So This Is It

See the little counter on my sidebar?  Look to your right.

ONE DAY LEFT!

Today and tomorrow, all I’m doing is taxiing kids to and from classes.  Tuesdays and Thursdays have been my heavy travel days.  If my life were an AB pattern, check out this route:

A-B-C -*A-C*- A-C-B-C-D-A-E-A

*Sometimes rather than go home while Nina is at Spanish in the mornings, I will sit in an obscure little parking lot where I discovered an internet connection and have a quiet time or blog. (As I am doing now.)*

Eighteen trips a week JUST to two different schools.

I know these roads well, and frankly, I think I will miss the daily sites.  For example, just between the kids schools, a straight shot down a two-lane road, I pass goats, cows, geese and three horse farms. SO picturesque.  However, as the county is widening this road, I will not miss the construction….

Every morning we see a heavy set, gray-haired woman walking her dog wearing HUGE headphones.  (That is to say, she is wearing the headphones.  Not the dog.)

There’s the man who walks with a walking stick that’s too short to actually touch the ground; the man who looks like a younger version of my gynecologist walking home from the grocery store with a few bags in each hand; the soccer mom in her red Honda Odyssey with the Delta vanity plates. (Poor thing.  Lacrosse mom’s don’t drive mini-vans.  If only she knew…..)

Every. Day.

It may sound uber-observant of me, but because I am generally in my own self-obsessed little world I literally have only just begun to notice these patterns. It does make me wonder how often my routines cross paths with others’ routines that I am unaware of.

You want to know what I won’t miss?

Stray dogs.

Honestly, there have now been too many to keep count of! On Tuesday, there was what looked like a Golden mix racing past me in the other direction.  Alone. Two weeks ago, I saw a pit bull wandering on the side of the road. No collar!!

It makes me sick that I wasn’t able to do anything to help.  But I draw the line at getting my kids to class on time and pitbulls.

Just sayin’.

It’s going to be cheaper too to stay at home…. and better for the environment.  I’ll be driving 200 miles less per week. Not to brag or anything, but I’ll probably get a thank you note from Al Gore.

And the styrofoam paper. Let’s just say my carbon footprint ain’t something I’ll be proud of.  Between the Amex statement, receipts and trash in my car – just from swinging in and out of drive thru’s – well, I probably should plant a replacement tree somewhere.

(Tree huggers, don’t hate.  I owned it, said I’d plant a tree and am committed to change.)

And before Spin anyone begrudges me my Diet Cokes and mochas, listen to how much more expensive it could have been!

Do you know that there are THREE boutiques I pass FIVE times a day that I have NEVER been in?  In all this time, I have stayed OUT of The White Rabbit Cottage, The Bronze Monkey and Acorn. All within seven minutes of my house.  In over four years, I have never been in any of them even once.

(You’re welcome, babe.)

Next year, I will make two trips a day to and from school which will amount to ONE WHOLE MILE.  Per day. The kids new school is literally a quarter mile away, across the street from our subdivision!

Not to brag or anything, but I’ll probably be on Al’s Christmas list, too.