The Relativity of Time

It has been a loooooong week. I technically work just over 70 hours/week, but that's just technically speaking. My work day starts at 5:15 am and ends at 7:30 pm. However, I don't even get up until 6:30. Then the kids are off to school by 8:30 and don't get home until 3:15. While they're at school, I do laundry, grocery shopping and other errands. But I usually have some time to myself, too.

It still makes for long days, but the break that I have in the morning while they're at school is definitely good for my sanity. Even if I spend the whole morning running errands, the fact that I don't have a couple of kids in tow makes it feel like a break.

Naturally, whenever the kids' schedule changes, so does mine. I now understand why my mom would get frustrated when we had lots of time off from school (then again, halfway through she decided to homeschool us...). Fortunately, the kids have all-day summer camp during the summer. But I am not particularly looking forward to the last week of June, where they will be off for the entire week and it will be up to me to keep them occupied.

Anyway, the 6-yr-old had her tonsils out last Thursday. She has been doing very well, considering the circumstances. But not only have I had her all day every day this week, but her discomfort has meant that she's been whiny and clingy, as well. Yesterday, I felt like anytime I walked out of the room, she would either follow me or call me to come back because she suddenly "needed something." Add to this the fact that I worked until 10:00 last night instead of 7:30.

She has definitely been improving, though, and she has been anxious to get back to school. So, we were both excited that she was going to go for half a day today. I let her sleep until she woke up on her own, then took her to school at around 11. I kind of felt like someone just busted open the prison gates and I was breathing fresh air for the first time in a very long time. That sounds kind of mean - I really do like her, this week has just been a little much.

But now I've finally got a few hours during the day without the kids and I spent a portion of this coveted time blogging. That was silly. I've got a bunch of errands to run and 3 1/2 hours! Yikes! I'm looking forward to it, though. It's 80 degrees out and I'm going to go drive around with the windows rolled down.

Yes, the worst is definitely over. The kids have an early dismissal tomorrow, then I'm taking them to meet their dad and I'll be off work by about 1:00, making my 3-day weekend more like 3 1/2 days. *contented sigh* I think I've earned it.

Moving

Here I go, moving again. Has it really been just 4 months since my last move? I seem to remember commenting then that I was sick and tired of moving. It’s not necessarily the physical act of packing up and moving to a new place that gets to me (although that does play a part), it’s more the emotional uprooting and necessity of reestablishing oneself in a new place and building new friendships. What was wrong with the old friendships? Why must I get new ones?

The whole moving process is stressful. Although, I will say I am getting much better at it. I have a tendency to overestimate my time and abilities and wind up stressing myself out much more than is necessary. This time around, however, I took 4 days off before my move. A new record. This is not to say that I haven’t been under stress, though. While I’m not very good about mentally acknowledging or dealing with stress, my body forces me to recognize it. It’s a bit funny, really, I’ve discovered that when I get stressed out, my eyes twitch. I picked up on this last spring when I was writing my senior thesis. My eyes twitched so often, I was beginning to wonder if something was seriously wrong with them.

It seems to me that the most obvious way of dealing with stress is to relax. Makes sense, right? For instance, someone in my situation might try to get a lot of packing done, then get a lot of rest. That way, they are neither stressing because they have a lot left to do nor because they haven’t had a chance to rest.

But that’s not me. My eye was twitching like nobody’s business last night. So I opted to get a lot of packing done, and then bake a couple of loaves of apple bread. My dad gave me a big sack of apples* (in hopes that they would be returned in some other form - apple pie, for example) that one of his clients had given him. But I only used about 4 apples for the bread. So tonight I made an apple cheesecake, and an apple honey bundt cake. I realize that this may seem like an odd thing to do in the midst of a move. However, my eye hasn’t twitched at all today - so it must be working. I’ve got just about everything packed up, so I’ll probably bake some apple pie or an apple crisp tomorrow - I’ve still got half a bag of apples left.

I suppose the good thing here is that I know I’ll be in one place for at least a year and a half. I’ve moved about 4 times in the last year and a half - so this is definitely an improvement. But it’s nearly 4 in the morning right now, so I’m going to end this blog without actually closing it. I’m 26 years old - nobody tells me what to do. What?

* There ain’t nothing like Washington Apples