Dearest Rachel –
I had this title in mind when I was on my way to the ‘office’ yesterday morning; if I could get everything accomplished that I had in mind for the day, I could write and tell you about how much I managed to do. And in a way, it was a relatively busy docket, given my circumstances. I did have a trio of bills to pay and record, and the events of the night before stretched out for a good fifteen hundred words, which would take some time to compose. If I could accomplish them by lunchtime, that might be worthy of comment, especially when a lot of days don’t require so much of me.
But those sort of tasks can be completed in an hour or two; this isn’t something that should take an entire day. And if I get them done, it’s not really anything worth patting myself on the back over.
I think I may have had the idea to go home and grab Daniel in order to collect his car, which had made it to the dealership as of Saturday afternoon. We had told Will that we weren’t coming down over the weekend (especially since I was already committed to working the booth), but would do so at the earliest opportunity this week; I think I actually thought that I might just put in those few hours at the office before turning around, heading home, picking up Daniel, and going to get the vehicle. And if we had been able to do that, that would’ve been productivity worth writing you about.
But of course, there were other mitigating factors getting in the way of that little pipe dream. For one thing, Monday (and Thursday, but that’s not germane to this recounting) is ‘wash day’ for Daniel; he pops himself into the tub as soon as he wakes up, and I have to let him know via WhatsApp that I’m home, and he needs to get out of there so we can go to Sparks – which often takes the better part of half an hour, as he needs to realize I’m home, get out of the tub and drain it, dry off, and get dressed before heading downstairs to greet me so we can head off.
And Sparks, of course, is another thing; we need to show up there early in order to help set up, since we’re generally able to – and before that, we need to grab something to eat. Granted, that last bit was easier this time around than most, since I’d collected our leftovers from Thursday night from Mom’s fridge. But all together, there was no place to squeeze in a trip down to Glendale Heights and back.
So I’d let Jenn know (because I don’t have Will’s number – at least I don’t think I do) that Monday wasn’t going to be feasible to head down, either. So why was I thinking that my workload – which was mostly comprised of personal stuff, anyway – would be a mountain to celebrate climbing, as opposed to the fairly typical rolling hill that I usually stroll up and around?
All I can guess is that it was one of the two times each month when I pay my credit card bills, which are a little more complicated to record than the average utility. Every transaction has to be itemized when I write it down, and there are a number of them throughout the month – although they generally fall under one category or another, since (as you’ll recall) I compartmentalize my credit cards; the Visa for gas and Costco (although that’s something of a redundancy), one MasterCard for restaurants, the other for charitable contributions (from whence all those hypermarket coupons come from, in a literal example of “cast your bread onto the waters, and they will return to you”), and the Discover for everything else.
But at the same time, this was the easier pair; the Visa and the restaurant card, which generally are smaller than the other two (which I usually have to deal with about a week into the month). I’m still puzzled as to why I thought I was being particularly productive by handling them yesterday. Maybe it’s because I’d gotten notice about them a week before, and I was finally getting to them – still long before they would be due, but before the end of the month, so it still felt like an accomplishment for some reason. But when I back up a little and look at the tasks, my enthusiasm seems just a little silly.
Today and tomorrow are going to require a bit more effort to clear their dockets, since I’ll be driving Daniel down to the dealership today, and meeting Lars for our customary walk tomorrow. In the meantime, I need to contact my insurance broker and add the new car to the roll, as well as getting in touch with the state for an I-Pass sticker (our trip back from Glendale Heights will need to be on surface streets rather than the toll road for that very reason). At the same time, I still need to keep up with you about what’s happening – and ironically, it’s when I have the most to tell you about that I have the least time to do so. Looks like those essays I started earlier this week will have to wait, as life’s going to get busy.
So yeah, what was passing for productivity yesterday was hardly worth commenting on, but if I can get through the next couple of days – and keep you up to date about them – then I’ll have something to crow about. Until then, keep an eye on me and wish me well, as I’m going to need it.
