they talk, do whatever they want, bunch up together on one side of the pool. None of the ladies gives me the time of day, I seem a little popular with the gents, they chat with me. I think this makes the ladies dislike me more. A little concerned that the gents are getting closer to me.
11:00 am Actually had a good work out! Thank the teacher, she says- It's all what you put into it- glancing sideways at the ladies who barely listened to her the last hour.
11:05 am Back into locker room, have to walk through showers, now completely nude elderly ladies, a sea of them, must move to next room. They are absolutely everywhere, no room to move, have to literally step over them to get to my stuff. They are singing and laughing and generally having a good time. I feel like I've entered a sorority, one in which I'm not welcome. I am directed to another locker room.
11:10 am Hazel's lunch time starts in 3 minutes. But I am standing in the child care center waiting for Lilah to try to go potty. Meanwhile the child care worker asks me if I was in the pool? I stink of chlorine- lack of a proper shower. She then goes on to tell me how her high school swim coach told them to go ahead and pee in the pool, cause there was plenty of chlorine in there! Why is she telling me this?
11:14 am Finally have Lilah, decide to pick up lunch at YMCA cafe. But man with gift card is taking hours to get a $1.75 credit. Takes girl 5 tries to enter into her cash register. I nearly scream when I realize she hasn't even made his smoothie yet! WE HAVE TO GO! So drag crying Lilah out, she really wanted to eat there. It's 15 minutes into Hazel's lunchtime! She's waiting! Open heavy YMCA door, dragging Lilah behind me, don't get her out fast enough, smack her in the face. Crying ensues, I come to my senses and realize I am ignoring my youngest child's needs for the benefit of my oldest. So, I take Lilah to Steak 'n Shake instead.
11:45 am Home again. Lilah happily eating her grilled cheese. I really wanted to go to Long John's but I knew that was an evil choice, so I didn't. I got tator-tots at Beefy King instead. Lesser evil choice? At home I decide to cook the last imitation soy meat product in my freezer (veggie rib cutlet) to go along with my tator-tots. Put 2 pieces of bread in toaster oven. Walk away, get on computer.
12:00 pm Hey, I forgot my bread. La, la, la- casually walk into kitchen. FIRE! Two flaming pieces of bread in toaster oven. For a few seconds, I totally blank out. I stand there staring at the twin flames, wondering what to do. Do I throw salt, flour, blanket? I can't remember!!! Electrical fire! Wait, no. Bread fire. So I grab the plastic tongs and grab each flaming piece of toast and put them in sink. Not so bad! Hey, I caught them before the alarm went off! Suddenly, I notice entire room is filled with smoke, BLAM! goes the alarm. We have an ADT smoke alarm, which helpfully yells at you "Fire! Leave Immediately!" repeatedly, while simultaneously blasting a deafening alarm. The thing won't go off when I put in the code and I know the firetrucks will be there soon.
2:30 pm Was able to avert fire trucks, had pleasant lunch. Lilah played while I watched old "Ed" episode on Youtube. I like that show! Get housework done. Get myself decent. Time to pick Hazel up from school. Today I am the Mom in Black (who smells of chlorine.) Put red shoes on. It's been cloudy all day, but never rained, think we will head to Lake Eola to meet friends. Raindrops appear on windshield as soon as get in car. Invite friends to house instead, have pleasant afternoon.
6:00 pm The evening thankfully goes smoothly. Thanks to my filling tator-tot lunch, I skip dinner and feed the girls. Mark arrives late at 8:30, but I feel completely non- stressed. House is pretty clean, kids are fed, watching movie. And I am going to a grown up movie with Lora at 10:20! Can we stay awake?
9:30 pm Pick up Lora, see baby Sidney, she smiles the biggest smiles at me, but won't let me touch her.
10:00 pm Theater looks crowded! There are thousands of teenagers swarming around the entrance. It is so noisy! None of them are standing in line. Do they just get dropped here and hang out in front of the theater? I'm reminded of my morning swarmed by the elderly. Sounds are eerily similar.
10:20 pm Watch "Sherlock Holmes." We, along with about 6 other people, are the last humans to see this movie. We enjoy looking at Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law. I even like the mustache! What? Ponder the fact that these men are in or near their 40's. They look like they are in the prime of life! I need to start thinking like that. After a morning fighting off the elderly and an evening encounter with crazed teens, I realize that I'm in a pretty good place right now! I need to live it up! I'm vibrant!
12:30 am Lora and I struggle to stay awake. I tell her we must not both fall asleep, lest we spend the night at the theater. There is so much action! It is strangely calming. Realize I've drifted off at the very last scene. Wake up with jolt and yell at Lora "What'd he say??"
1:30 am Finally, one of my favorite parts of the day! Sleep, with no thought of waking up early in the morning. Fridays are good.
