Thursday, April 13, 2006

Holey Week

It's Holy Week and Easter approaches.

One of the reasons that I know it's Easter (other than the obvious reminders at church and by simply looking at a calendar) is that the dogwood trees on Nicole Drive and up and down College Avenue are in full bloom. I love dogwood trees because my childhood home in Georgia had four dogwood trees that were planted right alongside the curb of our front yard that was the dead end of Woodruff Street.

Every spring the dogwoods would bloom, the great big azalea bush would bloom and the family would dress in our Easter finery to have family pictures taken in the front yard.

Did I also mention that every portion of our neighborhood has dogwoods EXCEPT for the small quadrant of homes that I live in? I guess that when my segment of Nicole Drive was built, the dogwoods weren't on sale or someone had an allergy. Anyway, driving through the neighborhood this time of year is like a nostalgia trip and a constant source of taunting at the same time.

It's a bit confusing on the emotions.

So, anyway, it's Holy Week, but it's also Holey Week--as in there have been great gaps in my week's continuity. The reason? Kids, sickness, and single parenting.

Grace has some sort of 24-hour stomach thing last weekend, which ensured that Sarah would get it on Monday which meant that I would get it on Tuesday . . . with all of the fun body fluid hijinks that you would expect. Luckily, it was the 24-hour kind of problem.

Except that Grace isn't entirely over it and since Lynda has been in Texas on business since Tuesday . . . well, let's just say that I haven't been at the office much this week and it hasn't been the most productive work week of my entire life.

It's frustrating since I can feel that my work project is beginning to loom more and more. It hasn't been supremely taxing YET, but it will become so and I am trying to have all of my little pieces ready and in line before the really awful time starts . . . but I can't do much until other people get their work done in front of me and that is going extremely slowly for so many reasons that time (and legal compliance) demands that I just don't try to get into it.

So, I worry.

What else is new?

I worry that when the summer comes and the vacation plans we are setting are going to bother me, as that is probably when all the real work will begin. I worry that I won't have fun on vacation because I'll think I should postpone stuff because my work schedules have gotten tighter and the dates can't change. I worry that it's been FAR too long since I've been home to visit family and I've got to make the time. I worry because Lynda worked so hard last year and we all had to adjust to suit her schedule. I worry that it'll never end and I've got to ignore the work pressure and find time for family fun.

I worry.

3 comments:

Sven Golly said...

Holy Cow! Holy Toledo! Holy @#$%&*!
Thanks for the update/flashback/retrospective on Nicole Drive and Woodruff Street. There'snoplacelikehome. And thanks for inspiring me to post a ghost of Easter past on istandcorrected, speaking of confusingly mixed emotions. But it's spring, and the plant world is flowing with life. Don't worry, be sappy!

flipper said...

Just so you know, you're not alone in the worrying about work thing. I feel very helpless today b/c of the back thing--I should be working, but I can't get there! Very frustrating. So I'm with you on that one, babe. Hope everyone feels better soon.

Doesn't it make you wonder how full-time single parents cope? That must be the single hardest thing in the world.

David said...

I absolutely agree with you about the stresses of single parenting.

I lose my patience after a few hours/days. Doing it full time would be extremely difficult.