For the first time in decades, I left my full time job and am currently working part time until I find another part time to fill in. It’s a long story, but after working a full time plus a part time job for six months, the time came to dial down the crazy a bit. The problem is, today was the first day I wasn’t scheduled to be working or doing anything and it did not go well.

In the spirit of New Year’s resolutions, I have started walking/running 3 miles on the beach every morning after I drop the boys off at daycare. I always leave my flip flops on strategically by a reef sculpture while I run down the beach. The first sign that today would not go well was when I returned from my walk/run to find that someone took my flip flops. A search of the nearby trash and turned up nothing so I drove home barefooted.

The shower got bleached and I did the dishes and the laundry. Time for a haircut hasn’t been possible so I thought that I’d get that done. After a quick trip to the local hair cuttery, it seemed apropo to touch up my color—especially after the amount of gray tufts I saw floating down from the scissors at the salon. I had received an add on toner kit with my monthly hair color kit that was to be applied between regular color sessions. Since I had all this time on my hands, why not apply the toner? Horrible idea! The color had a suspiciously pinkish red tinge to it as I rinsed it out. Sure enough—when my hair dried, I pretty much looked like Raggedy Ann 🙄 No amount of rinsing made it better. I now looked like Sharon Osborne, and not in a good way.

After that massive fail, I decided that maybe I should try to take a nap. After all, the toddlers were both up for over an hour last night. However, I got sidetracked searching for jobs on LinkedIn. After all, my day off so far was not going well.

That just induced massive anxiety as I perused various job postings, applying for a COVID vaccinator contract and shooting off rails to research contacts to see if they had any stray work that needed done. Realizing that not much more could be done in the job department, a little homemaking was in order.

Nothing is more inviting than the smell of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies on a chilly day (it’s in the 60’s and 70’s in south Florida—we’re freezing). After the first batch of cookies came out, the hungry hordes, otherwise known as teenage girls, descended upon the kitchen. Brooke loaded up a paper plate with cookies, which I promptly confiscated. Why do they think that it is appropriate to eat a meal two hours before dinner? Because I was using the cooktop space as the location to cool my cookies, I made a critical error. The paper plate that I’d confiscated was temporarily set down over a burner which I had unknowingly turned on. A little curl of smoke caught my attention—the plate was beginning to combust on top of the stove. I snatched the burning plate as it began to have little flames curling on the edges and doused it in a dish of water, but the damage was done. The entire kitchen was filled with clouds of acrid smoke. Of note, not a single smoke detector went off—hmmm.

Anyway, on that note, I have decided that part time employment is hazardous to my health and mental sanity. Even potty training toddlers (Ryland pooped his pants AGAIN) and dealing with biting one year olds (yes, Kian got a behavior referral today for biting his teacher 🙄) is preferable to the chaos I managed to generate in one day off. Anyone hiring a failed hair colorist or fire preventionist? I know the perfect candidate 🧐😉