I do this all the time. I don't intend to, and I can honestly say that I do begin projects in a timely manner, but the problem is that I tend to overestimate how fast i can get things done and I underestimate the time it just might take. This doesn't help in general, but it seriously poses a problem during pregnancy because the more needs to get done close to the Blessed Event, but the ability to get things done has quickly and dramatically decreased.
Let's take today for instance. It's a Wednesday and my husband has a trip and those are the perfect days for me to get the kids' rooms cleaned up, laundry washed and folded and possibly even put away, errands done and dinner prep done ahead of time... Theoretically, this sounds absolutely and completely do-able. My soul is willing, but I never seem to take into account the state of how my body may or may not react. Why I cannot seem to get it through my head that I am 35 weeks pregnant and that I can't catapult into my day with a massive jolt of caffeine and hit the ground running astounds me every day. I would compare it to what I must imagine those little old 95 year-old ladies who wear the coke bottle glasses and are still driving (at 15 mph, mind you) and teeter about thinking that everything is perfectly normal and that they don't need one bit of help. I am sure they believe themselves to be not a day over 68 and all is right in their world, but the reality of the situation is quite different. Such must be my case. I THINK I can, but CAN I? Every day I am slightly disappointed... and I really shouldn't be.
I made myself a list as I do when my husband goes on trips- an extensive To Do List that makes perfect sense and quite easily (in my mind) accomplishable. However, I propped myself up in bed last night with about five pillows and my trusty body pillow to help ward off discomfort and the acidy heartburn that comes from, well, virtually anything combined with a horizontal position and I decided to get a good night of rest. 10:30- lights out. Sleep did not come until 12:30am and I was up before 1am because I had to pee. I did fall asleep when I returned until about 2:30 which is when the next bathroom visit was necessary. 4:15am was my husband's alarm and again another bathroom break and I was simply lying down at 4:30 or so when my husband needed to actually get up to go to work. Shortly thereafter, I had a bed visitor, my five year old daughter knew Daddy was leaving and likes to join me and an hour later my son also joined us and extremely quickly after that, the urgent inquiries to watch tv began and after the lack of sleep and the kicking baby in my belly, I quickly relented. Needless to say, this is how the snowball begins. A shower was more than necessary and needless to say, breakfast wasn't on the table until past 10:30am. And now, all I wanted to do was to sit down. Had I accomplished anything other than my usual goal of "not stinking" and getting dishes done and children fed? Nope. Did I now feel like dressing the kids, getting the dog settled, and get out the door to go on the errands to the four separate places that I needed to and intended to go, all requiring both the exiting of the car and carts and then once finished at the locations, the loading of the car, seatbelts, etc and then off to the next one? Really? And THIS is when I look at my list as I've just been completely tired out by showering, breakfast and dishes and my already slightly swelling feet and ankles and think, "What on EARTH are you THINKING?!" Maybe there are some Super Pregnant Mommies out there who can do all this without batting an eye lash, but my eye lashes are batting a mile a minute with intermittent eye-rolls inserted as well to those women who are obviously making me look very bad at this point.
My husband keeps telling me to just do what I can and take it easy... He is the most wonderful man ever and I should probably just listen to him. Pregnancy is temporary and it won't be like this forever, but unfortunately that doesn't help me today...
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Used Books
Call me crazy, but I love a used book. There certainly is a place for a brand new hard cover from Barnes & Noble should the mood strike your fancy, but really, a used book has a story beyond the story to tell and if you are lucky enough, it just might give you a little chuckle.
We used to live in the cute little New England town of North Andover and biannually at the library there is a huge book sale over a weekend where on the last day, they issue Butcher Boy paper sacks and fill it to the brim with whatever treasures you will and it's a mere $4 per bag. This is my Christmas and if I'm lucky, I get to go twice in a year. In the past few years, I believe that most of my acquisitions have been from this sale. Since I can pack them into these bags, I don't always get around to reading them as fast as I can buy them because if I read all the books that I own, then I start to panic a little and then I have to beg my husband for more book money, and that's just a whole other issue and blog post that I just can't get into right now that involves the end of the world and having no more books to read should all the libraries close... I'll stop right there. Back to the used books: So, when I finally get around to reading some of these precious volumes, there are times when I get the bonus prize in them. Sometimes the bonus prize comes with other additions such as chocolate and/or orange cheese curl powder fingerprints on the corners of the pages where no doubt some reader was enjoying their book so much so that they forgot the obligatory napkin wipe of their fingers before leaving behind their identity, making their mark for all time and if I was just that crazy enough (I think I might be), I could see about checking out those prints. Sometimes there are ticket stubs, dry cleaner stubs, torn airplane or bus tickets and sometimes if I am lucky enough, note cards with notes. Other times there are passages underlined and notes in the margins and this, this is where it can get really, really hilarious.
Now, I'm not talking about educated, poignant remarks concerning literary devices in classical works-those would be great, I'm referring to completely random, un-insightful and particularly inane comments in the margins of non-classical literature. I have a few of those and have had a blast reading through some novels because of them. Good times. Forget the romantic comedy, pop some popcorn and find a contemporary novel that has notes in it written by a teenage girl! I'm serious.
This past spring I read Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything is Illuminated and was delighted that I came across such a delightful find. The novel itself was interesting to read enough. I didn't think it particularly fantastic, but it was good and what made it hysterical were these crazy notes that edged along the margins with the typical bubble writing and little tiny circles that dotted her every 'i' and if you think I am being stereotypical by assuming it was a girl, no, she wrote her name along the opening binding along the closed edges. Her name is Marissa.
First foray into her awesome insight begins on the About the Author page at the beginning of the novel:
-won many awards
-is totally hot
-went to Princeton
and then she re-writes the author's name in what I am assuming to be her "OMG HE'S HOT" best handwriting. I kid you not.
Then comes all the underlining. Believe me, I am a huge believer in underlining, but it's almost as if she was reading with her eyes closed and just picked random sentences with the most articles in it because they weren't in my opinion anything quite relevant at all... at ALL. Perhaps some cute smart boy was watching her read this novel and she wanted to look like she was getting a lot out of it so she began to underline? I don't know... If you want to see for yourself, I can lend the book to you.
There is also a note; Sexual stuff on page 119
Wow. Good to note. I hope she did great on her paper with that one!
It trails off after the middle and there are only a few short and shaky lines underneath random words from the middle to the end so I am thinking she either did not finish, got extremely bored with reading or noting her pertinent passages or the boy who was watching her walked away and never came back. Furthermore, there was a stack, a stack of note cards shoved in the center-- they were blank. Where is Sherlock when you need him? See how much fun all this can be? Trying to figure out the life or some previous owner from these weird little fragments left behind?
So, like I said, buying a brand new book can save you from this nonsense, but there are times where I really enjoy catching a glimpse into (and apparently mocking) the life and intelligence of some other previous reader. And who knows, some of my old books are out there and someone is probably saying the exact same thing...
We used to live in the cute little New England town of North Andover and biannually at the library there is a huge book sale over a weekend where on the last day, they issue Butcher Boy paper sacks and fill it to the brim with whatever treasures you will and it's a mere $4 per bag. This is my Christmas and if I'm lucky, I get to go twice in a year. In the past few years, I believe that most of my acquisitions have been from this sale. Since I can pack them into these bags, I don't always get around to reading them as fast as I can buy them because if I read all the books that I own, then I start to panic a little and then I have to beg my husband for more book money, and that's just a whole other issue and blog post that I just can't get into right now that involves the end of the world and having no more books to read should all the libraries close... I'll stop right there. Back to the used books: So, when I finally get around to reading some of these precious volumes, there are times when I get the bonus prize in them. Sometimes the bonus prize comes with other additions such as chocolate and/or orange cheese curl powder fingerprints on the corners of the pages where no doubt some reader was enjoying their book so much so that they forgot the obligatory napkin wipe of their fingers before leaving behind their identity, making their mark for all time and if I was just that crazy enough (I think I might be), I could see about checking out those prints. Sometimes there are ticket stubs, dry cleaner stubs, torn airplane or bus tickets and sometimes if I am lucky enough, note cards with notes. Other times there are passages underlined and notes in the margins and this, this is where it can get really, really hilarious.
Now, I'm not talking about educated, poignant remarks concerning literary devices in classical works-those would be great, I'm referring to completely random, un-insightful and particularly inane comments in the margins of non-classical literature. I have a few of those and have had a blast reading through some novels because of them. Good times. Forget the romantic comedy, pop some popcorn and find a contemporary novel that has notes in it written by a teenage girl! I'm serious.
This past spring I read Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything is Illuminated and was delighted that I came across such a delightful find. The novel itself was interesting to read enough. I didn't think it particularly fantastic, but it was good and what made it hysterical were these crazy notes that edged along the margins with the typical bubble writing and little tiny circles that dotted her every 'i' and if you think I am being stereotypical by assuming it was a girl, no, she wrote her name along the opening binding along the closed edges. Her name is Marissa.
First foray into her awesome insight begins on the About the Author page at the beginning of the novel:
-won many awards
-is totally hot
-went to Princeton
and then she re-writes the author's name in what I am assuming to be her "OMG HE'S HOT" best handwriting. I kid you not.
Then comes all the underlining. Believe me, I am a huge believer in underlining, but it's almost as if she was reading with her eyes closed and just picked random sentences with the most articles in it because they weren't in my opinion anything quite relevant at all... at ALL. Perhaps some cute smart boy was watching her read this novel and she wanted to look like she was getting a lot out of it so she began to underline? I don't know... If you want to see for yourself, I can lend the book to you.
There is also a note; Sexual stuff on page 119
Wow. Good to note. I hope she did great on her paper with that one!
It trails off after the middle and there are only a few short and shaky lines underneath random words from the middle to the end so I am thinking she either did not finish, got extremely bored with reading or noting her pertinent passages or the boy who was watching her walked away and never came back. Furthermore, there was a stack, a stack of note cards shoved in the center-- they were blank. Where is Sherlock when you need him? See how much fun all this can be? Trying to figure out the life or some previous owner from these weird little fragments left behind?
So, like I said, buying a brand new book can save you from this nonsense, but there are times where I really enjoy catching a glimpse into (and apparently mocking) the life and intelligence of some other previous reader. And who knows, some of my old books are out there and someone is probably saying the exact same thing...
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