The HM Express

Ahh...yes. A lovely snow day was delivered to me at 6:10 a.m. Of course, by then, I had already been up for two hours, made the lunches, laid out the clothes, had a shower, and taken my morning nap. But who's complaining? By 7:00, I was working my fingers to the bone on my schoolwork, had a load of laundry sudsing, and had taken calls from HH and my mother. I'm a multi-tasker of the first magnitude.

At 9:00, everything stopped while I watched two episodes of ER on TBS. Or TNT. One of those Turner channels. They were good ones, too. Abby delivered baby Joe, and Sam killed her husband. Sam's own jailbird husband, not Abby's husband and Sam's former lovahhhh, sweet, sweet Luka. Jerry almost died. Hey, his mother is George's mother off Seinfeld. Who knew? Weaver fell on the knife for Luka, abdicating her throne as Chief of Staff. Neela made a drunken pass at Uncle Jesse. Pratt had nothing to do, and red-headed Morris wheedled his way back into his job. I still haven't figured out when he became a salesman. It must have been when HH called me the second time. He was bored, waiting for a delivery at work. HH is like that. He can't stand for me to have a day off. I asked him how many more times he was going to call, and he hung up in a huff.

By 11:00, it was time to boil up a big pot o'noodles for the boys' lunch. At 11:15 I was in the garage, holding a ladder for the #1 son to climb on top of the LSUV to get the fake Christmas tree out of the garage rafters. Then I hung the shrinkable clothes to dry in the laundry room. I made myself a delicious chili cheese dog for lunch, with a side of Cherry Diet Coke from my own stash of Save-A-Lot Maraschino cherries and canned Diet Coke. It was acceptable. I watched an episode of St. Elsewhere Season 1 for my dinner show.

By 2:00, I was back to work. Out of the 10 sets document thingies that I need to turn in before Christmas break, I completed four. There are two more I plan to get done tonight. Then I will only have to do one every couple of nights to meet my deadline. The 90-minute dinner break was not on my schedule, but what can you do? There are always three people in my Mansion clamoring for food.

This is a busy week. The Pony has elbow therapy tomorrow after school. Wednesday, I must not forget my morning duty, and I have to accompany my mother to a doctor's appointment, abandoning my kids to Mabel or the Book Fair until I can get there after school for them. My Not-The-Lunch-Lady crony has agreed to take my 7th hour class on her prep time so I don't have to take a whole day off. I think Mr. S can be persuaded to take my afternoon duty with the usual bribe of a bag of food. Now all I have to do is get this plan approved by the principal. He's usually quite accommodating when you save him a sub. I don't mind if they dock me the hour. I would rather avoid missing the whole day. Let's see...then there's the #1 son's church program practice Wednesday night. It happens to be his birthday Wednesday, but he wants his presents Tuesday, and no cake, so I think I can oblige. Then there's his school Christmas program Thursday night, and The Pony's Christmas program Saturday night. Whew! Are you tired yet? I'm hoping the Christmas door contest thingy is extended, because I also have a gift bag I want to give my sweatshop workers on Wednesday, and I don't know when I'm going to get that ready. Everything happens on a Wednesday.

This has been a nice respite, but now I must get back to work on my documentations.