Not too bad

Today was not bad. Not bad at all.

In the grand scheme of things, I would like to say that our goal is to have great days! But for now, "not bad" is plenty good enough.

I managed to pull myself out of bed on time. Biscuit got up in a good mood. Jeff got up to help out, too. I'm trying to wean myself off Jeff's help because his schedule can't change like mine can, but he said he'd help out any way he can for as long as we need him.

We got everything packed up and were out the door on time. Biscuit and I talked and laughed on the way to school. The traffic wasn't bad, and he walked right in with no hesitation when we got there.

The quickest way for me to get to work from Biscuit's school would require turning left out of the parking lot. And although the traffic has gotten much better since the first day, the left turn lane has been about four times as long as the right-turning lane. So despite having to backtrack a little, I've decided that will be the best bet.

I make my way to a four-lane highway that takes me all the way into downtown. And here's where it goes bad.

I got to one specific exit, still a long way from downtown, and the traffic was bumper to bumper. I couldn't believe it. I've never seen that many cars on that road before. It was crazy, and my patience wore quite thin in a very short amount of time.

So when I got to work, I asked a friend how she avoids the traffic. She gave me a couple of suggestions to try tomorrow. She, like me, would happily go a couple of miles out of the way to avoid sitting still on the highway. So we'll see how that goes.

I was a little later leaving work than I wanted, but I think that was just because I was behind from being off last week and the holiday yesterday. I'm going to work very hard to leave exactly when I've planned to leave.

When I picked Biscuit up this evening, he was SO excited to tell me that they went to the school library today ... or media center as they now call them.

"And guess what, Mom?" Biscuit said. "And just know that this part is REALLY AWESOME!"

"What?" I asked.

He looked around like he wanted to make sure nobody could hear him. "They let us check ... out ... books ... to bring HOME! Can you believe it?" And there were plenty of exaggerated hand gestures.

I'm not sure where the excitement came from. He has a county library card. Remember this?

But we read the book as soon as we got home this evening. And he was excited that he picked a good one.

We practiced piano, then had a fun dinner of pancakes and bacon. Then after dinner, it occurred to me that it had been a long time since I played the piano for Biscuit.

His teacher wants to introduce some of the big boys of piano - Mozart, Beethoven and the like - so I figured he might enjoy hearing some of it. And surprisingly, he did.

Jeff gave Biscuit a bath, then Biscuit came running into the living room and said, "Okay, I'm ready for more."

"More what?" I asked him.

"More piano music," he said. I think he's starting to figure out that what he's learning will allow him to eventually play the stuff I played for him. It was very sweet and very intuitive on his part.

He's in his bed now, and I'm heading to my own bed soon. And I hope that our "not bad" days start moving toward "great" really soon!