Like a Road Trip, Only More Expensive

Yesterday I managed to pack seventy miles onto my odometer, all within a ten mile radius of my house. My tour went like this: Home to grocery store to Y to home to Y to double drop-offs of Tornadoes. Do you see anywhere in there the slightest hint of "this is my day off and so I am relaxing"? No.

Not much could be done about the grocery shopping. It's a necessary evil. Since admitting a few months ago that I'm at the grocery store waay too often, I've made a concerted effort to be more efficient about it. Now I manage to make one gargantuan trip every three weeks or so, and find the need to back fill a few things once a week. Yesterday was gargantuan day. It was also Meet Day for Fifth Grader, which meant we were A) pressed for time and B) required to show up with a food contribution of some kind. The three of us went into the store with the understanding that if it wasn't on sale we weren't buying it, which actually hurried things up quite a bit and yet still cost me $300. Is eating really necessary? Really? Anyway, off to the Y to drop off Fifth Grader for warm ups, store bought bakery items in hand, then home with Third Grader to unload groceries and pack their bags for their respective sleepovers later on. Back to the Y to be rushed by a very happy Fifth Grader who reported that she would be competing on bars for the first time all season, meaning she would finally have an all around score and a chance at qualifying for States and Regionals. Third Grader didn't compete yesterday, but she did ditch me upon arrival to go play the music for the floor routines. Occasionally she returned to ask for money. You know, for food. Again with the food.

Fifth Grader did very well all around but missed qualifying by 0.35 points. The good and bad news? There's always next weekend. By the time the meet ended it was almost five o'clock, and seeing as I had a date last night, I was a bit anxious to get the heck out of there. So I tried to talk Fifth Grader into sneaking out the side door without going through all the normal rigmarole of leaving a home meet. All the cleaning and checking out and not being allowed to check out because there's more cleaning to do: I just wasn't in the mood for it. But the girl wouldn't have it. Fearful of being made to do nine million push ups at her next practice, she insisted on playing by the rules. Even with a sleepover birthday party awaiting, she wouldn't buck the system. Damn obedient kid.

I finally got the two of them situated at friends' houses for the night and myself home again to get ready to go out with Boyfriend. Personally, I would have been just as thrilled to curl up in front of a fire with him and soak up the extremely rare aloneness, but I wasn't about to admit that after insisting all week that we go out. And having said that much, I would rather write another three paragraphs about grocery shopping that invite y'all to the details of my night. I believe I mentioned the extreme rarity of our aloneness. 'Nuff said.

The downside to having a fabulous night is, of course, the next day. The rescooping of the Tornadoes. The finishing of errands that I couldn't squeeze in yesterday. The fifteen dollars worth of fast food purchased in apology for dragging them around to do errands when, it appears, neither of them slept last night at all. Now that we are all home, it's eerily quiet. Overtired quiet. Slightly cranky quiet. Perhaps I will get an evening of peace out of the deal if they both agree to be ushered to bed early. Am I that lucky? I guess we'll see.