Exciting things are happening in the Frema-Useless Clutter household as Luke prepares to go back to work full time and we begin to contemplate a day-to-day schedule that accounts for the two of us plugging away for The Man from eight to five.
While I couldn't be happier about the benefits this will bring to Luke's confidence and our quality of life, I'm also a little nervous, because for the past eleven months, I've enjoyed immensely the benefits of a stay-at-home husband, whose duties have included but not been limited to packing my lunch, cooking my dinner, washing my clothes, and rubbing my feet while I'm sprawled on the couch, one wrist fastened to my forehead in an effort to acurately portray an individual trapped in the throes of corporate agony, the other balancing a bowl of ice cream on her belly while simultaneously grabbing at the VCR remote just out of reach on the coffee table, because forty-five minutes of soap opera folly is the only way to convince me to go towards the light.
What? Isn't every husband's turn-on enabling his wife to watch AMC in her sweatpants while licking melted dairy off her chin?
On Wednesday, major changes to my Paris Hilton way of life are sure to take place. And I'm glad. Since starting my job last summer, I've been struggling with how to make the best use of my time. Working in Rensselaer, I lived a stone's throw from the college and stamped my proverbial time card at 4:30, which meant I could get home in enough time to savor the last twenty minutes of 90210 on SoapNet. Now I have an extra half-hour tacked on to my work day, and with it a half-hour commute involving highways and traffic and alternate routes, and if I leave at 5:00 on the dot, I can expect to walk through the door at 5:30, but sometimes I'll stick around to wrap up some e-mail or tweak the layout of our quarterly client newsletter and suddenly it's 6:15. Then I get home and it's time for bed. There simply aren't enough hours in the day to stimulate my brain, clean the grout in the bathtub, and make the world a better place to live in by explaining to Luke just how it came to be that Erica Kane's thirty-five-year-old abortion procedure produced a healthy baby boy.
Maybe the retiring of Luke's SAHH status is just the motivation I need to re-evaluate my time-management skills. For the first time since he moved here last September we'll have the "normal" schedule I've dreamed of, and I intend to make the most of it. First order of business? Adding some much-needed time to my afternoon. Because my responsibilities aren't directly related to or influenced by production, my boss couldn't care less about how I log my hours, so the plan is to start my work day at 7:30 and leave by 4:30, thus arriving home at 5:00 and having six hours of unadulterated leisure in which to occupy myself as I see fit. Seeing as I normally crawl out of bed at a quarter to seven and am pertetually fifteen minutes late to work, this will prove a bit of a challenge, but I made it on Friday without any problems, and even though this morning wasn't as successful, I was still turning on my computer by 7:45, which is close enough to 7:30, so there you go.
One pitfall I'm noticing already: Getting up an hour earlier means I'm hungry an hour earlier, so for the last two work days I've been eating lunch at 10:30. I'm assuming this is generally frowned upon.
LOL! I think eating ice cream in your sweats sounds very relaxing, and you're supposed to eat when you're hungry! I think you have a very healthy outlook:)
Good morning! I'm just surfin' by...
Posted by: actonbell | August 21, 2006 at 02:40 PM
Glad to hear that life is progressing nicely.
As for eating lunch at 10:30AM, I see no problem with it if that is when you are hungry.
When I worked at the CBOE, my work day was from 5:30AM-3:00PM, so early lunch was a way of life around there.
I also used to nap in the lunchroom, gaining my trading floor nickname, "The Dozer."
Hey, it was a lot better than the other stuff they used to call me.
Posted by: Will Shannon | August 21, 2006 at 05:45 PM
Girl, I am waking up at 5:15 so I can make it to Jazzercise by 6:00. If I can do it, YOU can do it! Do you need me to call you after I get done Jazzercising and give you a wake-up call/cheer?
Posted by: Silly Hily | August 21, 2006 at 05:56 PM
Time management skills require having a plan. Having a plan requires choices of first, second, and thrid ... see now it is complexe already with just three items. However, work always needs to get done. It will get done and we all do the best that we can, when we can, and all time we can.
Posted by: daddy d | August 21, 2006 at 06:30 PM
LOL
Great post, Frema. Just make sure that you call it "brunch" if anyone asks.
Also.... 90210 is on SoapNet?!!!!!!
Posted by: Becky | August 21, 2006 at 06:44 PM
If it's any consolation, I seem to be on a schedule that requires me to eat breakfast around 10:30, lunch around 2:30, dinner around 6:30 and then continue snacking at least every 2 hours until bedtime.
Not that I'm recommending this eating schedule, I merely noticed the time "10:30am" and my brain kicked into food mode. Oops.
Posted by: Mrs. S | August 21, 2006 at 08:15 PM
good luck! I'm trying to get back into my routine as I went back to work today-yuck!
Posted by: butterflygirl | August 22, 2006 at 12:21 AM
Matt eats his lunch at 10:30 in the morning everyday he even trys to get us to eat lunch on the weekends at 10:30. I can't have pasta that early.
Posted by: Brooke | August 22, 2006 at 12:46 AM
Sounds like you have your schedule set for you sister. Good luck. I know how it is to try and change your schedule to wake up earlier. My 1st year teaching I was getting up at 5:45.m. to do more work beforehand. Now that I don't have my much loved teachers aides this year (sniff, sniff), I'm dreading the extra long hours I will have to put in to accomodate their absence. :(
Posted by: Sambo V. | August 22, 2006 at 01:05 AM
I have always thought that when we retire, Miles and I would do this at the same time. Then, yesterday, he was helping me make a bulletin board at school; he was so fastidious. His carefulness made me think that maybe he could retire and do the housecleaning. I could continue to teach school and not do the housecleaning. He did not seem wild about the retirement/housecleaning plan.
Of course, your lives are moving in the opposite direction. I am sure that you will manage the schedules, lunches, and comings, and goings well just differently.
Posted by: mjd | August 22, 2006 at 11:06 PM
AH! But if you were a KINDERGARTEN TEACHER, and had to have the first lunch period, it would totally be okay to eat lunch at 10:30! (Grrrr.)
The only thing that would have made this post BETTER is if you watched Young and the Restless instead of AMC.
Must go, finishing Y & R on tape before my ice cream melts :)
Posted by: Stacey | August 23, 2006 at 12:09 AM