Monday Scramble:
Holiday
Photo: Kathleen Moriarty.
7:30 AM It’s only fair that, since we’re in no mood for a holiday, we’re not going to get one.
When we got home from a fireworks-viewing party last night, there was a message on the answering machine. It was Megan, calling to ask if she and Ryan could spend the holiday at with at our house, working. That is, they would work and we would take care of Will. So of course that’s what we’re going to do.
Or at least that’s what we were going to do as of late last night. Who knows, in this heat, what will happen. We were not cheered by the taxi driver who brought us home, not when he asked if we thought that there would be a blackout this week. It’s going to be sunny and awful right through Friday.
10:15 AM Holiday conditions persist at the apartment; we’ve had no word from downtown. We’re hoping that everyone is sleeping. We’re hoping that nobody read the foregoing and concluded that our welcome wouldn’t be warm. We’re told that we are not as funny as we think we are, sometimes.
Here’s what it is: we’re in no mood for other people to have a holiday. Oh, that’s not right, either. But we like our Mondays to be Mondays. Mail, packages, dry-cleaning &c.Â
If we’re not keen on holidays for ourselves, that’s only because we have so many of them. When you get right down to it, we work about three and a half days a week. The rest of the time is spent emptying the dishwasher — and we’re lucky to have the dishwasher!
Running two errands between eight and nine, we found the air to be sweet and not to humid. We tried to fix that memory, to give us something to look forward to in the weeks or months to come. After this week of torrid summertime.
Then we read the Times. Hmmm, what’s this? A long story about the Staten Island Cricket Club, and no mention of Joseph O’Neill? Have we missed something?
NB: We are ALWAYS in the mood for Will.
3:45 PM Kathleen is napping in the living room, because Megan and Will are resting in the bedroom. Such is the aftermath of a lunch delivered by Burger Heaven. Ryan, it’s true, is hard at work, but all he had for lunch was a bagel.
Megan suggested that we assemble a colander-ful of safe items for Will to play with. The corn brush (for flossing silk from corn cobs), the mushroom brush (for removing dirt), a stainless steel measuring cup. Scouting for items brought us up against a number of utensils that were greasy from hanging over the stove. They’re in the dishwasher now. We’re lucky to have the dishwasher!
 4:30 PM Everyone gone. Megan and Ryan did what they had to do — even though Will got wind of the fact that a meeting was in progress somewhere in the apartment, and fussed accordingly. The O’Neills will be back on Thursday, after Will’s first swimming lesson and his six-month checkup. That, at any rate, is the plan.
Kathleen drifted from the love seat in the living room to her proper bed, and is still napping. She has had a big weekend: lots of closet re-org. Also shopping; hours at Lord & Taylor, Bloomingdale’s.
Now what?