A New Schedule for a New Time
It was 7am. Time to wake up and do it all over again. Paul McCartney’s song would begin in my head, “It’s just another day.”
Start the coffee, boil the water for tea (it’s a press of a button) and make breakfast for the family. Take E to school, thank goodness they were still open. Come back home to find Carrie has done the dishes and Taylor will start online Kindergarten for an hour.
In between writing emails, recalculating company forecasts and trying to come up with ways to save our company, Carrie and I would take turns playing with T, thinking of new games and learning lessons, play basketball, make lunch and then eventually just give him the iPad. Carrie or I would pick up E while the other would walk Daisy with T.
Around 5pm, open a bottle of wine and start making dinner. We ate, put on a show afterwards, bathed the kids and put them to bed. Another bottle opened. Carrie and I would discuss life as we know it and what will be next until we went to bed at midnight.
A year went by and it was enough. Wine started to taste like juice, the headaches were not worth it and saving money seemed like a good idea.
It’s been 1 year since we stopped drinking and we haven’t looked back. Days have gotten easier. Our minds are much clearer.
It’s now 5am and I’m writing to all of you. A new routine. Wake up, write (some mornings I don’t), workout any anxiety on the Peloton, get the kids ready for school and drive all together to drop off each one. Yes. We are those lesbians. Always together and rarely apart.
Carrie and I have weekly Monday morning meetings. Work on LGP and Just Cook Jannie projects. Continue to jump off cliffs and live what we dream up.
We both go to pick up E and T (sometimes separately). Carrie will walk Daisy and do homework with the kids while I cook dinner. E will watch a show and Carrie washes dishes while T watches some basketball videos and asks me to play Sonic the Hedgehog on the Switch. We play basketball and have dance parties, bathe them and put them to bed.
Carrie and I have a nightly Smith Tea, continue to talk about our dreams and in bed by 10pm.
I can still recall a perfect pairing of a warm dark chocolate dessert paired with a super deep Cabernet Sauvignon in a small restaurant in New York, so perfect it made me happy cry. The time when Carrie and I accidentally went to Italy during truffle season and had the most luxurious lunch with the owner of La Spinetta. He canceled his media interviews to give us a tour and take us to a 2-hour lunch where they opened the restaurant just for him in Alba. We were the only ones in the restaurant. He pulled out some of his cellar wines from a bag and ordered the tasting menu with wine pairings. The egg cocotte with endless shavings of truffles on top. Truffles on everything paired with a beautiful Barolo. It was the meal of a lifetime.
Anytime I think about a glass of wine, I think of that time. A wonderful memory of full tastebuds and love. Farewell alcohol.
Dear Diary,
Tantrums are real! I know I post only the happiest times on Instagram. But here is a quick story of what last night was like.
E: Drops one edamame on the floor. "Momma get my edamame!"
Me: "Evelyn, you can get that yourself. Can you please pick it up?"
E: "Momma I want you to get it. Help me. I can't get it."
Me: "Evelyn, you can get it. Take your blanket off and get the edamame please."
E: "But Momma I CAN'T! I CAN'T REACH IT!" as her voice escalates. "I'M SCARED!" (of what? I have no idea).
This goes on for 10 minutes which feels like 30. She then loses her advent calendar chocolate. Even more crying and screaming continues. I then resort to going upstairs with just her and starting the bath. The crying has not stopped. Literally, crying in the bath. Crying as I take her out. Crying as we dry off and get dressed. Crying. Crying. Crying.
Me: "E, take a deep breath. Are you ready to go back downstairs?"
E: Sniffles and stops crying. She starts to walk downstairs.
Me: "Do you want me to hold your hand?"
E: "No! I will do it by myself!"
We go downstairs and rejoin Carrie and T. She asks for some fruit. I give her a banana. She peels the banana and gives the peel to Carrie. She comes back to the couch.
Me: "Hey E, can you can you pick up that piece of edamame and give it to Mommy so she can compost?" She picks it up and walks it over. We end the evening with her showing me her yoga moves. Just me.
Thanks for listening,
Jannie