Launched back into orbit...

With the course set for flying the two-man spaceship solo for now, all I am hoping is to sit tight till the navigator arrives.

Thanks to the slightly short 4-day week, we survived the This is Reality, Suck It Up and Get Used To It! ride so far.

The buzz of activity stirred up in our beehive on Tuesday is slowly mellowing down with the promise of an unhurried weekend.

Yep! We are back to the Eternal Rush...

1. Bee-bee-bee-beeeep! Bee-bee-bee-beeeep! Wake up to the alarm after a few unfriendly bonks on the snooze button


2. Turn the chantbox on and start some green tea brewing in the coffee pot


3. Prepare and pack Ana's lunch and Oggie's daycare stuff


4. Tousle slumbering Ana's curly mop and jiggle her little piggies


5. Take a quick shower and all the usual morning shoucham † rituals before Oggie's demands become unignorable (Yeah, it is a word. Since When? Well, Since Now!)


6. Send Ana off to pee and brush teeth


7. Luxuriate briefly in Kunjeli's charms while getting him changed and ready


8. Assist Ana with her back-buttons and things as needed, make sure she is ready


9. Strap the Kunjeli in his high-chair, park Ana in her dining chair, leave them with breakfast


10. Throw some decent clothes on, fix hair and face, frown at the sorry figure staring back from the mirror suppressing the mounting irritation at the impatient screams from the dining room


11. Make sure kitties have enough water, food for the day and a fairly clean litterbox


12. Get the tea and some leftovers ready-to-go for myself


13. Clean Oggie up as best as possible after breakfast, get his shoes on


14. Strap the kids and load the kids' bags in the car


15. Grab my purse, keys, cell phone, coffee mug, lunch pack and things


16. Drive a shortish 3 miles in one direction, drop Ana off, sad and weeping


17. Gather the broken pieces of the heart and Og, drive a good 6 miles in the other direction, drop Og off - sneaking out like a sleazy low-life when he eagerly runs ahead to grab his favorite book and rush back to me in his classroom, not wanting to get the heart pulverized again


18. Continue onwards another 7 miles to get to my work, finding strength from chanting along with Sowmya on the stereo NripathiGrihagathaanaam Dhasyubhistrasitaanaam;Tvamasi Sharanameka Devi Durge Praseeda...‡


19. Cringe at having to pay 6$ parking every day


20. Dust off crumbs and sticky mess from hair and person, blot the oily T-Zone - it's okay to look so beaten at the end of the office day, not the start


21. Take a deep breath and switch on the charismatic work persona


22. Stride gingerly towards the office, trying to remember where I left off yesterday


23. Put the phone on Vibrate, walk in with a smile, greet the colleagues and bury myself in Work, hoping the cell phone doesn't sizzle on my desk with a message from daycare or school...


24. Spend the next several hours doing some cerebral gymnastics


25. Grab the handbag, take leave, step out of office, put cell back on Loud ring, head back to the car, brushing off the looming What's for dinner? question


26. Drive 7 miles, get Og, another 6 miles, get Ana, another 3 miles...


27. ...Pull into the garage, try not to explode when Ana and Og have a 1000 demands even before I shut the garage door and plonk the purse by the door and take the shoes off...


28. Throw some water on the face and allow the seasoned cook to puppeteer the exhausted frame, rummaging through cupboards and artfully balancing the nutrition ledger


29. Assist Og with the floor puzzle or Leap Pad or whatever else he fancies at the moment and constantly catch myself reminding Ana not to grab his toys from him when he is playing with it, while keeping an eye on the meal


30. Feel guilty about sidelining Ana while going about the mechanics of putting food on the table believing that she can take care of herself


31. Catch her faraway look by the patio door and watch the melancholic mood settling in like a fog


32. Serve dinner and try to get Ana excited about D's return while ignoring Oggie's version of imbibing nourishment


33. Get the bath ready, plonk the kids in there, then lick the kids' plates clean sitting on the toilet lid afraid to take my eyes off Og in the tub for more than 2 minutes at a stretch... Yeah, gross. I know. I am not hoping to make a habit out of it, but Safety First


34. Take Og away, drain the tub, sending Ana off to get herself ready for bed and pick out books she wants to read


35. Get the overnight diaper and jammies on Og, cuddle and settle him down with his lullaby hoping he won't scream his lungs off when I go check on Ana's teeth-brushing-and-peeing-before-bed ritual


36. Somehow pull off the settle-the-kids-and-tuck-them-in-bed routine so I can get on with wrapping up the nightly duties, promising to cuddle next to Ana when I am ready for bed


37. Feed the kitties, clean out their litter box, take the ever-full Akshaya Paathram * of a kitchen compost bin out to the Earth Machine in the backyard so the pesky little Drosophila melanogaster won't multiply exponentially and drive me crazy


38. Take care of dishes as needed, check that backdoor is locked, go out the front and get the mail, lock front door; think about cleaning Og's dining mat spread on the floor which faithfully caught some of the hurled particles - what's the point? it's going to get dirty again tomorrow... and try hard to ignore Og's screams for a bit after sneaking in to make sure he is fine


39. Pick up Ana and put her next to me as promised so we cuddle together - a mutually satisfactory arrangement till Appa comes back


40. Get in bed and hope that Oggie sleeps through the night and that his cold is only temporary and that... snore... snore... Bee-bee-bee-beeeep! Bee-bee-bee-beeeep!

† Cleanliness
‡ from Durga Aapad Uddharana Stotram
* Akshaya = inexhaustible, paathram = vessel in Sanskrit; Mythological vessel that gets automatically refilled when it bottoms out

As if this cushy joy-ride wasn't fulfilling enough, I panicked about some brown crusty stuff in Oggie's ear yesterday morning. Not able to determine if it was just wax or dried blood or a combination of both^♥, and worried about sticking a Q-tip in his ear and aggravating anything, I managed to set up a doctor appointment - the last one available for that day - and stop by there - somewhere after Step 26 and before Step 27 above.
^♥: He scratched inside his ear, broke skin a bit, bled a bit in sleep is the doctor's best guess... nothing terrible inside the ear except the signs of cold thankfully

Oh, and, the smug feeling about filling the tank before the start of the week lasted about 3 days when the dial rapidly started leaning towards Empty...

Also, the bathroom drain plug isn't working as it should...

And, little miss I-need-it-really-clean managed to toss in about half a jumbo TP roll after wiping the poopy bottom, and tried to flush it, thereby flooding the toilet... thank the stars The Plunger is Amma's good friend.

Plus, kitties have taken to messing where they shouldn't - their way of missing D, I presume.

Just realized I wrote checks that I can't cover as I wasn't working for the last 2+ months so nothing direct-deposited into my Checking, and I don't have the checkbook for the joint account.

Did I mention that promptly Monday night, the day before we were getting back to our routine, my migraine decided to visit and stayed with me for a delightful 3-day sojourn till this morning?

All this would have been tougher if Ana wasn't such a seasoned helper...

Call me the weaker sex if you wish, laugh at my ineptitude if you will, but, I admit, I am breaking down and ardently wishing D was here and I didn't have to deal with everything.

And, as I am typing away the niggly little details here, the single neuron still firing in my brain points out: Hey, you were doing 7/9ths of the stuff listed above even when D was here, so what's the big deal?