I have one last thing to do before I go take a much needed nap: write this blog.
Why do I need a nap? It’s been an exceedingly busy week.
It started out with Mother’s Day. No explanation needed there for those of us who are mothers. However, my day included the fact that my daughter traveled up from the Valley to take me to dinner in town. I was to meet her and her housemates at 3 p.m.
I did learn in the course of the day’s events that the extra button on my armrest in the car DOES have a purpose. After church I tried to wind up my windows, and only the driver-side one worked. I use the word “wind”–long i–in the sense that I hit a button and tiny servo-motors in the doors do the actual work. This time, they didn’t work! I sighed, wondering what on earth was going on, and dreading the drive to town with the wind-noise assaulting my ears. Yeah, it was as bad as I imagined it would be.
I happened to mention that I probably needed to visit the car dealership to check out the window problem, and my daughter’s housemate said he’d take a look at. I’d located the various fuse boxes already in my ownership manual, and pointed them out. All the fuses looked good.
While my daughter was showing me their new van–which, incidentally, got totaled in an accident this week!–the housemate continued checking things out. I heard a whirring sound behind me: the window going up. Housemate had located the problem.
That extra button? It’s a child lock. It locks windows so children can’t operate the automatic buttons and roll the windows down. Somehow I accidentally tripped it.
That was Sunday. Monday was busy with preparing for a Book Signing the next day, as well as updating various web pages.
Tuesday was the four-hour-long book signing. Afterward, I went home and crashed after finishing preparations for the presentation on Dialogue that I was to give to a writers’ group the next day.
Wednesday I was prompted to go to the Valley after my presentation and attend another writers’ meeting. I grabbed my suitcase, which always has “travel” things in it, put in a change of clothes, and set off. The presentation went well, the drive was nice, and the meeting that evening was super. I even survived the night without my CPAP machine, which I had prepared to take along, but missed getting into the car.
I did several errands on Thursday, and went safely back home.
Friday was catch-up day, preparing for an American Night Writers Association Board meeting on Saturday. Printing off materials used up most of an ink cartridge. News came that the hostess was ill, so the meeting was moved to another home. I emailed that I was coming the next day, and to give me directions via phone by 8 a.m., my departure time.
After I got to the Valley, I checked my phone (which I had forgotten to turn on!!!) to learn that two other members of the Board woke up sick, so the meeting was postponed to another day. I ran several other errands (including getting passport photos taken), and met with family members to decorate the graves of my husband and daughter. Then I returned home, somewhat hot from the temperature in the Valley. I crashed for a nap, but when it was time to wake up, decided to just go back to sleep for the night.
Today was another busy Sunday, with choir practice before church. I think I’m wiped out now, so it’s nap time. I don’t want to fall ill like my fellow board members!
~Marsha Ward
Whew! I hear you!
This week I got to administer a workbook my group had developed on light & color to a ninth-grade science class, including all the last-minute preparations.
I had two Rainier Symphony rehearsals with the Rainier Symphony Chorus, which is composed mostly of members of the Northwest University Chorale and those from University Presbyterian Church’s Cathedral Choir.
I left late one morning to get the girls off to school since my wife had a Continuing Professional Education course that started early.
I soldered the components onto a prototyping shield for my brand-new Arduino Duemilanove, and attended a delightful class on using Arduinos in the sciences.
Yesterday my family and I started the day cleaning our chapel with another couple, then I left with one daughter for the University of Washington Physics Department, where I had a meeting (on Saturday!) to go through curriculum several of us will be teaching at this year’s NSF Summer Institute in Physics and Physical Science. My daughter and I got home around 3, then at 5:45 I left for the Rainier Symphony concert. We performed Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, which is an exhausting piece. Seriously, we perform the entire symphony in about 90 minutes, 30 of which is just the last movement. After I got home I helped organize the upstairs pantry and straighten up.
This morning we got up, got all of us ready, made a picnic lunch, and went to church. Afterwards, we ate our lunch on the grass at Kubota Gardens. Wow. The rhododendrons were in full bloom. From there, we drove to Foster High School in Tukwila for the Sunday Rainier Symphony concert, and my family got to hear Mahler II. Yeah, I played it again. They liked it, except for the younger daughter. Her reaction was to barf in the van on the way home. So I cleaned that up, finally relaxed a bit, and now the girls are in bed. Time for a bowl of Honey Graham Squares with my wife, and then we’re off to bed.
No wonder I’m tired.
@Ben Pratt
Whew indeed! Remind me which instrument you play, Ben.
Viola.
Ah yes. I used to play it, too, but I never played with any group other than high school and college orchestras and the occasional church group. I haven’t touched mine in years. Good for you.
I hear you Marsha. May is a busy time of the year. I have kids getting out of school this week with a graduation, recital and end of the year festivities it is fun and hectic.
On a related note, I once had a bishop who said Mormons were Jewish because our day of rest was Saturday, not Sunday. Some truth to that.
We have a day of rest? Really? All I have on my calendar are moving and welfare assignments, meetings, home teaching and PPI’s. I can’t seem to find this illusive day of rest.
After 20-plus years of Sunday callings, I now attend my meetings just cause I want to. Relatively speaking, day of stress has become day of rest. I wish you all the same, some day.
JA, perhaps when my children are older it will be more of a day of rest. Don’t get me wrong, I love attending the Sunday block, but the 6:30 a.m. leadership meetings can be a drag. My bishop says I am being blessed. I will have to take his word for it. 🙂