I love Tuesdays. Normal Tuesdays. Tuesdays during a work week. Not a summer Tuesday. Then it's just another delay to a summer weekend. Not a vacation Tuesday. Then it's just another amorphous day that will bleed into the next much like the one before until you finally come up for air and say, "Do I need a bra for this?"
But a normal Tuesday, a work week Tuesday, can be just lovely.
Tuesday mornings, you see, my mother has bible study.
In its nascent stage, Tuesday morning is actually more difficult. I may leave the house slightly later than usual as I drop her off at church on my way to work (exponentially easier since our departure from the less-than-fair climes of Weehawken), but I have another person to account for in my morning routine. This routine now includes coffee and danish or eggs or French toast if I slept really well or it's the weekend, which are usually the same thing (these are for Mom; I eat when I get to the office). It means making sure I get out of the bathroom soon enough to be out of her way like it's 1986 again, sometimes helping with dressing and finding the misplaced book or pair of glasses, and occasionally checking that the thunk I just heard wasn't my mother falling or struggling to walk but rather the cat being ignobly dislodged from the normally serenely sleeping mother's lap.
But once said mother is deposited at church, oh bliss divine.
To give an idea as to my growing love affair with Tuesday, here's an illustration of this week's Monday.
11:10 am: Phone call at work
Mom: Kierst, where is the jam?
K: We don't have any jam.
M: You just went to the store.
K: Yes, I did.
M: No jam?
K: No jam.
M: Please, could you get some after work?
K: You bet.
11:43 am: Phone call at work
Mom: Do you remember that board of danishes you used to get me?
K: You mean Entenmann's?
M: No, not the Entenmann's. Don't get me Entenmann's.
K: Okay. You want blueberry muffins?
M: No, don't get me blueberry muffins either. This was something, I think you used to get them at the Weehawken Shop Rite.
K: Y0u mean the cinnamon swirls?
M: No, not the cinnamon swirls. It was like a long board with about 10 danishes.
K: Okay. I dunno. The only long board of danishes I can think of is at Cosco or BJs.
M: No, I don't want BJs. Could you look for it when you go to the store tonight?
K: Okay.
1 :15 pm: Cell phone call while I'm driving to doctor's office
Mom: I was wondering if you were out running errands.
K: I'm going to get lab work done.
M: Oh, okay. Listen, I forgot to get a card for (my cousin's daughter) Sarah's birthday.
K: Okay.
M: If I don't get it in the mail tomorrow, she won't get it on time. Can you stop and pick one up for me?
K: Okay.
M: Thanks a lot.
K: Uh huh.
2:30 pm: Voice mail message on my work phone
Mom: Yeah Kierst, it's Mom. I guess you're at lunch. I'll try your cell phone.
4:12 pm: Phone call at work.
Mom: Are you totally worn out or can we go to Philadelphia on Sunday and see your grandmother?
K: I told you. Dad's going on Saturday.
M: Her birthday's on Sunday. I mean, that's her actual birthday.
K: Yes, I know.
M: Your dad's going on Saturday?
K: Yeah.
M: So we could go Sunday.
K: No! She can't handle two days in a row. She gets too worn out. Besides, Nana prefers that we spread them out and not all visit on the same weekend. That way she's feels she gets out more. And we were just there on Friday!
M: (disappointingly) Yeah, okay.
6:15 pm: Cell phone voice mail message alert beeps while in self check out line at Shop Rite.
Mom: Kierst, it's nearly 6:30. Just wondering where you are. Give me a call.
6:17 pm: Voice mail message at work
Mom: Kierst, just wondering where you are as it's nearly 6:30. Give me a call, please.
This morning, this blessed Tuesday morning, as I sat at my desk reading a few jobs and sifting through e-mails and posts from the holiday week, there was barely a peep from either my cell or work phone. Oh bliss, oh rapture unforeseen. Mom's study goes from 9:30 to 11:30 in the morning and then today she had a lunch planned, so there was no contact from the motherland until, inevitably, like clockwork...
3:30 pm: Phone call at work
Mom: Hi Kierst.
K: Hi Mom.
I bloody love Tuesdays
This is great!!!!!
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