Busy lives

School has started, and with it has come more routine. Which I love. But at the same time, I’m realizing that we are very busy people! I had intended to write on Sunday to update you all on how the Flash Fiction writing went, but life has been so busy this week that today is the first chance I’ve had. So let’s go day by day. Just to keep my brain focused.

Sunday

The kids and I attended church in person for the first time in 4 weeks. It was good to be out of the house and talking to familiar people. It always feels good when people notice you’ve been gone and ask you if everything is okay. I often feel like I don’t really have friends, but it’s at least nice to know that people notice if I’m not around.

After church I returned home to edit and polish my Flash Fiction story. I’d had my husband read it and make notes the night before, so I had those to help guide me. I then had him read it again and he gave me more suggestions. He’s trying really hard to be sensitive to how I receive feedback because he knows how much it knocked me down when I got the feedback on my novel. It drove me crazy waiting for him to read it initially and I was convinced it must be awful if it was taking him that long. However, most of the suggestions he made were ones I’d been considering myself, so it worked out well. At some point you have to just call it done or risk sabotaging yourself, so I finally turned it in around 5:15, knowing we had dinner plans and I didn’t want to risk not getting it turned in.

For dinner, we met up with my husband’s best friend from high school (who is now also my friend, going on 26 years, who teases me as if he was a brother) and his husband. We had not seen them since their wedding in 2019 and the kids had not seen them since 2017. We had a nice dinner and conversation flowed. Unfortunately, my son was at the end of the table. He felt left out of conversation and he was bored (his phone had died on the way to the restaurant). I wish I had thought to have my husband and his friend swap places so that the friend could engage my son in conversation the way that his husband was doing so well with my daughter. Unfortunately, I didn’t think of it until the next day. I’m trying to remind myself that boredom is not child abuse and he will get over it.

Monday

Boy was Monday busy! First I walked my 30 minutes (a habit I’m trying to start once the kids are on the bus), then had to go to the grocery store. I decided to use the one manned cash register that was open because I didn’t want to deal with the self checkout. There was one woman in front of me and almost all of her groceries had been scanned. I was not paying attention to what was going on as I loaded my groceries onto the conveyor belt. Eventually I became aware that the customer was very upset with the cashier. The best I could deduce was that the woman had used Instacart, but that her barcode to pay had not scanned and when the young man tried to explain that the previous instacart barcode had not worked either she became even more upset and walked out of the store, leaving all of the groceries sitting on the counter. The cashier stood there, looking dumbfounded. I simply said “I’m so sorry you have to deal with that. Is there anything I can do to help?” He said I could help put her groceries into her cart while we waited for his manager to come and clear out the register. He apologized to me a couple of times and I assured him it was fine and I wasn’t bothered. As he began to ring up my purchases I started sacking my own groceries, as there wasn’t a sacker on duty. Once he had the total I paused to pay and he finished sacking. When he handed me my receipt I said “I hope your day gets better.” I may not have made any difference to his day, but I hope that he felt a little less flustered when I left.

After I put all the groceries away I worked at my aunt’s for the first time in 4 weeks (I had been working from my house so I didn’t fall behind) and spent a lot of time catching up with her. I got home and immediately got to work on making dinner in the pressure cooker so that it would keep warm until we got home from evening activities.

When the kids got home my daughter changed clothes and we didn’t have long before we had to be out the door. Before the pandemic my daughter had been taking an aerial arts class (think Circ du Soleil). She’d been in the class for a year and a half and was doing quite well, but we just didn’t feel comfortable going back when they opened back up. Even with the aerial yoga we had done together, she still missed the climbing and tricks from her old class. So this year I told her she could start going again if she was interested. She definitely was and Monday was her first class.

My son had been taking Ninja Obstacle classes for several years prior to the pandemic. We’d actually stopped before, due to his coach moving away, but I’d planned to find a new class. Unfortunately, that was another one I wasn’t comfortable with for a couple of years. Now that I’m ready, his original gym has shut down and the second gym was too far away without the incentive of his favorite coach. So I went looking and found a gym not far from his sister’s Aerial class. He didn’t want to sign up for a class without checking out the facilities first, so while my daughter was in her aerial class, I let him play around in open gym to see what he thought. He loved it, but was still hesitant about joining a class. He worried that all the other class members would be so much better than him, since he’s lost most of the skill he had before. He still has the knowledge, but will need to rebuild his strength. I decided to sign him up anyway because I know that he always hesitates to do something until he actually does it and ends up loving it.

After picking up my daughter, we returned home to immediately eat dinner. Next week, when they are both taking classes, I’m not sure how we’re going to fit in dinner. We will be gone 4:30-7:30!

Tuesday

I had told the librarian at the kids’ school that I would be back to volunteer on Tuesday. But I’d forgotten I also had a doctor’s appointment with my electrophysiologist (pacemaker doctor). So as soon as I finished my daily walk, I showered and headed over to the school. When I got to the library I saw a group of students that were helping get devices ready to be handed out to new students. Two of them were former students of mine and they seemed pleased, but somehow not surprised, to see me. After discussing a few things with the librarian (the school was renovated over the summer, so she’s trying to figure out exactly how she wants to have the library laid out), I worked on shelving books. Another former student came in to assist a new student with getting his ID made. It’s funny how much seeing those students brightened my day. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to stay for too long, since I had that appointment to get to.

I’m getting close to the end of the battery on my current ICD (internal cardiac defibrillator) and so this time I saw the doctor himself (the last few years I’ve seen his PA at my annual checkup). I love this doctor. He’s always running late, but he makes up for it with charm. And he always listens to my concerns and shows an interest in me beyond my heart.

The appointment always starts with a device check to make sure it is functioning at its best and to see how much battery is left. The tech performing the check was new to me, so he was unaware that I’ve got almost 40 years of experience with device checks and can always feel when they are checking the thresholds. I might even be as accurate as the machine!

When I went to my appointment in March it was looking like I would need a new ICD in September, which is why I was scheduled to see the doctor in August. Well, now it’s saying November. The problem is that it is not possible to predict exactly how much battery I will use every month. It’s an estimate based on past use. And over the course of May/June/July, I was a LOT less active than I usually am because of my wrist surgery and covid. That’s the only reason I can think of for the change in estimate. So I’m hoping that by walking every day after the kids get on the bus I can ensure that my ICD will be ready to be replaced before the end of the year so that insurance will cover it at 100%. Oh, and did I mention that I will be needing another surgery to remove the hardware in my wrist? Yeah, so if I could get ALL of the surgeries done in this year, that would be great.

After the device check I sat and waited well past my appointment time to see my doctor. It wasn’t the longest I’ve ever waited, though, so at least there’s that. And then all he did was look at the computer while he talked to me and asked me how I’ve been. He said everything looked good and “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” meaning that the settings I’ve got on my ICD seem to be working just fine and there’s nothing he needs to do. He asked me about myself, my kids, and my husband. Then he said the next time he sees me will be with a sharp object in his hand and gave me a hug.

Wednesday

This morning was a bit more chaotic than any we’ve had so far. When it was time to leave for the bus stop, my son couldn’t find his phone. He thought he must have left it in the bathroom, but my mother in law was in the shower. He decided it was fine if he didn’t have it, since his sister had hers. We got to the bus stop and the bus ended up being late. It finally came and normally I would head out on my walk right after they pulled away, but I needed to go to the bathroom and I wanted my headphones (which I’ve forgotten every day so far). Because of all of that, I had a later start than usual to my walk and I’m trying to go longer each day, so it was later than usual when I got back. I cooled off for a bit, then had to shower so I could go to the church to meet up with the ladies that have been in charge of the church library. They are both in their 80s and decided it was time to teach someone that could take over. I could only stay for a 20 minutes, as I had my therapy appointment (I’ll post what happened there in tomorrow’s Therapeutic Thursday post).

Then this afternoon I got a text from my daughter telling me that her brother was not on the bus. She was freaking out. Of course this would happen on the day he didn’t have his phone. As soon as she got home, my husband got in his car to go to the school and find him. My daughter went with him and I stayed home. I tried calling the school, but the office had not seen him and didn’t know where he might be. I even tried texting the librarian, but she’d already left the school for the day. While I was talking to my friend, my husband tried to call but I fumbled answering it and accidentally hung up on him. Just as I started to call him back, the garage door opened and my son walked in the house. All he got out was “I got on the wrong bus” before he broke down in tears and couldn’t say another word. I told my husband he was home. While he and our daughter made their way back, I held my son as he cried and said “I’m sorry” over and over. I asked him what he was sorry about and he said “I don’t know, I’m just sorry.”

When he was finally calm enough to talk about it he shared that he had gotten on the wrong bus because they were in a different order than he was used to. He assumed the first bus in the line was his, as it had been every day so far. It even had a 9 at the end of the number, which his bus has. And the driver apparently looked similar to his bus driver, whom he is still getting used to seeing every day. When he finally figured out he was on the wrong bus he didn’t know what to do. He talked to the bus driver after the last person got off and said he was on the wrong bus. She was very kind and let him tell her where to go to get to his bus stop. She told him that he was the third person today to make a mistake on her bus and that he was very lucky that he got on her bus, since she didn’t have a route to get to right away. I’m so very grateful to that bus driver and wish there was a way for me to thank her. Maybe I’ll try to find a way to get something to her.

When my husband and daughter got home they went immediately to check on him, of course. I think he was embarrassed more than anything, but we distracted him with a few episodes of Bluey (yes, my kids are teenagers, but we watch Bluey as a family). I’d be willing to bet it will be a very long time before he leaves without his phone again and I’m certain he won’t make the mistake of getting on the wrong bus again! Lesson learned and crisis averted.