Rainy Day

It frequently rains in and around New Orleans, leading to the short-term flooding of low-lying areas.  The local news broadcasts segments that consist of sopping wet reporters gravely warning their viewing public to drive very slowly lest they push the water in the street up into people’s front doors.  I don’t know if this ever actually happens, but if it does, News at Ten will be there to break the story and waggle their pointer fingers at the offending driver.

In any case, it rained last night, and thunder’d and lightning’d as well, and since our house is old and leaky it rained inside our house, too.  The dog was pacing and whimpering, Liam was croupy and coughing, Jack kept waking up and moaning, and it was raining into the windows and on our heads.  Nobody slept.  When we finally decided to give up on trying to sleep sometime around dawn, we staggered out of our beds, fumbled our way through the coffee-making procedure, and did the morning check of the electronic devices, at which point we discovered that Jack’s school was canceled (due to rain.  RAIN!!), and Liam’s nanny was running exceptionally late – so late that it wasn’t worth sending him.*

So instead of working on a paper that sorely needs work, I worked on the house and the children instead.  I spent hours tidying up, vacuuming, laundry, sorting toys – all while the boys entertained one another.  (This was one of those rare times when having children so close together seems like it might have been an ok idea.)  I was also Super Mom, getting out Legos, art projects, and a huge train track configuration that it pained me to pull apart and put away.  I managed a long phone call with a bestie who lives in another time zone, wrote this blog post, and am about to sort through the boys’ clothes for the bazillionth time and put away the winter stuff.  In short, my little self was productive today.  Although my lungs are full of dust and bathroom cleaner, I’m bags-under-the-eyes exhausted, and my very sad little paper remains too short and too awful for words, the boys are stellar and our house is the bomb.  The illusion of control has once again been restored – although tomorrow it’ll all go to hell again when I try to catch back up with all of the schoolwork that has been neglected due to various child illnesses and other projects.  Heck, I lost my summa cum laude shot anyway, and I already have a job lined up.  No need to exhaust myself with unnecessary academic excellence.  Extended exhaustion is coming at me like a freight train, by way of a law firm job with a billable hours requirement.  No need to rush it.

So rain, rain, don’t go away – you made my day.  For once.

*We share the nanny with other families, and she spends different days at different houses.  Ours is the Monday and Thursday house.