I’m taking the day off today for no reason.
Don’t get me wrong. I have reasons.
There’s a list of errands I’d like to get done before Saturday. I need to do a couple ten loads of laundry, write some e-mails, fills out some forms, meet a deadline or two. And perimenopause—which is what this had better be, or I’m quitting the biological lifestyle for good—is making certain things suck in a truly sucky way that makes me want to build a statue to the creators of Midol, sit on the top of it, and keep the pigeons away with the sheer power of my unreasonable irritation with everything ever, and also Jane’s marshmallow gun, because pigeons are not only naturally immune to annoyed glares, they appear to thrive on them.
But what I really need a day off without expectations.
I don’t have any appointments today. The children are at school. The library patrons are at the library. My MIL has no appointments she needs to be driven to and my husband is teaching classes. The cat, who has developed the nasty habit of howling in the bathrooms at 3am, has fallen silent.
Nobody needed me this morning. I didn’t have anything I needed to do.
So I slept in a little, got up to take a shower in a pre-warmed bathroom, dressed in my ugliest Not Leaving The House separates, and bestowed hugs and lunchbags on the kids before my husband took them to school (the kids and the lunches, though I hope the hugs went, too). I sat down with a mug of coffee and a slice of homemade rice bread and did the sudoku in the paper, something I never have the time or the pencil to do in the morning. It took me a while without the help of the familiar electronic grid, but that was fine.
Just in case I might want to go out to lunch somewhere when my husband returns from his morning classes, I started a load of laundry. I read a little, which led me to edit a bit I’m doing for a new Round Robin project, which led me to write a letter—a real one, longhand, with an envelope and everything—to a friend. I put the laundry in the dryer, brushed my hair, and then chose to brush my teeth over having another cup of coffee.
I turned on the computer, wished my SIL a happy birthday on Facebook, finalized my Halloween costume, and brainstormed the next couple of steps on two projects, without worrying about carrying out any of those plans, and ended up with several pages of notes.
I didn’t quite sign up for Nanowrimo, but I thought about it.
And now I’m here, writing a blog post that might be the closest thing to a Must Do I’ll have until the kids come home at four.
For someone who had no To Do List, I seem to be compiling a pretty good Have Done List.
Funny how that works . . .