Labor Day

Three-day weekends are great. You get one more day to get absolutely nothing done. Isn’t that great?

We did in fact get a few things done. For instance, I started in on the long tedious process of trying to find out which of my accounts are linked to the credit card that was canceled because of fraud. I would rather clean toilets with my toothbrush y’all!!!

Another to-do list item was checked off when JDM and Lil’ J-Dawg took Chucky with them. Thank goodness…he was so creepy!

Also, I helped peel apples for an apple pie made from scratch by Tennessee’s BFF. The pie crust was store-bought but if there had been more time she could have made that from scratch too! Wish I could do that. The house smelled so good y’all!

Other standard chores like some laundry and dishes got done too so it wasn’t a completely wasted weekend. Might be we could actually get a thing or two done today. It is called Labor Day, right?

Not all labor is equal though, is it? Sometimes emotional labor is way more taxing than anything physical you can do. Fending off what you perceive to be verbal attacks on your character can be exhausting even if the wielder of the verbal joust is only joking. I think I’ve spent way too much time with Millennials this past year because I forgot what it was like to be around the biting sarcasm of some Gen X-ers.

Have I gone soft? Maybe I have. Maybe I just need to leave space with compassion for someone who isn’t able to read my mind. Maybe I need to hold some compassion for myself for my anxiety and my perceived inadequacies. Maybe I’ll need to think about this some more.

Tennessee told me her mother used to say that there were just some things she could not do. She also told me how relieved she was to get her diagnosis of ADHD because it explained why some of those things were so hard for her.

I don’t have an official diagnosis, but I must have something similar. Let me share a little bit about what I mean.

During the Vols game on Saturday, I was watching the game or rather listening to it and scrolling on FB because the game wasn’t very dramatic or interesting. I don’t like just sitting and watching TV because most shows do not fully engage my mind. Usually I will play games or scroll through FB, but I feel as though I need to do something else when the TV is on. I get very antsy otherwise. The only time it doesn’t happen is if the show is really well-written and complex.

Anyway, I came across a really interesting and lengthy FB post and it caught what was left of my attention. Unfortunately, shortly after I started reading the post, my fiancé began talking to me and I did not hear her.

I don’t mean I wasn’t listening. I mean I DID NOT HEAR her. My brain was fully engaged in those other things and there was nothing left for recognizing that she was talking, let alone that she was talking to me. Naturally, as we were the only two humans in the room, she was talking to me and was rightly upset at me.

I used to be so good at multitasking. What the hell has happened to me? Was it just a temporary glitch caused by being tired and recovering from being sick? Or is it a permanent result of getting older? WTF?

I’ve always known that if I get fully into a book it can completely take me out of reality but that doesn’t usually happen when I’m watching TV or if others are around. It can also happen now when I’m writing but again that typically only happens when I am alone. When I’m multitasking I used to be able to juggle it all. Apparently not anymore.

It was something I was very cognizant of when I suddenly found myself solely in charge of Lil ‘J-Dawg yesterday. I volunteered to hang out with this precious human, and I didn’t want to find myself distracted because that kid is fast! In less than 3 seconds he can have cupcake icing smeared on the floor or a sharp knife in his hand. (For the record, those things did not happen when I was in charge but boy almighty I about had a coronary with that sharp knife incident!)

It was so good to see the amazing humans that were in our house this weekend and I think we need to do it more often, so we don’t get too isolated in our own little cocoon. Neither of us is very good at peopling but it’s good for us and these are people we love. I hope like crazy we’ll have many such weekends and that I won’t have to miss out because I had to go back to Denver for work.

I hope all of you who are fortunate enough to have today off have a great day without too much labor.

Be well my friends.