3) My Day in Detail

I must remain true to my commitment. I said I would do the 30 day writing challenge. And I shall. Sadly, today's topic was most annoying. As today was the busiest day of the year, so far...

But, I did not lie. Here is my day, in all the glorious details that I can possibly remember:

My day begins waking up in my very own bed. Nothing unusual there. It's where I usually awaken. Then I go to the kitchen for breakfast and find my little siblings eating left over pizza for their meal. That's weird. I get a piece for myself and make my morning cup of coffee, with extra Almond Joy creamer, to make it nice white and creamy.

I eat. Today's pizza premiers ham, pineapple, and red bell peppers. Not exactly what I had in mind for breakfast on my last day of Christmas holiday, but I guess it works.

I stay there at the table with my little brother and sister, my mother was taking a shower and my big brother was just getting up too.

I slowly drank my coffee and forcefully required my little siblings to drink all of their milk.

After breakfast, I took a shower and worried about something my mom had said. She told me yesterday that today would be my first day back at school. I really had no desire to get back into that routine.

So whenever I got out of the shower, I avoided that subject. I avoided her. I watched Veggie Tales with my little siblings. Whenever she talked to me, I was anxious she might bring up my plans for the day (which would be writing…or being on Pinterest…). Thankfully, she brought up her day’s plans, going grocery shopping. She asked me if I wanted to go with her. OH YES. I will take grocery shopping over algebra any day! So, I got ready to go and we left.

First we went to Kohl’s. I received ten bucks Kohl’s cash for Christmas, and I was eager to spend it So I did.  I bought an olive green cardigan, a blue lacey shirt, and a cream T-shirt with a rhinestone necklace bedazzled onto it. By shopping on the clearance racks, I saved 109 dollars, spent the ten dollars Kohl’s cash and paid one dollar out of my own pocket. I must say, that is amazing. I was extraordinarily proud of myself.

Our next stop was Lowes to buy a new water filter for the fridge. We saw an old friend there and talked to him a bit.

Then we went to Chik-fil-a for lunch.

Then we went to Hobby Lobby to buy my scrap-booking tape.

We went to Sam’s club next. We had to get some frozen fruit for the smoothies mom likes to make. We also got some cat litter which was too heavy for us to put in our cart. A nice man lifted it for us damsels in distress. I love neighborly kindness like that. It makes my heart fuzzy and warm.

Our next stop was the grocery store. That is always such a long trip. We have a big long check list that is divided into the aisles’ category of food. We have a multitude of different food items highlighted on it and a corresponding coupon (our coupons are organized in a little folder that Velcros onto the handle cart. Mom has this shopping thing all figured in order to maximize the amount of product she puts in her buggy per hour.

We take a long time in the store because we only have one big shopping trip every month to cut down on gas. My mother is an expert cost cutter and professional couponer. At one point, she got the grocery store to pay her for taking their food!

We have been giving this grocery store business for well nigh eight years. I have come to know some of the workers and recognize others. Ever since I was little, I have liked Star Wars. (These two facts do go in the same paragraph, I promise.) Now then, there is a man who works there. He is the spitting image of Qui-Gon Jinn. I’d swear upon my mother’s grave if she had one…Thankfully she does not. I make it my aim to spot him every time I go to the store. This time I saw him. It always makes me smile. I really wish one day that he would realize his likeness to the Jedi Master and wear a cloak to work, maybe on Halloween or something.

But, back to my narrative…

While I was running back to the vegetable’s aisle to get a sack of Idaho potatoes, I saw my old friend, the Colonel. He runs the local Youth Leadership Conference every year, and for the past three years I have been a part of that. At first, I was a student, then I was an assistant team leader, and this past year (You may recall an earlier post about it) I was a team leader.

When we saw each other, he reached out to shake my hand, but I had a sack of potatoes there. Therefore, he tried to hug me. But I was trying to rotate the potatoes into my left hand so I could shake his right hand. So he tried the hand shake once again. Unfortunately, I was not quite finished with moving the potatoes. He just decided to bear hug me and leave it at that.

He began talking. We hadn’t seen each other since November, so there was much to say. He told me about finishing a report, prepping for the upcoming conference, the holiday season. What interested me most was what he said about me. (Those types of comments naturally interest me the most.) He told me that he wanted me back this year and that he wanted me to be higher on the chain of command. He said that I had really blossomed this past year, me and my friend Cameron, and that I belonged either as a division leader or maybe even assistant director! I was completely flattered! Not really knowing, or even having, anything else to say, I thanked him about fifty times before I said goodbye.

When I was speaking with him, about five minutes flew by. Five minutes is enough time to lose a mother in a grocery store. I wandered up and down the aisles purposefully, but I was entirely lost. I could not imagine where she had gotten off too. After ten laps up and down the store, I finally found her. I can’t even remember where, only, I was superbly relieved when I got there.

Our grocery shopping escapade terminated shortly thereafter. The bagger was nice and made it his purpose to inquire about our welfare. I am always appreciative of well-mannered baggers.

Mother and I made another stop at Bed, Bath, and Beyond to buy my father a new portable dinner plate. We have bent and broken all the other Tupper-ware items he owns.

We like to doddle in that store, dreaming and wishing for a bigger house to fill with all manner of cool organization shelving or pretty bathroom items.

Next, we drove to Wal-mart to buy all the things we had forgotten, or that the others stores did not carry. And nothing of interest happened here, so that is all I have to say about that.

For a few weeks now, my family has been trying to rent the new Lone Ranger movie but never seem to have the luck to be the first to the Red Box. Crossing our fingers, we checked at the closest one. It was out. So on our way home, we checked another one in Public's. That was out too. Bummed, we drove home.

At the house, my big brother and little siblings came out to greet us. We had been gone all day long. I must admit, I was exhausted. Mom probably was too.

I could not be tired for long. There was a party to attend!

After unloading our little car, so heavily burdened with our months worth of supplies, I raced to the bathroom to primp and put on one of my new sweaters!

My brother came and got me as I was pondering which shoes I should wear, telling me he wanted to leave early to check his work schedule. I had to pick these shoes fast! I was racing against time to look adorable.

He was cranking up the car to warm it up. (It was probably twelve degrees out there; I don’t know why I decided to wear a skirt…) I ran out, forgot the hummus I was supposed to have for a snack, went back, retrieved the mouth-watering spread, went back out, decided against the black shoes, ran back in, got the cream, sparkly slippers, and rushed back to the car, hummus in tow.  

We got to his work place, (which also used to be my work place, but I had quit for school time), and went in. I hadn't been in in ages and I got to see some old friends.

When he had checked is schedule, we went back on our way to the party.

We drove twenty minutes out, following the GPS. My brother made a wrong turn. Now we were going to be late. That was okay, though. I love riding the car with him. On occasion, we have fun conversations, but mostly, we have the radio on and we sing along, inventing our own lyrics if we are making fun of a song, singing along to the good, catchy ones, and sitting back and relishing the beloved ones.

Tonight was not a musical night. Tonight we talked about all the cool people at our work place. And who we liked working with the most, and different things about how we felt about certain people.

We arrived ten minutes late to the party, which was fine because everyone else was late too. We were only the second ones to arrive.

Unfortunately it was late, I had had a long day, and therefore, I do not remember too much of that event. Only that we played “Fact or Crap” (I was awful), “Curses” (Once again, I failed), “Mario Kart” ( I am the queen of that…Therefore, demolished everyone in sight. Except the Dowager Queen Margaret. She demolished me and doubly demolished those whom I had demolished).

We then sang. One of us was on the piano, another had a guitar, and we all had our lovely voices. We sang praises to our God. That was most refreshing. I had been longing for fellowship of that sort for a long time.

Regrettably, curfew was upon us. We left cheerily and refreshed. The drive home was as pleasant as the trip there. We gave summaries of our days. He commented about being exhausted from babysitting for seven hours, telling me not to silence him, for I was trying too. I was fiecely objecting to his contorted notions of what exhaustion really was. Because apparently, I didn’t know what he had been through. Eventually, I found my way through the argument to correcting him, “Who is the one who is home all day while the other is at college all the time? Who is the one who predominately takes care of the kids when the other isn’t home? And who isn’t home the most?”

“Be quiet!” He joked good-naturedly. He knew I was right. He didn’t want to admit it.

“You be quiet.”

I told him all about my day. I will not repeat the above account, for both your sake and my own.

The GPS gave us a few minor difficulties, but we managed to find our way home in the dark and in time to catch the last half of Mission Impossible:1, which my parents were watching.

I drank a cup of green tea and went to bed.

THE END

I hope you enjoyed this. I hope it was worth the pains I took to jotting down notes as to what exactly happened to me..I wrote on the go, and that was what made it such a trying day. I prefer writing in the piece and quiet of my room...with a cup of tea, not in the car with Chik-fil-a sauce dripping on my hands...yikes!