Last night we had a wonderful meal with some friends. They’ve been dealing with parental health issues since this summer: her father has been in the hospital or rehab for five months and, of course, we have the MIL. I suppose some people sit around and talk about their kids’ bathroom habits but since we and our friends are childless we talked about our ailing parents and their bathroom habits. It’s funny but when it comes down to it what’s important? Eating, excreting, making sure they are safe and comfortable. I guess caring for older parents is a lot like caring for kids except you don’t necessarily live with your parents (will never happen for us).
This morning I woke up and before I got out of bed I realized I’d been dreaming about school and what promises to be a hectic day tomorrow. In addition to regular work, my classmate partner and I will be providing feedback to people within my organization on a consulting project we’ve been conducting. Our findings mostly point to how one person isn’t handling the problem well and that’s the source of the problem. Can hardly wait to have to process that with her.
Then, there’s my presentation in class. The one that I’m just not sure my partner (not the same classmate as in the paragraph above) is going to be able to uphold his portion of the presentation. We’ve talked, he’s done little work that I can tell and he keeps asking me the same damn questions. I’m supposed to call him later today. I’m ready to tell him he’s just going to have to do his part and to get over it. The people in my graduate program are some of the most welcoming and understanding people. We’re all in this together and we make it so easy for people to present. We know it’s harder for some people than others and we’re cool about it. We go out of our way to make it easy so I’m not sure why he’s so paralyzed. Maybe I’m projecting too much.
In addition to fretting and preparing for the presentation and the consulting meeting, I’ve been thinking ahead to the week of Thanksgiving because I’m seriously thinking of taking it off to work on a bunch of end of semester work and maybe, just maybe, getting started on some projects I’d like to get done over winter break. So, yeah, I’m already planning what my life will be like between now and the middle of January. I probably won’t be able to resist the urge to make a To Do List. I usually hate these things but, honestly, I think if I write them down I’ll be able to move on and my monkey mind will be able to settle down.
I hope I never even have to think about my parents bathroom habits.