Kathleen McCall:
Occasional�� Muse�

2001-08-05 - 10:01 a.m.

Last Kid-Free Day

It is the Last Day. The girls will return home at five, with matts in their hair and gym bags full of dirty clothes.

I'm going to make them a very special welcome-home dinner; I'm thinking frozen pizza.

They'll know I missed them, because I put away their laundry, which is against my principles. Also, I bought two books for Youngest in a series she likes (and so today will need to go and find a book for Older Daughter, but that should be easy.) I'll put the books on their (nicely made clean-linened) beds.

I wonder how long it will be before I am yelling at them to KNOCK IT OFF. Or some such irritated-mother crap.

It has been quiet here this week. Gloriously, richly, elegantly quiet. Everything has stayed where I put it last, and no one has asked "what do we have to EAT?" except me, and I did it silently.

I have not done anything from the List, but that's not my fault. It was a stupid list. "Paint the bedroom," indeed! "Relandscape the front yard"! What was I thinking?

Here's what I should have listed:

Have dinner with an old friend and a new friend. I did that. I was nervous, and afraid I would be boring, and embarrassed that I could be so self-centered as to obsess over whether I would be boring, and I did it anyway, and it was great fun (thank you, Alice and Inarticulate.)

Read a lot of books. I did that. Old friend loaned me several, and I plowed through Bridget Jones in one sitting, and an Elizabeth Berg in two. I love Elizabeth Berg, and I don't care that she's Oprish. So there.

Listen to music on the stereo. I did that. Not something I get to do enough, with other household noises and calamities.

Write more. I did that. Not a ton, but some.

I'm thinking all my lists should probably be written in retrospect; it's much more accurate. "What I Actually Bought At The Store", or "Things I Did While the Girls Were Away." Retrolists. I'm going to become a retrolister. Plus, it won't matter so much when I lose them.

I'm off to put those clean linens on the beds. I think I am. Maybe not. I'll have to read the list tomorrow and see if I did. I hope I also read that I returned some phone calls and vacuumed, but I guess I'll have to wait and see.

Happy Last Day to me!

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