I think all this single parenting is bringing out my inner a**hole. On Friday, I had to struggle to get Anna ready for school, only to be late enough out the door that I had to drive almost to work to drop off Tara, then drive back home to go to the post office to pick up something for Jen’s work, then drop off Anna, and then go back to work, where I continue to straddle the line between my new job and my old job. At the post office, I had Anna sitting up on the counter, and I was talking to her when out of the complete blue, some hayseed looked at my Michigan sweatshirt, then rolled her eyes and bleated, “As an Ohio State person, I wouldn’t go around advertising that I went to Michigan.” I squinted at her and said, “of course not, if you didn’t go there. Didn’t they teach you that in college?” Then, after a pause, “No wonder you couldn’t get into a real school.” She stared for a moment in shock and was about to say something when I turned the other way and resumed talking to Anna. In restrospect, I should have just said, “I thought I smelled something.”

Let’s see, I guess that was yesterday. I can’t believe it’s only Saturday. I’m past the halfway mark. On Thursday night Jennifer will be home. Now that I’m into this single parent groove a little bit more, I’ve made some decisions. First, that I’m definitely going to to buy less nutritious food. I’m thinking prepared defrost-and-serve sort of stuff from Costco, or even better, Schwan’s, which delivers to your door. I love to cook when I have the time, but when I don’t (which seems to be the norm these days), it sucks to try to make something out of nothing in no time for people (I’m looking at Anna) who don’t want to eat it in the first place. Second, we have to step up this nanny search. Third, I need to be more decisive. I have too many irons in the fire. There’s too much on my plate. I need to fish or cut bait. I need more clichés. I’m going to start saying “no,” in situations where I used to say “maybe,” and for things I used to say “no,” to I will probably say “get bent.”

On the up side, the house stays noticeably cleaner on a day-to-day basis. When Jennifer gets home, I’m going to quarantine her bags to a small area; packed is fine, unpacked is fine, half-unpacked is not allowed. Still, Tara is starting to miss Jennifer. For the first couple days, it was as if she didn’t notice she was gone, but after hearing her on the phone a couple times, she points to the phone and says “Hi! Hi! Hi!” like she wants to talk to her Mom. She broke out in “hi” and waving this morning when she saw Jen’s picture on the wall. Poor girl.

Anna has been very well behaved for the most part. If not stepford, then at least half-stepford. It’s a great thing. Both kids have been sleeping well for the most part. I would be way screwed were it not the case. I’m just counting the days now (five) until Jen comes home.