During this recent deep dive into work related tasks with an aggressive deadline, I relied heavily on the old fashioned To Do lists. Mine looked like this 6 of out 7 days a week (I took Sundays off):
Lease
Other regular work task
Lease
Other regular work task
Lease
Household chore
etc etc etc
It worked beautifully because I not only didn’t fall behind on anything at home, but I even finished extracting leases with a solid week to spare.
So, I kept up with the lists this week only they didn’t have to be so packed. Still, I want to keep Sundays as off days, even from home related chores so today I tackled my entire cleaning and running around list and even managed to squeeze in that hill repeat run today. It was not without some adventure though.
On outing #1 for the day, I brought my mini-post it list of places to visit so that I didn’t forget anything. On stop #3, I had my first unexpected moment of funny.
I was at the vets office picking up some hairball treatment for miss Amber who has been barfing multicolored piles for the last week and a half. I think the worst of it is over (at least I hope so because that last one was GINORMOUS) but finally I appealed to the vet for help and picked up some sort of goo that I was able to sneak into her tuna tonight and which they say works perfectly for their equally long haired office cat.
Speaking of the office cat…while I was talking to the one vet assistant and paying for the goo and some of Chip’s bladder friendly food, the other assistant was up to no good. I saw her fussing around with the cat and then the next thing I know she is giggling helplessly as the cat gets away and hops onto the counter where I am standing. He turns his head and gives me the classic cat version of “LOOK at what she DID to me!”
And there he sat with a label on his forehead that read “Spicoli” – his name of course. Yup, she had printed off a label and properly marked the office cat. I couldn’t stop giggling at the sight either and frankly I am not sure how we finished running the payment transaction properly of how I managed to not leave anything behind as I walked out. He just sat there, trying to maintain some dignity and failing miserably.
Stop #4 was lunch at Rubios. I allowed myself some time to sit there and eat and read twitter on my phone which turned out to ALMOST be a huge mistake. You see, when I was done eating I got up to refill my drink and then walked right out the door – and left my phone sitting on the table! Years of having a phone and I’ve never done anything like that. And? I didn’t notice until I had been home for 15-20 minutes!!
Then I had the longest, slowest drive ever back to Rubios of course – people cutting me off, driving super slow, clearly confused about their own routes..pedestrians at EVERY intersection making the waits super long. All along I am imagining who stole my just waiting to be snatched phone and what in the hell I was going to do about it.
Luckily, the employees saw me get up. They thought I went to the bathroom so they waited a bit but kept an eye on it. When enough time had passed that it was clear I was gone, they put it in a cash register up front. PHEW!
My heart was racing and I immediately took that as a sign that it was time to go for my run and shut down the chores for a bit!
After the run I dove right into cleaning. Again, thanks to Amber’s little hairball issue, the carpets were kinda messed up. I swept the downstairs and then busted out the vacuum. Now, I don’t do this lightly. Chip the cat is frighted to holy hell by the vacuum. So, I warn him by bringing it out in stages. First it comes out of the closet. That usually wakes him up from the deepest possible sleep right there. Then, if he is on the floor level where I will start working, I shoo him to the other one. In this case I chased him upstairs so he could hide while I did the bottom floor first. (Amber stays a respectable distance away, but also watches every move)
Unfortunately for Chip, I also had to vacuum the stairs themselves. Now, my plan was to get up to the top landing, turn off the vacuum and then shoo him downstairs.
He didn’t want to wait.
As rounded the corner at the second mid-level landing and started up the last few steps to reach the top, I see him dart out from under the bed to my right. He seems the vacuum – startles and reverses course. I figure now he’s back under the bed for good, right?
Nope, as I keep making my way up, he darts out AGAIN only this time he thinks he can run across the bridge into 16’s room.
Except – the door is closed. Now he has to dart BACK running perilously near to the running vacuum yet AGAIN to get back under the bed. In between, he has to hurdle the litter box on the landing just outside my open bedroom doors. He didn’t QUITE make the hurdle….his hind legs snagged on the scooper I keep next to the litter box causing him to bounce into the litter, scramble…flinging litter all over…then finally back out of the box and under the bed again!
At this point I cannot contain myself and I just bust out laughing as I turn off the vacuum. He hears that the coast is clear, slinks…and I mean SLINKS out from under the bed and FLIES down the stairs to the safety of the furthest corner of the living room behind a chair.
Amber watches the whole thing from her perch on the top of the sofa and then looks up at me and meows “WTF?” (essentially anyway).
WTF indeed.
Miraculously the rest of the day of cleaning and grocery shopping unfolded without a hitch…or..a cat clowning around 🙂
Tomorrow, I rest! After running around a bit on a trail of course!
Trees & Flowers & Birds! 
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