The Non-Mother’s Day

Today, I was not Mommy, just for the day.

Although JavaDad has offered, I rarely just hand over the kids on the weekend — I like to spend his weekend time together as a family. But I have been feeling very run down and had a stack of to dos piling up. So Friday night I gave him a few ideas of activities to do with the kids, and decided to spend Saturday on my own.

I had planned on getting up early and attending an event, but sick with an ear infection and up most of the night with pain, I ended up sleeping in late. And you know what, that’s okay.

The kids came back from their morning activity for some lunch and as they were packing up to go off to the farm, I said a wistful goodbye, almost wanting to go with them, but knowing that I had been craving some time to myself…time to MYSELF!… for quite a while and remained firm in my resolve, even as I ached a little at the thought of the cute moments I’d miss.

Did I manage to accomplish everything I had hoped to achieve?

No.  But in 5 hours time, I managed to:

• Eat lunch while also reading a book, and NOT get interrupted.
• Have a phone conversation with my sister and NOT get interrupted on my side (her kids interrupted her.)
• Find someone new to cut my hair.  You will underestimate the importance of this if you do not know me well – every haircut is a traumatic event and the last haircut was a disaster — for some reason the woman gave me a haircut I can only describe as part Farrah Fawcett, part rat-tail, part mullet — seriously.  And no, this is not even remotely close to what I wanted and I apologize if this is the hairstyle you currently sport and it IS what you wanted and I have just insulted you.  And yes, it did happen 24 hours before going to see my very best friends from college whom I hadn’t seen in 7 years.  In April.  It’s taken me this long to let the various weird layers grow out enough to trust going to another stylist.  And then just trusting going to find another stylist is a big ordeal to me — frankly it would probably be easier for me to find and marry another man than to find a stylist I can commit to.  So, trust me when I say that going to get my hair cut today was a major leap of faith.  And I won’t know if I REALLY like it until I wash and style it on my own.  And no, I won’t post a picture tonight because I also badly need a highlight and no way was I going to try someone new on both a new haircut and a highlight on the same day.  But soon.
• I also did the second most traumatic thing a woman can do — buy a new bathing suit.  And if you think I’ll EVER post a picture of myself in a bathing suit then I have some swamp land I want to sell you.  But since I apparently wore out last year’s bathing suit due to frequent beach trips and many swimming lessons with the kids, I decided to put myself through this self-torture yet again this year.  Which, by the way, is much better without small children in the dressing room with you.
• And I got my nails done.  They did not have my regular color at this particular salon, a color I have worn for about a decade, so I found myself having to choose between a darker shade called Vamp or a lighter shade called Kennebunkport.  Which do you think I chose?

I was even considering stopping off at the make-up counter when JavaDad called me on my cell and brought me crashing back to reality.  I’m telling you, if they had some sort of stop-in plastic surgery kiosk in the mall, I just may have done it — I was on a hey-I-have-no-kids-with-me high!

Just a few hours away from the JavaKids made me feel refreshed and ready to be a mom again.  So when the kids came home, dirty from the farm, with facepaint scribbled all over themselves, I was very happy to see them!