Working My Life Away

I’m thinking of buying a cot.

Cot is actually a really fun word to say. Cot. Cot. Cot. (We sleep-deprived writers take joy where we find it.)

Anyway, I’ve been working so much lately – late nights and weekends - I’m thinking I would save money on gas if I’d just start sleeping at my office. I’ve got enough room to stretch out, and I could still work, even it if was 3:00 a.m.

I never, ever seem to run out of work. Back in the old days, I would have (what I used to refer to as) “a slow time.” Not anymore. Work is constant, and while I love the job security (and my job itself) I’m one tired writer.

Brett says I should try to take a week off (I laughed so hard, I actually cried. He’s comedian, that one). I’ve got the vacation time, which is nice, but the work would just pile up while I was off, and I’d come back and start acting like a raving lunatic after only an hour. Working at the level I am now is exhausting, but at least it’s a manageable hurricane.

So, anyway, I spent a good portion of the weekend working, cot-less, on Friday night and Saturday morning. But, I got a short reprieve for the rest of Saturday, and like a condemned man about to be pardoned, I jumped at the chance!

(P.S. – This does not mean I equate my job with being in prison. I really do like it. I’ve just been there A LOT lately.)

I joined Mom, Angie, Jackie, Alice, and Lois (Alice’s mom) for Agatha Christie’s play A Daughter’s A Daughter at Rockford Valley College’s Studio Theater.

I sat next to Angie where we would occasionally be reduced to Junior High girls with giggles at the way the old guy in front of us laughed. This was surprising behavior for a mother of five – I’m looking at you, Angie. (In all fairness, he did laugh like the Count on Sesame Street. ONE! AH! AH! AH! TWO! AH! AH! AH!)

Afterwards, Mom, Angie, Jackie, and I went to Red Robin in Rockford. Angie had recommended it, saying she’d enjoyed the one in Janesville.

When I told Jackie where we were headed, she looked like she just swallowed a frog.

“It’s a burger joint, isn’t it?” (Jackie is a genteel friend of my mother’s, and I never thought I would hear something like “burger joint” come out of her mouth.)

When we got to the restaurant, we discovered it was extremely family friendly (which is a nice way to say there were little rapscallions running all over the place). Mom, Jackie, and I (all accustomed to the quietness of Olive Garden) were a bit overwhelmed as we bellowed our orders to the waitress/disinterested person.

Angie was right at home, as I guess a mother of five young children would be.

The food was actually pretty good. And the kids standing on chairs and crawling up the walls made for interesting entertainment. It did not annoy me (you eagle-eyed mommies out there) since we WERE in a place designed for such, um, well…behavior (I guess).

Had I known…well, that would be a different story.

As we headed to our cars, Angie remarked on how nice it was.

“Well, except for all the kids.” I said.

“They weren’t that bad,” she protested.

“Um, yeah. To you. You know, since you’re immune.”

“Oh, stop acting like kids are a disease,” she says to me. Like it’s true

Jackie begged off for the rest of the party. After her experience at the “burger joint,” she probably thought we were headed to see Horton Hears A Who.

The three of us actually decided to take in a showing of the gambling movie 21. It was pretty good overall, although no doubt Angie got sick of me whispering in her ear how much I dislike – intensely dislike – Kate Bosworth.

I have never cared for KB. First of all, she’s unrealistically thin. Her body is so tiny, her head looks like a giant lollipop. Secondly, I just don’t think she’s attractive. At all. And thirdly, in this movie, her hairstyle is extremely ugly – just flat up against her big ‘ol lollipop head. Ugh.

The main character is a new guy, a relatively unknown actor. He looks like a young Paul McCartney which isn’t all that bad.

Mom was extremely nice to Angie and me – not yelling at us as we whispered movie-ending theories to each other during the move.

We do this often, trying to guess who will be right. Mom was a trooper. And I think she liked the previews for Made of Honor more than the entire 21 movie. So, I guess we owe her that movie now.

And that was the end of Saturday.

Sunday was church – Jason Scott and I were both in Pastor’s eye line while he was preaching, and we both kept yawning. So much so, that Pastor remarked the crowd was “sleepy.” Later, Jason and I told each other we both thought he just kept looking at US!

Poor Pastor. The message was actually very good.

Sunday night we opted to stay in and get our house in order. Brett got us caught up on bills, and I cleaned, cleaned, and cleaned!

Overall, a social, fun, enriching, and productive weekend.

Now, of course, it’s back to my cell.

I mean, my office.