Next week I may get my oil changed

Well, I’m sitting in Discount Tire while I attempt to compose this post. With any luck, the ambience of a bargain tire warehouse will inspire some creativity, because heaven knows I haven’t been able to think of a single interesting thing to say while sitting at my desk at home.

It’s a little known fact that Hemingway composed most of his best work at his local Discount Tire store.

My car has a back tire that’s been steadily losing air. I would have never noticed this in a million years. A fact, by the way, that completely boggles P’s mind. We have spent countless minutes of my life that I’ll never get back looking out at the car in the driveway, with him grilling me on how I can’t tell the tire is flat.

“How can you not see that the tire is flat?”

“It doesn’t look flat to me.”

“Do you not see that it has significantly less air than the other tires?”

Umm. No.

What am I? Some sort of automotive, tire pressure specialist?

The tire is not flat to the naked eye.

Or, at the very least, the unobservant eye.

I have a gift.

So, fingers crossed, maybe I need a new tire. Because I would so much rather spend money on a new tire, as opposed to say, saving said money for a sweater coat from Anthropologie. Not to mention the fact that, really, there is nothing I’d rather do with a free morning while Caroline is in school than hang out in an auto store.

It’s almost like being at Starbucks, but with the smell of burnt rubber as opposed to delicious Colombian goodness with a cinnamon swirl muffin on the side.

And instead of catching up with my friends, listening to some woman trying to tell me about her upcoming road trip to California or something like that.

Doesn’t she see that I’m in the midst of composing a literary masterpiece? I bet Hemingway never had this problem. Or maybe he did and it’s how he got the idea for “Grapes of Wrath”.

Except that would be John Steinbeck.

And everyone knows he did most of his writing in the snack bar at Target.

Anyway, this is how I seem to spend the days Caroline is in school. I have high hopes for all the things I’m going to accomplish, then I look up and it’s time to pick her up. Most days all I’ve accomplished is catching up on my Oprah episodes and getting out the vacuum cleaner with the best of intentions.

This summer I made a list of all the things I would accomplish once Caroline was in school:

1. Clean out all closets
2. Paint inside of bathroom cabinet
3. Give house deep cleaning including removing rugs and having them cleaned
4. Taking couch slipcovers to drycleaners to get them cleaned
5. Go to lunch with Gulley at least once a week.
6. Reorganize kitchen cabinets.
7. Clean out laundry room.
8. Thoroughly clean all light fixtures.
9. Organize photos and videos into some sort of system.
10. Write coherent, interesting, entertaining posts for blog.

Here’s what I’ve accomplished.

I’ve gone to lunch with Gulley about 4 times since school started.

Obviously I’m pacing myself.

I think I’m still a little bit giddy with my newfound freedom. Freedom that allows me to roam the aisles at Old Navy, Target and TJ Maxx without someone hanging on my leg and begging me to stop looking at clothes so that I can watch how fast they can run across the store.

Seriously, when I resigned from my job last spring, Caroline finished school two weeks later. Thus began the longest summer ever. Granted, I loved being at home without the pressure of work, however, I had no idea what it was like to just have free time for the sake of having free time.

I haven’t really known what to do with myself. I’m like a kid in a candy store, or you know, like a kid who can watch Friday Night Lights instead of Noggin on a Wednesday morning.

But, with my foray into Discount Tire, I am proclaiming that I’m serious about getting stuff done while Caroline is in school. I’m ramping up to be proficient and wise about my time management.

I may even go home and clean out a closet later.

But let’s be honest, the only way the inside of the bathroom cabinet is getting painted is if I hire someone to do it.

I think I’ll edit my list.

2. Hire someone to paint inside of bathroom cabinet.

See, I feel more efficient already.