Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Afternoon blues

Tuesday afternoon: Boy, am I in a bad mood this afternoon! I left work to get Grace and take her to the school for Drama Club with Sarah. I left Hannah at the daycare so that I could come home and continue the endless task of reading multiple choice questions, correlating them to state standards and checking textbook page references. (I've been doing this, pretty much nonstop for several weeks now.)

But when I got home, I found that I had a great deal of trouble making myself stare at the spreadsheet more--knowing that I'll be doing it again later tonight when the girls are safely pajama'd and in their rooms. AND I've got to sort out dinner. AND I've got to go back out the door in the next hour to gather up all three kids. AND dinner (whatever it ends up being . . .) needs to be quick because Sarah has Brownie Scouts tonight. AND that isn't even counting the three or four other work-related tasks that I have been pushing aside and putting off for weeks now and will probably ALL have to be completed by next Tuesday. AND I've got to go back to doing it all again tomorrow.

So . . . what am I going to make for dinner?

It seems like we've eaten it all twenty-five times before. And all I really want to do is sit and eat cookies until my stomach hurts and I can't look at myself in the mirror.

But what could/should I concoct tonight? I just looked in the pantry and nothing seems to combine with anything else to create an appetizing possibility. It's all just a random collection of cans and boxes and bags and bits of this and half of that. We have lots of meat in the freezer, but in what manner should I cook it? How should I flavor it? And can I get it done in thirty minutes or less?

I just want to throw up my hands and buy something. Let someone else make me dinner tonight! (Ahh, but what about tomorrow? And what about nutrition? And what about cost?)

Just in a bad, dissatisfied mood.

Later: I didn't accomplish ANY forward movement on my afternoon work projects. I just couldn't muster up the energy to care. (Shh! Don't tell!) Instead, I trolled around YouTube, watching several short videos from my latest interest--the Vlog Brothers. As usual, I'm behind the curve on hearing about these guys. But I'm only one person and the Internet is a big place. Frankly, I think I need to start culling my interests to maintain some media/Internet sanity in my increasingly hectic life.

*****

"But," you ask, "What did you do about dinner?"

I didn't go out and buy anything. I cobbled up just enough leftovers (hamburger patties, macaroni and cheese, green beans, supplementary baked potato for Lynda) to serve adequate quantities to all of the girls. I skipped all of that and had leftover Pirate Stew (Aaarrrggh!), which I cooked in the crock pot on Sunday. As with most crock pot items, it tasted better a few days after the original. The time in flavor melding and texturizing made a smoother tasting stew.

Sarah is at her Brownie troop meeting, which came after her Drama Club meeting, and before she does her homework--which she almost forgot at school for the second day in a row.

And now I'm just going to abruptly stop this post and try to be productive and useful around the house.

*****

I clearly need to be reading The Happiness Project more often.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

i think in the sidebar you should have an RSS-feed of your blood pressure data.

David said...

Yeah . . . I'm trying to maintain perspective.