The Rest of My Ordinary Day

“Life finds its balance. Children grow up. Second chances come along. In the meantime, I could choose to savor this moment. What good would it do to allow annoyance to interfere with gratitude?” 
― Katrina Kenison, The Gift of an Ordinary Day: A Mother’s Memoir

It is past midnight.  I just posted my SOL March Challenge Slice for tomorrow. It’s about just an ordinary day in my life. Lately my posts have been about things that are going on in my life: special events like the baby shower I just hosted for my daughter in law; town politics, in which my family has been heavily involved in the past year; a walk in nature which allowed me to make some interesting connections as my mind wandered, and so on. But I have plenty of ordinary days, too.  Today was one of them but I only managed to write about half my day before I had to leave the house to do something important.  This provided me with the opportunity to write another post, continuing the coverage of my “ordinary day.”

Before I posted today’s Slice, I was downstairs in our tv room watching a new Netflix series with my family called Secret City. It takes place in Canberra, Australia.  It’s a murder mystery about a group of journalists and a top government secret they are trying to unravel. My daughter adds commentary in her extraordinary Australian accent in the background, making us laugh. She visited Australia almost ten years ago and is able to mimic the accent quite well. We enjoy watching series that take place in odd settings. The one before this took place in Turkey, close to Istanbul.  We are armchair travelers and love the settings and the different accents.

Before that… I was preparing some info for my husband to bring to our tax accountant. I promised him I’d have it ready so he could bring it to the accountant tomorrow.  While I sifted through the information, I listened to the nightly news on MSNBC.

Before that…we ate our dinner together downstairs in order to watch Chris Matthews on his nightly news show on MSNBC. We do this several times a week unless we decide to stay upstairs in the kitchen to eat like civilized people with our daughter.

Before that…I had to create a dinner quite quickly because my husband was due to arrive home soon, and the chicken cutlets had not yet thawed.  I pulled our favorite Trader Joe’s lasagna out of the freezer, put it in the microwave, and threw together a nutritious green salad.

Before that… I made an important phone call to a friend who dates back to high school. I had invited her to my shower luncheon on Saturday but she was too ill from her chemo treatments to attend. She’s had cancer for 13 years and has fought back against several recurrences; her cancer metastasizes in peculiar places.  She is a real trooper and never feels sorry for herself, but I felt it was important to call her to tell her we missed her at the shower. I also sent her flowers the day before.

Before that…I attended a brief meeting at Town Hall on behalf of my daughter who had applied for a free home to be provided through the local affordable housing lottery. It would have been a real bonanza: four bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, in a good town and neighborhood.  It would have set her up for life in a part of the world where housing is becoming unaffordable….Long Island.  Sigh. I called her to tell her she didn’t win…but we were happy to have her continue to live with us.

Before that…I had called a nearby friend to ask her if she wanted to take a walk in the park with me.  She did, and we agreed to meet twenty minutes later.  It was cold so we only walked around the pond twice, but we managed to get in a lot of gabbing as we always do when we walk together. I love the fact that she’s the only person I can call at the last minute and get to join me on a walk. We both have daughters who have had five open heart surgeries for different congenital conditions. Also my son was in the same grade as her son at school, so we have a lot in common. We were also both ENL teachers before we retired.

So that pretty much sums up an ordinary day in my life.  I said “ordinary day” because I seldom have a “dull day.”  I am usually a pretty busy person, even in retirement and I prefer it that way.  I always know I can take a day off if I need to and usually it won’t make a difference to anyone but me. That is the beauty of having grown kids and being retired. Life is good.