Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Sabotage

I was going well on my challenge for all of 2 days. But then there was Tuesday.

Tuesdays are generally very hectic days for us--my husband plays Wallyball, leaving me to tote both kids to Charlotte's 5:30 dance class (a stretch to make after working a full day...bad, bad, bad time of day). Trystan is generally wide awake and into his usual trouble during the class, and last night was no exception--he spilled Charlotte's snack all over the floor while we were changing her clothes (and ate about half of it before I could pick it all up). He spent the entire class crawling, cruising, or walking (holding my hands) straight into anything and everything--a wheelchair left by the info desk, rocks by the front door, papers and a Sharpie left by one of the other mothers.

This is starting to sound a lot like my other blog. Hmmm. Long story short, once I was reasonably sure the kids were in bed, then I was pleasantly surprised that it was only 8:30 and I ought to have been able to both exercise and write in the same night, and still get into my bed before all brain function ceased for the night (my pumpkin hour is about 10-10:30). And, having had the kids through errands and dinner all to myself, and having singlehandedly put one kid to bed without a fuss, I could afford an hour and a half of "me" time with a minimum amount of mommy guilt (note I don't say "no mommy guilt").

When I returned from the Y, sweaty and craving a leftover cupcake, I first found that my laptop had mysteriously relocated itself from its earlier resting place. Annoyed, I crammed down my cupcake in the kitchen (not a big fan of eating in bed, at least not something with crumbs), and headed upstairs thinking that my husband had tried to be "nice" and bring it up for me. Not so. He was using my laptop. There are 3 computers in the house, and the laptop is supposed to be mainly mine. Not that I won't share, and not that I don't occaisionally use his desktop, but come on. It is mine, and it has my WIP on it, and no one else was conscious in the house (therefore there were 2 underutilized machines waiting patiently in the office for him). He did say that Charlotte had been kept awake by noise out of the office, which is why he started on mine. Fair enough, so why was he still on it after she was sound asleep?

I should have outright said "I want to write. Log off and use your own computer," but as always, I assumed that he would take a hint (a very cold, sarcastic hint--let's just say that I didn't start off in the best of moods yesterday). He didn't. 45 minutes later I finally turned off my light and told him that I was upset with him for using my computer. "I didn't know you wanted to use it," was his reply...yeah, right. Like I would have been making nasty comments about it in order to encourage him to sit there and continue. And, apparently, my writing goals aren't something he's bothered to notice or to assign much improtance to.

Apparently, we need to have a rational discussion on courtesy in using each other's things. If all else fails, I have a whole arsenal of tricks I learned growing up in a crowded house where the idea of "personal property" was rarely respected....I'd really rather not revert to that state though. My sarcasm is bad enough on the maturity-in-communcations scale.

2 comments:

Amanda said...

Idea...I've been thinking that having a writing partner to check in with while writing would actually keep me focused. What say you to a set half hour every evening (to be set by us) where we turn on IM and checkin with each other every 10 or 15 minutes with word count. Then you could tell hubby you have an appointment that you need your computer for. Just a thought. :)

BriteLady said...

Amanda, that sounds like a good idea, assuming that our schedules match up (I'm usually writing between 9 and 10, unless I'm home and both kids go down for a nap at the same time LOL). Maybe if nothing else, once or twice a week would help.

We may have worked out the computer thing for the moment, but strangely. Hubby's main computer is now completely hosed, potentially indirectly because of my actions (I was trying to let Char play a computer game that would not run for long on her designated computer...don't know if was the sole problem or merely the straw on the camel). In any case, he'll be busy for probably several nights "rebuilding", so he's less likely to need my computer. Or, more likely, should he actually need a functioning computer to look something up. I'll email you and we can figure out the IM thing (as I've never actually used it outside of work and don't actually know anyone's contact info...)