Thursday, December 17, 2009

Sunrise this morning over Lake St. Clair (Close, but no Epiphany)



Close, but no Epiphany

I saw the sunrise twice this morning. Sort of. The sun didn't rise
twice, but I drove down to Lake St. Clair twice in a row, a somewhat
unusual event, thank goodness. Unfortunately, I never actually saw
the sun rise. I saw the glorious pink and gold and salmon clouds of
just before sunrise and the honey yellow gold clouds of just after
sunrise. Spectacular. I took some photos, but I cannot post them
until I re-invite myself to join my own blog. And furthermore, though
I have zillion things to do—I can't start my day until after 2:00. Or
sometime after 11, anyway.

Let me explain:

It started when the alarm went of at 6:25 Am as it does every
Thursday. Mrs. L arrives at 6:45 for Piano Boy's piano lesson. But
PB had been busy and bad all week—and maybe depressed—he has choir
shows and rehearsals and doesn't want to practice. He has plenty of
energy after choir to get online—in my computer—and play video games,
but no energy to practice. I turned on all the lights for her.

Mrs. L was very disappointed in him and is threatening to take him out
of Piano Festival because he hasn't learned his Festival pieces. When
he tried to use choir as an excuse, she reminded him that many other
students, including Jay, are in choir and are learning their pieces.
After the lesson was over, she tried to give him a pep talk ("If you
practice well over vacation, you can catch up," etc), but he was all
hangdog and unresponsive. (Acting depressed and uncaring.)

By now it was almost 7:30 and PB asked me to drive him to school. He
said he didn't have time to get there on his own. (He's supposed to
get himself to school.) I drove him and detoured around past the
lake—Lake St. Clair, and the sky was brilliant and gorgeous, the
clouds and lake lit up with predawn flame (Hmmmm, red in the morning .
. . ).

When I got home, I could hear the phone ringing before I even unlocked
the door. It was PB—"can you bring me my choir costume?" Me: "Why
didn't you bring it?" PB—"I didn't know I needed it." (DUH! He's
going to be singing at the DSO tonight! The Detroit Symphony
Orchestra.) So okay, unhappily, I run up and get OUR garment bag
(which he has appropriated and put his name in), which hangs unzipped
in his closet. I rush it downstairs and grab his character shoes and
drive back to the school a SECOND time—a huge bus is waiting and
Graham dashes over for his unzipped garment bag and mumbles and sort
of resentful-sounding "thank you" as if it is somehow my fault he
forgot his stuff. He doesn't want the shoes.

I drive by Lake St. Clair again—and the sun is just barely above the
horizon, spilling golden light over the clouds and water and ice—I
forgot the mention—Lake St. Clair is mostly frozen, at least in the
bays along the shore. Pretty. I hadn't taken a picture of the
earlier dramatically colored clouds, but I decide I could take a
picture now, and I drive to Pier Park. I walk every day and had been
intending to walk 15 minutes when I got home. Why not walk at Pier
Park—so I did—25 minutes, in fact.

When I got home, I started cleaning PB's pigsty—I mean his
room—because the delivery men are coming with the loveseat we bought
him for Christmas—very expensive. (And on the way to get it, PB
said some foul words to BB! As if he could have anything he wanted no
matter how disrespectful and mean he was. Of course, BB was being
kind of mean, too. I think he only meant to be joking, but it was
still mean.)While I am cleaning the room, I find part of PB's costume
on the floor in his closet behind a bin of stuff—I didn't see it there
when I grabbed the bag—too late—if he thinks I'm driving it down to
the DSO, he's wrong! (And SOL!!!)

I cleaned and vacuumed PB's room, and then carried the boxes and piles
of books into our bedroom and the bathroom and vacuumed the upstairs
all, the hallway, and the entryway. Phew—I got all hot and
sweatified!!!

THEN I ate breakfast, fed the birds outside, cleaned Rocky's cage, etc.

I have NOT done my exercises, showered, or put on clean clothes yet,
and cannot do it until AFTER the deliverymen leave. Because I can't
be in the shower when they arrive, or doing my exercises, since I need
to undress. And, therefore, I cannot "begin my day" until I have
showered, dressed, combed my hair etc. It's 11:19 and they are
supposed to come between 11:00 and 2:00, so I have to wait until they
arrive to shower dress etc. (I'm wearing yesterday's clothes, and to
tell you the truth, a very rare occurrence for me, they are the
clothes from two days ago because yesterday I had another morning
crisis. So I put on the clothes from the day before and was so busy
all day I never had time to change. ICK! I know!

I can't finish printing the Christmas cards because I need to go to
Staples for more ink and I can't go until after the delivery.
Complain complain complain complain. I'm kind of annoyed by how the
day has been going so far, but it did have one GOOD thing—I lost 5
pounds form the day before. YAY! (Well, really only just over 4
pounds). But it's the LEAST I've weighed since November 12 (before
thanksgiving!) So that's good!

I also had a late but yummy breakfast of omelette and bran. It
probably tasted even better than usual because I was quite hungry by
the time I got to eat.

12/17/09

5 comments:

bluerose said...

Wow! A lovely sunrise like that almost makes the second trip worth it. Almost. You have my "teenager blues" sympathy. As for wearing yesterday's clothes, I probably shouldn't admit this, but I do that all the time. Pick them up and sniff them, and if they don't smell, put them on, several days in a row in fact. Probably more than you wanted to know ;]. Hope your day is getting better.

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

I usually wear clean clothes every day. Because I'm used to it, if feels wrong. And I still aven't combed my hair yet. It's been one of these days.

I did enjoy the walk on the second trip, in spite of the annoyance/

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

And thanks for coming by!

Shadowplay said...

Mary, first off, congrats on the weight loss! That kind of thing can make all the difference! I was so good exercising over the summer, then when winter hit plus this job... well. Let's just say, I need to get back on track!

Glad you got to see a second sunrise! Sometimes inconveniences make for blessings in disguise. :)

~April Belle

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

The sunrise was definitely a blessing--gorgeous!!!! Thanks.