This is my day and more or less what it has been since the beginning of March.
4:37 - First alarm goes off. I am quick and it turns off
4:39 - Second alarm goes off and I am quicker to turn it off than the first.
4:43 - The third alarm goes off and I jump up look around and sigh. Here we go.
4:44 - Brush my teeth with one eye open slightly leaning to the left.
4:47 - I quietly walk to the computer and only make the floor squeak twice. Everyone remains asleep.
4:48 - The computer comes on. The chair cradles my butt and I reluctantly sit down. Time to work. Today I am wrapping up some stuff from work that was suppose to be done yesterday. Since I am staying home today to pack I need to get this done. Shalom Barbara Associates where I have worked for almost six years have been very accommodating with my schedule during these tough weeks.
5:37 - Bathroom break. At least it is not winter with a cold toilet seat.
5:43 - My phone rings and it is Daniela. She needs water with ice. Lots of it.
5:47 - Shadow wakes up. Now I have to take him for a walk.
5:48 - Shadow please poop. I have stuff to do.
5:49 - Please poop
5:51 - That almost looked like poop
5:57 - Mission accomplished. Back to the house
6:01 - No time to shower. I change clothes and I’m off to Home Depot.
6:15 - I have three Home Depots all 14 minutes from my house. I have gone to all of them. This morning I complained that they forgot some of the delivery. Of course I bought lots of other items while there. The good news is that the list is getting smaller.
7:14 - Arrive at the house and drop off the paint for the upper two floors. I found Martin the painter in front of the 7 eleven while waiting for Rudy one of those mornings. He caught my eye because his clothes were covered in paint. This was a painter and he talked the talk. Yesterday he backed it up by painting all the doors and baseboard. He definitely walks the walk as well.
7:47 - I go back home and Daniela had some scrambled eggs waiting for me. Lucky me!
8:14 - I finally have time to jump in the shower and today there was even time to shave.
8:31 - I clean some dishes, make the bed and pick up a little around the house but never enough.
8:54 - I take Pedro to school. When I take him he quickly goes to class but it takes Daniela a lot longer. Pedro is definitely a lot more afraid of me than Daniela. He fears my mean voice.
9:10 - I go pick up a family friend to help us pack this morning. This is a crazy world. This friend, Marta's used to work for Daniela's grandparents in Ecuador in the 1960’s. She mentioned to Daniela’s grandparents that she wanted to come to the USA. Her grandparents went above and beyond and helped Marta fill out all the necessary paperwork and even bought her airline ticket. Marta has always been great full and now she lives a mile away from us in Arlington. She was more than happy to come help her old employers/friend’s granddaughter even though she is in her late 60’s. Imagine that. A kind gesture from Daniela's grandparents over 40 years ago comes lead to Marta helping their future granddaughter. Amazing.
9:31 - Back at my computer and back to work. I call my boss and we determine what is needed to finish a portion of the project. Time to get working.
10:57 - I finish what I needed for work. Now I need to get more boxes to keep Daniela and Marta packing. They are like a packing machine.
11:32 - I arrive at Jasmine’s house (they gave us Shadow) to get more boxes. They have a ton of boxes! Daniela calls me to remind me to get a Pepsi for Marta.
11:41 - Can I dot it? Get a pesi, stop at Home Depot and make it to Pedro's school by noon over 7.3 miles away? Yes I can! Si se puede! Yes I can!
11:45 - Park at Home Depot and run to the 12/2 wire that we need. The good thing about franchises is that every store is more or less the same so this purchase was ridicously quick.
11:49 - Back in the car and off to 7 eleven.
11:51 - Pepsi obtained and I could not resist a Twix. Yummy caramel!
11:55 - Making good time to get to Pedro's school and then I see a police car driving the speed limit up ahead. I do the same. Time is of the essence.
11:58 - I arrive with 1 minutes to spare. Enough time to catch the last sentence on NPR
12:01 - I convince Pedro to walk fast to the car by telling him that at home we have orange chicken ready for lunch. He loves orange chicken!
12:13 - Pedro and I offload the 15 boxes from Jasmine’s house. We can do it!
12:16 - ORANGE CHICKEN!
12:37 - I help packing again. Enough to get a box complete and wrap up the bean bag with some trash bags.
1:13 - Pedro and I dash to the car after throwing away the trash and we calmly drove Pedro to his therapy. Pedro has high functioning autism and goes to therapy twice a week for speech and occupational therapy. He has been doing this for the last two years and we have seen amazing improvements. There are studies that show that the earlier an autistic child starts therapy the better they will do. The reason is that their brains are still developing and if worked on at an early age the brain will make the necessary connections. The therapy also helps them understand how to handle situations that they will have to deal with their entire life. Pedro is AWESOME!
15:27 - Swing by the bank to pick up money to pay the painters for a third of the job that they have done. So far so good.
15:43 - Pay the painters and take a few photos of the progress.
15:52 - Pedro fell asleep in the car and Daniela was taking a nap when I arrived home. I sat at the computer and worked some more. I wanted to pack but I did not want to make any noise. 17:53 Pedro and Daniela wake up and I make a half decent dinner. Daniela cooks so much better than me.
18:33 - Took Shadow for a walk and he pooped outside! Success!
18:42 - Time to pack. The idea was to pack all day but a lot of things got in the way.
00:57 - Pay some bills. Not fun.
1:36 - Bed time. A little earlier than usual tonight. I’ll be ready to do it again tomorrow.
A typical day in my life. Guess who has it harder. Daniela. Pregnant with Tadeo (babies name) and a hernia during the building of your home and packing to move to a hotel with a high functioning autistic child to look after with a husband and his crazy ideas.
Daniela wins this round.
Police car to the left. I guess I could have been given a ticket for using the cell phone but not speeding!
Pedro's room with a bunch of boxes. These are the boxes from last weeks move. Just wait until tomorrow to see the big move.
Siding continuing to go up and wrapping around the front.