I'm Ready For a Few Days Off, Honestly | How Much Did I Spend Last Week? Oct 9-15, 2023
Monday
This morning starts with waking Atlas, changing and dressing him and trying to give him breakfast (toast, banana, cheese).
Then I bring him to his babysitter’s, which involves a considerable degree of drama; after his birthday party yesterday he is absolutely obsessed with this big digger truck thing his grandma got him, and throws a fit when we can’t bring it with us. I do try to get him to hold it on his lap in the buggy, figuring he’ll get distracted once he gets to Robin’s and I could take it back, but he won’t hold it and instead flings his head back and forth while he roars crying.
Toddlers throwing fits is equal parts hilarious (he likes to lie, face down, on the floor and bang his fists like an honest-to-god cartoon baby) and exhausting (he also likes to slap faces and pull hair if your head is too close to his at the crucial moment), and I can honestly say this is the first morning I’ve been relieved to drop him off, walk home and sit in silence for a bit while I drink my coffee.
It’s weird to write something like that down, because there’s still, in 2023, this rhetoric that to be a semi-decent mother one must love every single moment of mothering, when of course – of course! – there are moments that are exhausting and draining and sometimes (a lot of the time!) you just need a break.
Like right now.
Bea and I are going to go downtown to the BMV to get our Indiana state IDs renewed today, something we’ve had on our to-do list for ages, and we’re finally ready to go and get it done – but of course first we’ve to have a chat and a few cups of tea.
Once we’re ready, we get in the car, fire up the Maps app and… it’s closed on Mondays. We check another location. Also closed. I realise it’s Columbus Day. Holy God simply does not want us to get our state IDs renewed.
We’re in the car anyway, so we decide we’ll go to Barnes & Noble for a little look at what they’ve got going on (even though I was in there just last week buying Glossy), of course first getting a coffee at Starbucks, where I pick up an iridescent tumbler for Beau’s Christmas present. I top up my Starbucks account by $25.
The truly dangerous thing about this particular Starbucks is that it’s inside Target, and no one on the planet is capable of going into Target without buying something or, in my case, several things. I get a cute dress for me, the boys’ Christmas PJs, a little mop and sweeping brush set for Atlas for Christmas, a Buzz Lightyear hoodie for him just because, a set of six tumblers because we never seem to have enough glasses, and two little wooden pumpkins the boys can paint for Halloween. ($159.42)
Then we finally get to the point of the excursion and go into Barnes & Noble, where I pick up a romance I can’t remember the name of, along with Catherine Ryan Howard’s 56 Hours, both of which I leave in Bea’s car and have yet to recover. ($27)
After our bookshop jaunt we head across the road for lunch in the slightly off-puttingly named Thai Diner which is actually, I am glad to confirm, delicious. Bea pays, because she’s incredibly generous but also, I hope, because she feels guilty that she’s about to piss off to Ireland for 10 whole days without me.
You wouldn’t know it by the morning I’ve had, but I actually have some work to do, so when I get home around 2pm I head straight to the office and get, honestly, more done in two hours than I probably do on an average day – I have always worked best under pressure, which is annoying because I’d love to be the type of person who gets things done way ahead of deadlines. But I most definitely am not.
Then I go to get Atlas from Robin’s and when we come home we spend some time sitting on the floor and playing with his digger. He likes to just press the button and watch it go up and down off its big… moving truck? Transport vehicle? How should I know?! It’s not a super fun game to watch, anyway, I know that much.
Brandin is late getting out of work and so he picks the boys up late, too, and by the time they’re on their way back it’s getting close to dinner time, so I order Three Fires, an expensive but delicious pizza place up the road from us, for him to pick up on his way. ($91.80)
After dinner it’s time for bath and bedtime – on days that Atlas is with his babysitter, his afternoon nap is slightly shorter so he tends to get tired a bit earlier – and then we make some decaf and sit downstairs reading our books for the rest of the evening.
A couple of weeks ago, I found a list of ebooks available for free on Amazon as part of (I think) stuff your Kindle day (or something) and I downloaded a book called Enemies with Benefits, by Roxie Noir. I’m sure you don’t need me to detail the plot for you; suffice it to say it’s a sexy romcom (light on the com, I would say) that was a very enjoyable read, so I’m now working my way through her Loveless Brothers series, getting some reading in whenever I can.
I’ve just finished one, so I buy the next on Kindle. Sadly, it’s not free, but I’m half-joking because I actually like supporting writers (obviously it would be very bad of me if I didn’t) and am really enjoying these books. ($6.11)
Daily total: $309.33
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