What a week! This working-from-home-and-taking-care-of-a-household thing is simply exhausting. To cut a long story short, I am wiped out.
Yesterday, I remember preparing something for dinner and then going to my bedroom. Next thing I know, I wake up this morning around 7 am., more than 12 hours later, with yesterday’s clothes still on. This hasn’t happened since my teenage years. Mind you, I feel better. The dishwasher hasn’t been emptied of course, but hey, it has been loaded. Baby steps, I say. We are making progress.
So what happened? Well, it has been an eventful week. Work is incredibly busy. On Wednesday, I woke up with a shooting pain on my right shoulder blade. I had to roll to the side to be able to stand, and do a complicated routine to sit or lie down. Anything involving my right arm was problematic. The worst was actually getting dressed. For a minute I wondered whether you could have virtual clothes on Teams or Zoom but no, apparently you can’t. So unfair: you can have a virtual background, but you still need clothes. Anyway, I eventually managed. The thing is, the beach house was designed to relax and enjoy life, not to work. I am spending my days talking to a computer, sitting on a stool. It must have taken its toll. After a couple of days of gentle stretches (and a few Panadol pills) I feel much better. Not 100% yet, but better. And when I catch myself indulging in a bit of self-pity, I quickly stop after remembering the fact that it could be much, much worse: when I was having contractions before giving birth, the only way to feel less pain was to walk on all fours, which I had to do for a couple of days. Ah, memories! Fellow mums will understand. As for everybody else, well, let’s just say that ignorance is bliss, and you just don’t know how fortunate you are not to have experienced this type of pain. Be grateful.
On the bright side, everybody has to be more independent because I am so busy, and in pain. The teenage girls have to learn to survive on instant noodles. They especially like the chicken flavored ones, but feel a bit guilty because our kitchen overlooks the neighbor’s chicken coop.
‘Isn’t it bad to eat chicken in front of other chicken?’
‘Oh yes, surely it’s abuse’
‘I really feel funny about it’
‘Maybe we shouldn’t’
It just never stops, right? It must be a generation thing. I would never think that eating chicken noodles would upset chicken. If I were a chicken, I would be much more scared of the fox I just saw the other morning while jogging than the girls’ chicken noodles, but maybe I am too prosaic.
To make matters even worse, the girls are now on holidays. This means that they go to bed in the wee hours of the morning and wake up in the middle of the day. I am seriously considering putting some loud music when I wake up to start my day of work to instill some much-needed discipline in this household, but decide against it. Let them be.
There is a new trend this Easter: dying your hair as bright as possible. Today I notice that one of the girls had dyed her hair blue. It’s not only the hair that’s blue, it’s also the skin all around it, her face and her arms. Even the bathroom appears to be painted blue. I ask them to clean it up. It doesn’t make me very popular.
It’s official, I have a Smurf at home. Or should I say a Smurfette?
I. Need. A. Rest.
I am told that pink is very fashionable, and also white. White? Seriously? Given that I am starting to get lots of grays, maybe I am becoming fashionable again? Honnestly, why would you pay to have grays? I am clearly out of touch. Let’s hope it’s just a phase. Sigh.
The girls are styling their hairs all day long. I am wondering what the bathroom will look like when they are finished. It’s probably better not to think too much about it. They seem to live in a parallel universe, waking up after I have had lunch. We don’t step on each other toes. Maybe that’s the way to go. Maybe they are becoming independent.
Truth be told, it isn’t all doom and gloom, and I am much happier since my scale has run out of battery. Having no scale in the house is pure bliss. Why did I put myself under so much pressure anyway? It was time to set my priorities right, and losing weight during this lockdown isn’t really what matters right now. Well, that’s my excuse anyway and you’ve got to live a little bit. And if I can’t have chocolate, what is the point of all this?
I don’t think I’ll stay up late tonight too. The girls seem to be having a party in the rumpus. I take the bins outside, and notice that the outside drain overflows.
Great, on top of everything else, it looks like I have a clog now. Of course it’s down to me to unclog it. Guess what: it’s full of hair…
