A Week in the Life - Day 2

Mark's Version

Wednesday - 7:00 AM

I wake up to let out the dog and then get to work on recapping Tuesday. My fingers are flying so furiously that I lose track of time and write longer than I expected to.

7:45 AM

I jump in the shower, quietly so as to not wake up Stacy. Again, quick showers are no problem for me, which is good since I'm running late. I pack my bag, complete with my office schedule book, my iPod, and reading material. Today it is Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett. It's from the monumental Discworld series. If you are a fan of fantasy stories as well as Monty Python, check them out. Such good reads.

8:00 AM

I lock the front door and head to the car. Unseasonably warm weather has moved in, which spares me from scraping the windshield, further delaying me.

8:10 AM

Today I avoid all school buses and heavy farm machinery and make only one very short stop to take a picture of a road sign Stacy wanted to immortalize. Even with that diversion I get to the hospital rather quickly and get to work.

The schedule looks fairly light today, and there are no kids that need to get to school today, so I can do all of the work on the adult unit before moving on. There are a few telephone orders to sign, a bunch of charts to attend to, and a handful of physicals to do. Nobody has a very complicated medical history today so the work moves very quickly. 

8:50AM

I head to the extended unit while my assistant goes to prepare the child and adolescent unit. Nobody stops me on the way in to chat so I get to the station without any incidents. I get there as the psych assistant (PA) is announcing the morning schedule over the unit speakers. Morning goals followed by  fresh air break (walk) for those who can leave the unit for limited periods of time. Today the chatty PA is there so I have to block out the ambient conversations. I try to concentrate on the blood work I need to analyze, but I do catch something about an ex-boyfriend, Rottweiler, and neck tattoos. It's already more than I care to know so I don't turn around to ask any probing questions.  Also, someone brought chocolate cake with peanut butter icing. No, thank you.

9:00 AM

I hustle over to the child and adolescent unit where a pile of charts awaits my attention. There are a few orders to write, but otherwise I have to see everyone today. One kid decides he doesn't want to see us so he refuses to come for his physical. Fine. I just saved 5 minutes. Most of the teens are nice with no major medical issues. Honestly, most the kids I see there don't really need me. It's more of a formality. One 13-year-old boy is especially surly this morning.

 "You made my lip bleed."

I didn't even touch the kid at this point so puzzled I ask why.

"When you told me to open my mouth and say, 'Ah,' the side of my lips cracked."

Oh, right. All my fault. I'm so sorry for doing MY JOB! I'm not at all surprised that in the chart it reveals his issues with Oppositional Defiant Disorder. The rest of his physical continues with a series of complaints and dirty looks with attitude. When he complains that he doesn't want to be in the psych hospital I let him know that punching his mother and then trying to stab his sister with a butter knife were to blame. He's not much for personal responsibility either.

9:25 AM

I'm all finished for the day. Yes, just over an hour later. They'll still call me all day, but not a bad way to put in a day's work. I start up the car, local programming on NPR comes on, and I'm off. Today they're discussing mayoral elections in Lancaster and Harrisburg. I sort of listen but I'm distracted by the kid trying to escape from the hospital. Yep. One of the ones I saw yesterday. 

"Hey, kid. You can run, but they will always find you. And, you'll get to stay longer."

I wanted to yell that, but mostly I just wanted to get home.

9:35 AM

I pull into the gym and sign in. Classic rock is spewing from the stereo speakers and I am assaulted with the unmistakable odor of sweat mixed with cheap cologne. It's still early so the bleach smell from the bathrooms helps neutralize the smell. I quickly change and jump on the treadmill. Without my glasses I can't really see what's on the TV screens ahead of me, but I know on the left it's Fox News (ironic, right?), spewing whatever half-truths are important right now. Probably issues with Obamacare and the exchange website. On the right it will be ESPN, and I'm pretty sure they're talking about Game 6 of the World Series tonight, but I am quite blind without my glasses so I can't be absolutely certain.

10:40 AM

After a quick shower, I make a run to Big Lots to exchange Scout's Halloween costume. Yes, we are trying to dress up the dog for the holiday. Max is really excited about this so even though Scout normally hates wearing anything resembling clothing we're giving it a go. The costume we bought was too big so I'm making the switch. I return it for the original price of $10. Today it's half off, so we save $5 in the process. I know it doesn't seem like a lot, but 5 bucks is 5 bucks.

10:45 AM

I pull up to the house and carefully open the door so the dog won't come running out. I receive no greeting. The house is silent, which is very strange. Normally everyone is at the table eating, or they're reading on the couch, or they're writing in the school room. This morning it was silent. I went upstairs and found Stacy, Max, and Scout all cuddling in bed. Stacy had a rough night and didn't fall asleep until after 4 AM. Plus, who would turn down cuddling with a great kid and sweet dog? 

11:15 AM

Kate finally wanders into the room. We weren't up terribly late last night, but she needed some sleep. She has definitely entered the teen stage. We all talk and Stacy tells us about a crazy news story she read before bed. After hearing about a sociopathic crazy man who lies about being  a doctor and lawyer, and eventually ends up as a suspect in his wife's apparent murder. Yeah, that will help you fall asleep.

11:40 AM

It's not quite noon yet so it must still be breakfast time. We're planning on going to a Brazilian steakhouse tonight so that means we'll eat way too much food. In preparation, we've decided to eat a small breakfast and small afternoon snack so our stomachs will be prepped and primed to handle a lot of protein. I eat an English muffin and tea. We spend most of "breakfast" talking about Brazilian steakhouses. We also discuss how humorous today's day in the life post is going to be.

Noon

Stacy heads to the shower and I help the kids with some workbooks. I plan on helping Stacy dry her hair since this takes a while and is one of her least favorite things to do in the morning. After helping the kids with the math portion of their workbooks, I head upstairs to work on my Tuesday day in the life post while Stacy finishes showering. By the time I get there she is out of the shower, wrapped in a towel, working on writing today's post.  As it gets closer to 1:00 it's clear she won't be ready for my help yet so I go downstairs to the clinic.

1:00 PM

Since I essentially took Tuesday afternoon off to go to the movie I have to make it up somewhere. Today is one of those days. I have a pretty full slate of patients this afternoon. I come out frequently to see if I can help Stacy. Sometimes I can't leave the room while my patients have needles in because I have a lot of paperwork or phone calls to make. Today I was in and out a lot.

1:35 PM

Stacy is ready for my help so we chat while I help dry her hair. It may sound like a silly thing, but I really like when we have a chance to talk like this. I know how much she dislikes getting ready for the day so I'm always happy that I can help even a little.

1:55 PM

I head back down to the office. Have I mentioned how much I love my commute?

4:35 PM

After a full afternoon, which included not only seeing patients, but also writing my portion of the Tuesday post and inserting pictures, I make a few phone calls and get ready to leave. 

4:50 PM 

We leave to meet the Johnsons before heading to the restaurant. We mentally prepare for the insane and somewhat obscene amount of animal flesh we are about to consume.

5:00 PM

Since the Johnsons' van can hold all 8 of us, we all ride together in their car. Along the way we play Rubberneckers, a very fun card came you can play in the car. It's great to pass the time on a road trip. Since the restaurant is over an hour away it gave us enough time to play a round or two before arriving at the restaurant.

6:10 PM 

Getting out of the van I'm immediately overwhelmed by the aroma of various meats being cooked over an open flame. Um, I'll take some of THAT please. We spend the next couple of hours eating a lot. Picture eating way too much meat at one meal. Now double that. That amount of food will probably not even approach how much we ate. 

It was awesome.

Meat served on sword skewers just keeps coming to the table. And you just keep eating as much as you want. And since it's little servings at a time, you don't realize how much food you're actually eating until it's too late.

Eating out with the Johnsons is great because we all really appreciate good food. We also laugh a lot while we're together so we make a lot of jokes about how much we're actually eating. Eventually we all eat about 2 bites too many and feel really sick. Delirium sets in. Thought processes slow down. And conversations get derailed. And in the end, we are all just so happy to share this experience together.

8:45 PM

We all walk, shuffle, and roll out to the car to go home. There is a lot of grunting and groaning as we all try to climb into the car. The boys spend the whole ride home playing some sort of role-playing tame they've made up. They actually started playing at the restaurant and continued playing in the car. They can go for hours with this stuff. Max is really creative and a very good storyteller. We hang out at the Johnson house for a little bit, but not too long since we have a crazy Thursday ahead of us. Also, none of our brains seem to be working right because together we ate the equivalent of a small herd of cattle.

10:30 PM

We arrive home and greet our crazy dog. She is thrilled to see us, but her nose immediately discovers the wad of meat in my pocket. Instead of wasting the food we couldn't eat, we wrapped it in paper towels and brought it home for her. She ate it in about 30 seconds and I'm quite sure she'll vomit it by morning, but Scout sure is happy right now.

The whole family expresses gratitude for such a fun day, and we all hope to have a wonderful day tomorrow. Morning comes early and Thursdays are always busy so we encourage the kids to get right to sleep. Stacy and I catch up on the end of Game 6 of the World Series. As the final out approaches we get the kids to come down and watch.

11:23 PM

The Red Sox clinch the World Series at home for the first time since 1918.

11:25 PM

I keep fighting off the food coma so I can finish this blog post. Stacy is on the sofa with the dog, typing furiously. I'm sitting on the love seat next to a big pile of clean laundry. I should fold it, but I'm feeling too tired. Maybe it can be one of those things that's going to happen on Thursday.

ABOUT 1:00 AM

We decide to watch something funny on TV to try and quiet our minds. We choose "The Goldbergs," mostly because it's the only new thing to watch on our TiVo. Baseball forced repeats of "New Girl" and "Modern Family."

1:30 AM We go upstairs and get ready for bed. As is our custom, we talk for longer than we should and we stay up later. We can seriously talk and talk.

2:00 AM Bed time. I'm exhausted and have no problems falling asleep. Scout looks like she's going to explode from all the meat we gave her to eat. I hope she has a good night.

Stacy's Version

7:50 AM

Mark kisses me and leaves for work. I am exhausted and try desperately to stay asleep as I’ve only been asleep for over 3 hours. That’s right. I couldn’t fall asleep yesterday. My bad. We usually watch something funny (like an episode of a sitcom) before bed and that helps me wind down nicely and sleep well. Because it was so late when we got home and because I was kind of grumpy, we skipped it and I paid for it by being unable to sleep. I wrote and read news articles (have you heard about the sociopathic “doctor” from Pleasant Grove, Utah?!?), neither of which are good before-bed activities for me, and all of that kept me up into the wee hours. I turned off the lights around 3:30 but couldn’t sleep until after 4:15. Insanity! This is not typical at all. I generally fall asleep by 1ish the latest. Apparently NaNoWriMo has me revved up, too.

10:15 AM

I’m in bed, stirring, painfully aware that I’ve begun a new habit of clenching my teeth. I hate it. It hurts. I’ve never done this before! It sucks. All morning, I’ve made myself go back to sleep every time I’ve woken up. I am making sure that I get at least 6 hours minimum. It’s crazy how I can’t sleep more than that these days. I’ve noticed season changes mess with my eating and my sleep. Maybe that’s it. It very well could be. This happens. Either way, this is late for me to be getting up. But I do try to get good sleep – I’m convinced that good sleep is linked to good health.

Max comes in my room. He, too, has slept in and I’m glad. We are often up late. I am sure this sounds all-kinds-of-lazy to most people, but if you think about it, our schedules are simply shifted. Yes, we sleep in, but we also go to bed late. It’s the same waking hours, just shifted. And we work well in these hours. Mark is on a slightly earlier schedule (really, I usually get up after he leaves for work), but in general we are on similar-ish schedules and this works well for us. Admittedly, this is a very late morning for us, but I think it’s all the craziness of the past several days catching up with us.

I am snuggling with Scout – such a great way to sleep in. She wags her tail when she sees Max and he climbs in bed with us. We all cuddle for a while longer. I love this! We are mostly quiet and mellow, but we eventually talk more about Scout and about NaNoWriMo and books we’re reading. I love cuddles.

10:45 AM

I am almost embarrassed to write this, except that I am telling you this is a-typical! While we generally have laid-back mornings and wake up later than most people – this is absurd today. I hear someone on the stairs and assume it’s Kate.

Nope. It’s Mark. He is back from the hospital, all dressed up professionally. He has already gotten up early (remember, he fell asleep long before I did), done some writing, worked, run an errand, and worked out at the gym. I’m feeling pretty lazy at this point. He sees us, smiles, and says, “You’ve been sleeping all this time?!?” and I tell him how I couldn’t fall asleep until almost 4:30. He is always happy for me when I sleep in. How sweet is that? Scout is ecstatic to see him. She loves us all, but Mark is her favorite. He comes over and joins us and we all keep talking about books and funny stories. It’s so nice.

11:15 AM

The door opens. Kate is up. She was up past 1:30 (I’m telling you – we’re all wired; we love NaNoWriMo). She comes in and joins us. Now, all 5 of us are in and around the bed. Scout greets her and licks her like crazy – it’s a morning tradition. We’re all snuggling and laughing and talking and I think to myself, “This is what life is all about.” I share with them my crazy late night of night being able to sleep and tell them about some of the crazy news articles I read. We talk about doing these week-in-the-life posts. They share stories from the write-in yesterday. We talk about our friends, our day. Lazy, lazy, wonderful morning. We are all smiling and laughing and relaxed and happy and mellow.

11:40 AM

We drag our sorry butts out of bed and go downstairs for, what, breakfast? This is ridiculous. It’s almost lunch time. We’re not eating much today, because we’re saving space in our stomachs for our Brazilian feast tonight.

We and the Johnsons have both bought Groupons for a great deal at a Brazilian all-you-can-eat place (Rodizio Steakhouse) about an hour from here. We are having dinner together tonight. Dinner is always an event for us – we sit and talk and eat for hours. Tonight will be extra special with the Brazilian experience. It is their first time – they are excited. Our kids have done it once so far and they are extremely pumped to do it again.

We let Scout out to go potty and we eat breakfast – I have green lemon tea and half a buttered English Muffin. We talk about skipping lunch and eating a small snack so that we have plenty of room for dinner. We talk about tonight and all the yummy foods there. Our family is always talking. We talk a lot. It’s fun to have Mark with us – he usually eats before work, so breakfast is the one meal a day that he’s not usually home for when he works at the hospital. We talk more about our blog posts. Everyone is excited to do them. The kids grab notebooks and start taking notes. I start to feel a little scared at what they might say.

11:50 AM

The kids work on some workbooks that cover a variety of topics. I come upstairs to get ready. I yell down the stairs first, telling the kids I’ll pay $2 to whoever can find my missing book. I am obsessive about finding lost items. Have I mentioned that?

I take a shower. Whenever I shower, I think and think and think. A LOT. I often wish there were some kind of device that could write those thoughts down as I think them. I often get out of the shower and write things down right away. They’ve done studies that show that taking a hot shower makes us open up in a way that causes us to have many and creative thoughts.

I think about our kids, our posts, things to do, stuff to write, and how much I hate getting ready. It is one of my least favorite things to do.

I get out of the shower, wrap myself in a towel, and write more. Since we’re not really eating lunch, Mark grabs his laptop and writes next to me before his afternoon patients. I write, check news online, email, etc. I love John Green – I’m convinced the guy is a genius. I write more. Writing sucks me in the way reading books can. You lose track of time and just enjoy. I better get ready.

At some point the dog flips out. She has radar ears for the mailman (who she hates) and we see that it’s too early for him and wonder if Mark’s patients have arrived early (the clinic is downstairs from our room). The UPS guy (she’s not too fond of him either) has dropped off a package in the waiting room. Mark brings it upstairs to surprise me. It’s Rainbow Rowell’s new book, Fangirl. Another NaNoWriMo distraction! Kate is going to FLIP when she sees it. We are both eager to read this one. We love, love, love Eleanor & Park. Mark has gotten surprises for us all. Max got a book, too. Kate’s BFF’s birthday present has also arrived – part of it anyway. Packages are fun and Mark is super thoughtful.

1:00 PM

Mark goes in the clinic for the afternoon. He and I have been writing non-stop for the past hour. No discipline - I was supposed to be getting ready. I really need to do that now. Scout is with the kids. Kate is writing. Max is playing Mario Kart. We’ve been playing Mario Kart now and then as a family these past few days – it’s fun. Max has cleaned his room and gotten ready for the day. Kate has not yet. Opposite of yesterday. It’s all good. Everyone is happy and flexible and self-driven.

1:05 PM

Okay, I really need to stop writing and get ready now. Going now.

1:06 PM

I don’t want to. I so so so dislike getting ready. I like being showered and dressed, but I dislike getting ready, especially on days that I wash my hair. I love my hair –it’s thick and long. It does take a long time to dry, but since I don’t have oily hair, I can wash it twice a week and be fine. I love that.

I read more news online. I look at the date. The Red Sox are playing tonight!

1:12 PM

Seriously. I need to finish getting ready.

1:16 PM

I am reading and writing and thinking about how I should be getting ready and about how I really probably do have ADD. Everyone is writing and loving these week-in-the-life posts. Natural writing. Natural learning. Mark’s phone rings. Oops, he forgot to take it with him into the clinic and he’s on call. When he works at the hospital in the mornings, he is on call for 24 hours afterward. I instant message him to tell him.

He comes upstairs (I love having the business in our home!) and gets his phone. He sees that I’m still wrapped it a towel and haven’t gotten ready yet and that I’m writing. He laughs. He tells me he gets it, because he’s on a roll in his writing, too. This is a great way to get us paying attention to detail in our writing with NaNoWriMo starting in less than 2 days.

Okay, I really need to get ready now.

1:20 PM

I actually get up to get ready and come back to say, “This is an abnormally lazy, distracted day, but I think I needed this after the past many, many days of go-go-go. Since this is a spotlight on a few days at a time, you don’t see what leads up to it. It’s been a lot. Okay, back to getting ready.”

1:22 PM

I get up again and really get ready this time. Wait, Mark is instant messaging me. I tell him I’m really getting ready now. He teases me. I think he likes distracting me. He makes me laugh.

1:24 PM

Seriously this time.

I get ready. I love our old farmhouse, but sometimes I get sick of living in an older home and think about modernizing. The bathroom is small and crowded and has no counter space. I could use more sunlight for sure. There is no exhaust fan so it gets muggy, which isn’t good for me allergy-wise. There are no closets so half of my clothes are under the bed in boxes or strewn about our bed and chair while the rest are in a hallway closet that we all share along with the towels and linens. It’s a real trick when we have guests – I have to think ahead and pull out the clothes so I don’t go walking out there half-naked to find more clothes.

I try to decide what to wear and think about Steve Jobs again. Maybe I’ll wear jeans and a black shirt. I think about how they might splatter me with food tonight like they did before, so I don’t want to wear white or anything nice, yet I would like to look nice. More decisions. More first world problems.

I come down the back stairs we use when Mark is in the clinic and look again for that missing book (grrrr). The kids have looked but haven’t found it yet either. I get a drink of water. The carved pumpkins are starting to rot and it smells like brown bananas. There are dishes on the counter, laundry on the sofa, stuff sort of everywhere. We were really due this lazy day. This is the first day in weeks that we haven’t had something on the calendar (well, until we added going to the Brazilian place after some scheduling mishaps with the Johnsons).

The kids are both dressed and playing Mario Kart together. I join them for a circuit. Scout cuddles with us while we play. I was going to sit and write, but she took my seat (she does that) and when Max asked if I wanted to play, I said yes.

2:40 PM

I play with the kids and write more, blog some (comments, etc.), talk to Mark, return some texts, and take care of some emails.

3:30 PM

We make sure to have a small snack. We don’t want our stomachs to shrink too much before our big meal tonight. There is a science to this sort of thing! I last-minute invite the Johnson boys over to watch a safety DVD with us, but they can’t come.

I ask the kids to get Scout a sweet potato treat (she loves them). I do not feel guilty asking them to do stuff for her. She’s OUR dog and we all pitch in.

Mark and I post our first blog posts about our day and we read each other’s accounts. This is so fun! Time consuming, but fun. This is why we don’t blog more often – we love to do it, but it really is a huge labor of time (and love). See? You should all be grateful when we post. Heheheh.

4:10 PM

Mark and I instant message and totally crack each other up. I laugh out loud several times in our living room and I feel kind of bad for making him laugh when I full well know he’s at his desk quietly while a patient is relaxing on the table while listening to mellow music for their acupuncture treatment.

I look at the clock and know I have less than half an hour before we leave. Dishes, laundry, or reading to the kids? I choose reading. We are reading Escape From Mr. Lemoncello’s Library and making sure we finish it by the time we attend a local literature festival where the author will be presenting and signing books. It’s a really good book so far. We’ve laughed out loud several times.

4:40 PM

Mark is done in the clinic, so we finish our chapter and get ready to go. We all get our shoes, the coupon, camera, etc. and head over to the Johnsons to go to dinner. We’ve hardly eaten all day and we’re excited. 

5:00 PM

We arrive at the Johnsons and they, too, have eaten little today. We all ride together in their van, since theirs seats 8. We play Rubber Neckers (an AWESOME road trip game) on the way there. It is an hour and 15 minutes away.

We stuff ourselves senseless with about 17-20 different kinds of meats. And creamy limeades. We got a great deal through Groupon. Mark and I totally sneak some of our uneaten meat into some paper towels in order to take them home to Scout. Christie tells me that I am not at all subtle. I believe her.

And then we got desserts! What on earth were we thinking? Even though I’m not a big dessert person, it’s hard for me to turn down flan. I love that Max likes it so much, too. We all share our food.

8:45 PM

We leave the restaurant wondering how we’re going to sit all the way back because all we want to do is lie down in the cool air for about an hour until the food moves down a bit more or something. Yowza. It’s funny – I’m not a big meat eater in general, so this is very much a once-in-a-great-while thing. I don’t know how people eat like this regularly.

Mark and I keep tabs on the Red Sox game and we’re all mostly very, very full. We talk, tell stories, the usual with us. It’s comfortable and easy to be together. We get back to the Johnsons, but we don’t stay long. Thursdays are early mornings around here (early for us anyway) and given how late we’ve been getting to bed, we don’t stay out super late.

We get home, do our “gratitudes and hopes” and “hugs and kisses.” The kids go right up to bed. Mark and I stay up and watch the game. The Red Sox win the World Series in Boston for the first time in 95 years. I find myself cheering. I am not a big sports person at all, but I love championship games when I care about the teams.

11:45 PM

I’m typing up details from today and really wanting to get to bed early. Didn’t sleep much or well yesterday and big day tomorrow. Very full day with lots going on. Mark and I are bummed that there’s no new “New Girl” this week, so we watch an episode of The Goldbergs. We’ve given up on most all the other new shows, but we like this one for the nostalgia factor big time – the songs at the end, the clothes, the attention to detail? Fabulous! I instant message with Mike King for a while. I like chatting with him. I think Mark has great friends.

We go up to bed, talk a lot, Mark goes to sleep, I read for a while and again am not tired. I have difficulty falling asleep again. It’s well after 3 before I can settle down my mind. I haven’t been like this in ages, so I’m not sure what’s up.