Saturday, June 20, 2009

Cheese Head

Not so long ago, my most productive time of day came after the sun went down. Over the years I have spent the evening and late night hours finishing term papers, cleaning the house, organizing closets, baking cookies, and most recently, writing blog posts.

I'm not sure when my late-night productivity disappeared, but it does not seem to be coming back. Finally, after several months of deluding myself, I am beginning to recognize and accept that after the kids are in bed, I'm lucky if I even remember to move the clothes from the washer to the dryer.

Usually I don't bother trying to be productive at night anymore, but for some reason when my husband goes out of town I become delusional again and start making big plans for the evening. I will even write these plans on my calendar. With exclamation marks, as if that would convince me that I REALLY MEAN IT THIS TIME!

"Organize!"
"Write!"
"File papers!"
"Sort through box in closet!"

He was gone for a couple of nights recently, and, as usual, I had written my grandiose plans in the calendar with the full intention of getting right down to work as soon as the kids were tucked into bed.

As usual, I did not even glance in the general direction of the papers that needed to be filed or the box of odds and ends in the closet.

Instead, I ate cheese.

I hardly ever eat cheese anymore, but apparently my husband's absence had such a profound effect on me that I needed to fill the gaping hole with dairy products.

The first night it was a Margherita pizza I found in the freezer. It went perfectly with a glass (okay, two) of red wine. Obviously nothing productive took place after that.

The second night, I dove into some Trader Joe's frozen spinach and artichoke dip. I promise it is as good as any you'd have in a restaurant. I'd recommend sharing it with a friend since I easily polished off the entire thing, which technically is 8 servings. (Whatever!)

I watched reruns. I flipped through magazines. I stayed up late. I was not even mildly productive.

So from now on, whenever my husband is going to be out of town, I think I will write more manageable goals in my calendar:

"Sit on couch!"
"Watch TV!"
"Eat cheese!"

1 comment:

Hudson Family said...

That pizza might have gone better with a lovely white wine... You had better try it again and see if you get better results!

I have officially declared myself DONE after 9pm. If it's not done by 9, it can wait until tomorrow.

(BTW, I'm following you because my name is also Ruth and I'm also a mom... LOL!!)