It's dangerous to start your day thinking. I know that but I did it anyway. I thought, "I could do things today." Leaving the knitting nest for any reason other than coasting along the seawall didn't seem too huge an effort. I thought about the lessons I would do that day and smiled. I was actually looking forward to seeing if six year olds could sing and bounce a ball to the pulse at the same time. (The answer, if you are wondering, is that mostly they can't but they can get a tennis ball stuck in a tree and find a 'real live dead bee'.)
By the time I got to school I had a list and had actually packed a lunch (if an avocado and a pitta bread can be called lunch). I had walked the dog and fed him and had even managed to dress myself in vaguely matching clothes. I was horrified to see the state of the music room and wondered how I hadn't noticed before.
I checked my emails. There were 106 and I deleted most of them without even opening them. Some had to be dealt with. A folk song/sea shanty workshop had been booked and I needed to organise the timetable. "Sorry, it's next week," I told the teachers. Then I read an email that said we had been chosen to represent our area in a concert and a record-breaking STOMP attempt. I started to plan our own Summer concert. I wrote letters and phoned people and taught. Choir at lunchtime was exciting as the children chose what they wanted to sing. (It turns out they know a lot of songs).
At the end of the school day my head was pounding. I sat and squinted at a pile of books on the side from the Book People.
"Everyday tiredness. I could write that book," I said.
"What book?" my colleague asked
"The green one."
"Oh, I thought it said, "Everyday Tidiness."
Of course it did. On the first day I had thought I could do something I might have overdone it.
The book was a daily inspiration to neatness. Today's page said, "Less is more." and was attributed to Miles Van de Rohe. Tomorrow, we must all throw away all the pens that don't work and buy only one special pen that always lives in the same place. That put us all off. How can you have only one pen? I have a pot of pens and pencils in each room.
A book called Everyday Tiredness in the same vain could have quotes like: “I must be overtired', Buttercup managed. 'The excitement and all.'
'Rest then', her mother cautioned. 'Terrible things can happen when you're overtired. I was overtired the night your father proposed.” (The Princess Bride.)
You would think that not being able to read by the end of the day would have sent me straight back to my coasting attitude but once you've thought there's no going back. There is a list. You are aware of how many things are on it and how much you haven't done. So, this evening I have arranged music for Flutti Tutti group and band, taught a brilliant flute pupil, discussed how we are going to run our Eurovision Orchestra evening tomorrow and written this blog.
I miss coasting. Everyday tiredness is so much more exhausting.
The only bonus of everyday tiredness is that life is more amusing. You know that point where you are so tired that everything is funny? The Long Suffering made dinner and it made me laugh. He said he'd given me some salad because he knew I was trying to be healthy.
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