I know I shouldn't blog when I'm mad. I really shouldn't. But I'm gonna. You know those cartoons where someone gets so mad that steam comes out of their ears? Well, I'm pretty sure that's happening to mine right now.
School starts tomorrow and no one is ready. That's to be expected, happens every year, but I'm feeling particularly overwhelmed today by the myriad of things I'm trying to get on top of, because tomorrow I also "start school" - that is, working at a school and I'll be gone all day. I'll leave in the morning just after the last bus has pulled away and I won't return until all the kids are home from school. For an hour at least. More for the high schooler. Not a big deal, they can take care of themselves, but Heaven forbid they miss the bus or need to be picked up after school for any reason. Because I won't be there to do it. All those things I worried about doing over the summer and figured I'd have time to accomplish "once the kids are back in school"? No such luck.
But that's not the real problem. The real problem is that I've essentially run out of time to do anything required during school hours and there are still loose ends to be tied up. I'm only one person and I can't do it all, so some things have had to give. And then, in the middle of it all, while I'm unpacking groceries that I didn't have money to spend on, but I had to because we have to start packing lunches tomorrow, my husband comes home, sticks his head around the corner and says, all cheery, "what's up?" Apparently, he's decided to take the afternoon off to "go fishing" (wouldn't have anything to do with the online post he read about the pinks running wild). He goes upstairs, changes into comfortable clothes, and proceeds to take a nap. But not before he asked if I wanted to go fishing with him. Whaaaa??? Does he not realize it's the DAY BEFORE SCHOOL? So, I let him know that there a million things to do and he says "well, make me a list....maybe I can help do some of that stuff". How nice. Make him a list. Which requires me to do ONE MORE THING. Make the damn list.
Well, here's a nice recap of all the things that still need to be done:
- pick up son's prescription
- take daughter to music store to deal with broken flute. Procure a new flute without spending any money, because the coffers are empty, and have it ready and in working order by......tomorrow.
- ride son's ass to finish honor's English homework that he procrastinated on all summer and now has less than five hours to finish. Avoid desire to strangle son when I see him eating/Facebooking/texting instead of working on the homework.
- procure school supplies for high schooler, which we somehow missed doing all summer and now it's the eleventh hour and we probably don't even have an empty binder around the house to get her started.
- make lunches for tomorrow
- hound kids to fill up their backpacks and get everything ready for the morning
- wallow in guilt because we didn't have time and/or money to take all the kids to the fair, especially to see a concert they really wanted to see.
- finish getting daughter's supplies for college, go through her room, help her pack everything up (impossible, since from tomorrow till she goes to school I'll be gone all day)
- deal with financial aid at college (tuition is due Sept. 27 and I STILL have no idea what that will be or how I'll pay it)
- clean my bathroom. It hasn't been cleaned all summer. Seriously. I might have scrubbed the toilet...once...but the rest of it has barely been surface-cleaned.
- finish laundry (haha, that was a joke, the laundry is NEVER done)
- find the "First Day of School" sign and put the year "2011" on it for the requisite first day pictures
- figure out how to make my dog shut up so I don't go postal
- write notes to the schools saying my kids can get off the bus at their dad's house (seriously?)
- make dinner. Except everyone just ate various "lunches" and it's already 4 p.m. So, when should dinner be? 10 p.m.? That's bedtime.
- write press releases, organize a poster-hanging party, and distribute materials to all the schools, while navigating the confusing paperwork required to do such work, to promote a drama production.
- kick myself - again - for volunteering for things I have NO time for, and pretty much suck at.
- wish I was independently wealthy and did not have to work, so I could spend the last couple weeks with my daughter before she heads off to college. I was SO looking forward to this before I got a two-week sub job which eliminates any chances of us doing anything together before she leaves.
- deal with school anxiety coming from all sides.
- return the school clothes that didn't fit, including son's jeans, which means a trip to the store to get new (and likely overpriced) jeans for tomorrow.
- hope son washed backpack and new PE clothes. Just realized he doesn't have shoes for PE. Good thing we have to go get those jeans anyway. Which means even less time to do the honors homework.
- bite my nails over the huge credit card debt we've racked up getting the kids ready for another school year.
I'm sure there's more. Despite my attempt to make lists, I keep forgetting things that need to be done. Come tomorrow, I won't be at anyone's service except the school I'm working for, and if something comes up, then it's not my problem. Or it IS my problem, but I can't solve it. Or I WILL solve it, but at a later time.
In the meantime, my husband is off fishing. Chances are, he won't catch anything, except hell from me for leaving me in a lurch. When he left he said "If I'd known I was going to get a guilt trip, I'd have stayed at work!". That would be just fine by me. Someone's gotta make the money I'm about to spend on jeans and PE shoes.
