So I was thinking I should write what I normally do in a day, for anyone who is interested. Maybe no one is, but for posterity, allow me to entertain myself. It changes day to day, as all life does, but this is generally my daily schedule.
When I wake up, which is around 10:00, I take my morning pills and proceed to the den. Now before anyone gasps at the thought of waking up so late, please keep in mind that not only do I go to bed late, I also have fibromyalsia and one of the many side effects of this disorder is fatigue. I am always tired, no matter what time I go to bed or what time I wake up. It's just the nature of the disorder, which my fellow-fibro friends will attest to. In any event, now that I am not working, it helps incredibly to get more sleep and is actually very therapeutic.
Ok, now that I have defended myself, the next thing I do is go into the den where my dad is sleeping in his chair. Actually, we do almost everything in the den. We eat, watch tv and dad sleeps in his chair and has been for over 20 years, in the den. I usually wake him up by saying, "Hi Dad." He then wakes up and says, "Hi Sis." I ask him if he has had breakfast yet and he usually tells me he hasn't. So I prepare his breakfast of a toasted bagel or English muffin, juice and a slice of honeydew melon. He always eats this. If he gets hungry before I get up, he'll nosh (Yiddish for snack on) on cookies or donuts or whatever we have in the house. Usually the stuff my mom thoroughly disapproves of, and the stuff we have to get out of the house before she gets home. My dad has had his fun and now it's almost over. I have a bagel and coffee with my dad and he turns on the Military Channel as we eat. This morning we learned about the 10 most powerful weapons. Whatever.
After breakfast, I get on my laptop and dad kicks back in his chair and continues watching TV. "In the Heat of the Night" comes on the Chicago station WGN around noon and he always watches that. I never watched it when it was actually on TV, but now I'm drawn back to the 80's when he has it on. He will usually fall asleep again during this time and when I'm done on my laptop, I go in the pool. I usually stay in for an hour and a half or so. I pray and think about what in the world I'm going to make for supper. I hate having to think that up every day. It's torture for someone who hasn't really cooked for years. When I'm done swimming, or floating really, I come in and get dressed. Dad is now either still sleeping or in his office on the computer. If I have time, I get back on my computer - if not, I get ready to go see my mom.
We try to go see mom around 4:00 and usually stay until around 5:30 or 6. It's usually pretty boring just sitting there looking at each other. Neither of them can hear very well, so I am usually shouting, even though there's not a lot to talk about. It's a good thing my mom's roommate is almost deaf. We talk about the weather, the mail, the grandkids, the long walk to her room; every day it's the same thing. Everything my dad says, she gets annoyed at, so I try to do most of the talking. I haven't talked to her yet about her attitude, but I intend to. Probably when she gets home. My dad will say, "Sis, we'll leave at 5:30," (when it's 5:15) just to warn everyone in advance, I guess. My mom looks almost relieved when we leave. It's an awkward position to be in to having to be forced to talk to one another. It's not like a natural conversation you would have at home -- you know it's only for a certain time and so you feel forced to come up with something to say. I usually rack my brain trying to figure out what else to say, and if that doesn't work, I resort to playing a game on my phone.
After our visit, we go home and I make dinner (lunch is usually skipped and provided by noshing in the afternoon). Last night I made chicken pot pie which my dad really liked. I was able to cut the rest of it into 4 big pieces and put them in containers and freeze them for my dad when I go to Madison. I'll be gone a week and I want him to be able to just pop the container into the microwave for his meal. Whatever it is that I make, we then sit down to dinner with the news and stock market reports on the Public Broadcasting station. Everyone on this station talks in a monotone voice and so it is very boring to listen to. During dinner, everything I say or ask my dad, I usually have to say twice, so I try to shout it out loud the first time.
After dinner, I do the dishes and clean up the kitchen. When everything is done, I sit down with my laptop and try to work on it with the TV blaring. I keep asking my dad to turn it down, but he's getting so hard of hearing that he has to keep it up loud. I usually wait until he turns the TV off and goes into his office to work on my laptop, because then I have peace and quiet. But then it usually gets pretty late before I go to bed, waiting for him to leave. Last night, he slept the whole time the TV was on after dinner and if I would have turned it off, he would have woke up immediately. I did change the channel to the History Channel and watched something about the Third Reich. I have a weird fascination with Nazi Germany and even though I cringe while I watch it, I just can never understand how people could be so cruel. After awhile, I went to bed and left the TV on because he was still sleeping.
After praying and reading my Bible, I play Words with Friends on my phone until I can't keep my eyes open any longer. Last night, I took some muscle relaxers with my regular drugs because my whole body was in so much pain - another effect from Fibromyalsia - I just couldn't get comfortable. I dreamt last night/this morning that I was hugging my grandkids and I had a big smile on my face. The biggest sacrifice I made by coming here is that I am so far from my grandchildren. But I know this is God's will, and I know He will make up the difference.
So there you have it. My life in a nutshell, for now. When my mom comes home, it will be stepped up a few notches. Dad and I won't be able to enjoy our sweets and treats, and I figure that would be a good time to go on, yes, another diet. I will be helping her in and out of the bed, getting dressed, things like that. Hopefully there will be a home health nurse coming in and bathing her. Just sayin'. Oh, and I will probably have to straighten out all the cupboards because I hate putting pots and pans away and they're all just shoved in there. That will not be acceptable to her.
But until then, I have ice cream bars in the freezer and M&M's on the table that we both munch on. The "food police" will be home soon enough and I'll have to resort back to stashing candy in my room somewhere. I'll have to hide it well, because I'm sure Eunice will slowly creep into my room just to see "what's going on in there." Kind of reminds me of when I would hide weed in my underwear drawer when I was younger. I just won't hide chocolate - that would melt and be a real mess...
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