A couple of weeks ago, my husband asked why the front porch light was
on. I explained the after-school program asked that we leave the light
on so that the bus driver knows it was okay to drop off our son.
"Seriously?"
"Seriously."
He stared at me like I'd lost touch with reality.
"You
want to know why I'm on edge all the time? It's stuff like this. Like
remembering the light needs to be left on." And a billion other details
that can't forget but I haven't written down. Like when the library
books are due and who needs clean socks and which of my students need
letters of recommendation for grad school sooner rather than later.
I'm
always trying to think about one thing while I'm doing something else.
Like the time I flew cross country with my kids and as we landed and
children napped, I rethought parts of an article I was working on. I
jotted down a potential title on the back of my boarding pass and a
brief outline of one of the sections.
Then, I gathered children, we deplaned, found our rental
car, checked into our one-night-only motel, and got everyone ready for
bed. I finally settled down with my laptop to write a little bit about
the ideas I had so protectively held onto through the baggage claim, fight with the GPS, and while unloading the car.
But, the idea was gone (and so was the boarding pass). It
had disintegrated or had been dropped. I tried to blame Delta, but all I
could write down was Do all moms work this way?
