Week 8

11 May

I’m a little late with the update this week because of some changes on the back end of the site. On the bright side, week eight wasn’t full of groundbreaking excitement, so it’s not like you’ve missed much.

We continued to make progress on our home renovations. In fact, on Sunday (Mother’s Day), Mike and I ventured to a furniture store. It was so weird! It’s by appointment only, and max of two people in your party. They take your temperature from behind this massive plastic bubble before you go in. You have to be escorted around the store. And of course you have to wear a mask. What strange times we’re living in!

We bought a little bar that will be a coffee bar in our master bedroom, a buffet-type console that we’re going to put in the entryway, and a bookcase that was too good a deal to pass up but we don’t have a specific spot for. That will go either in our family room or in one of the offices.

We also decided on carpet for our master bedroom and will put our order in tomorrow, hopefully. Then we can order a new bedroom set. California King here we come! And best of all, once we have carpet and furniture, we will be able to unpack the boxes in our bedroom– about a year and a half after we moved in. Woo hoo!

(I probably should have saved that for next week’s update, so there’d be something fun to report for week nine. Ha ha.)

Mother’s Day was delightful. I was the first one up and sat by the fire reading and drinking tea, which is my favorite thing to do in the morning. When Mike and Michaela got up, they made me a delicious gourmet breakfast. I laid around and entertained myself by scrolling through social media while Mike and Michaela cleaned up the kitchen. I opened presents — a beautiful dress, a gorgeous notebook from Michaela, and new wireless headphones — and then Michaela called her various grandmothers (she has three!) before we took a short walk. We left her at home while we did our furniture shopping, then grabbed take out for dinner. Played cards and has tres leches cake (my favorite) to end the night. It was lovely!

I’ll end with a funny story that would otherwise be lost to history.

One day last week, Mike had a shoot so he was gone. No problem, because I work at home now! I can be there if Michaela has issues with her distance learning! This is great!

(I hope the exclamation marks convey my wry tone.)

Michaela came to ask me if I’d look at the pencil sharpener. “It seems like something is stuck in it,” she said.

The sharpener is in the garage, so I trek out (in my work uniform of panties and a t-shirt) to try it. Yup, something’s wrong. It’s one of the old school, wall-mounted sharpeners, like we had at school when we were kids. I get a kabob skewer and poke around inside. It seems like something’s in the spot where you put the pencil. Weird. I get a Phillips screwdriver and disassemble the sharpener. Look inside. Something’s definitely stuck in there. Bang on the sharpener but nothing comes loose.

Me: It looks like a pencil eraser in there.
Michaela: Really?
Me: Yeah. Do you know how a pencil eraser would have gotten in there?

Michaela dissolves into tears.

“I put it in there. I was curious to see what would happen.”

I suppress all the bad words that want to come out and ask her to bring me a flat head screwdriver. I stab at the eraser inside until I break off enough of a chunk that it’s not wedged in there anymore. Bang the piece until the eraser comes out. Start to reassemble the sharpener. Cut my fingers (the blades are freaking sharp!). Cue more tears from Michaela. Put it back together. Test pencil. It sharpens fine, my work here is done.

These are the things I’d be missing if the world wasn’t turned upside down. In that alternate universe, her teacher would be dealing with erasers in the pencil sharpener, I’d be wearing pants, and I’d have no blog fodder.

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