how was your day?

My day started as they have been lately, alarm going off while it's still dark outside.  After forcing my eyes to remain open long enough to consider myself actually awake I started the ritual that is waking the boys up.  Big Brother usually wakes quickly, while The Boy, in yet another instance of being just like me, does not.

I made sure they were putting on clean clothes and got The Boy to finally change his socks then helped them get bowls of cereal lined up.  I made them sandwiches and peeled and cut kiwis for their lunches, and I made sure they both had milk money. 

Momma arrived as the boys were finishing getting ready for school and whisked them away.  I had time for a bowl of cereal before I went to stand up the street and wait for the bus.  Sadly I had no coffee in the house, so my day didn't start as well as it could have. 

The bus station/transfer point has a lunch counter at which I paid $1.09 for a horrible cup of of coffee delivered by a guy who was so cheerful that I wanted to drag him across the counter and beat him with the airpot.

The municipal court/police station is an uphill walk of two long blocks from the bus station, and I was early enough to relax at the station while waiting till I needed to start my walk in order to get there early.

I'm glad I was there early, because in a random moment of making sense I checked my paperwork to see if I'd missed anything about my court appearance.  I'm somewhat familiar with the court house that I went to as it's where I've been at least twice in the past ten years, once to pay a speeding ticket and once to pay one hundred dollars for committing the crime of not knowing I needed my registration in the car.  To make that one worse I realized sometime later that the registration was in fact in the car.

Upon looking at my paperwork I realized I was at the wrong court.  For my offense I did not need to go to municipal court.  I needed to be over ten blocks away at general sessions court which is in the city/county building.  I began the quick walk, glad that I'd arrived early, and called the phone number listed on my paper.

The lady that answered was nice enough even though she insisted that I was already an hour late.  Her records indicated I needed to be there at nine, and she wouldn't accept that my records said ten.  It didn't matter either way.

I did actually make it to court on time.  The judge was finishing up his discussion of rights and the nature of the offense that most of us were there for and then began to call the roll.

My court date was actually an arraignment, so within about an hour I had my actual court date and was free to go.  From there I walked another five blocks to my place of employment to mark the calendar we use to request days off so that I could be sure to have my court date free.  A coworker was also there with his eight month old, so I got to hold a tiny baby.  I then proceeded to tickle his toes and that spot on the back of all baby's necks that makes them shiver.  It's so much fun.

I then walked to where Momma works, another couple of blocks, so that I could let her know about my court business.  Another three blocks took me to a coffee shop so that I could eat a scone and enjoy a cup of good coffee.

Another three blocks saw me at the bus stop so that I could ride to the grocery store.  From the grocery store I walked another two blocks to catch the bus that would have taken me home.  I rolled a cigarette and checked the schedule only to find myself wishing I'd been there ten minutes earlier and debating how long I felt like standing and waiting.  I opted to walk.  The next bus wasn't due for about forty minutes.

Home was another two mile walk, and by the time I finally reached here I almost wished I'd waited.  You'd think with all the standing and moving I do as a cook a little walking would be easy, but my legs, from the knees down, are some achy bastards.

I'm home, have some chicken stock simmering on the stove.  I'll use it a bit later to boil some rice into which I'll mix some leftover chicken and whatever else sounds like it'll be good.  I'll also hope The Boy eats some, otherwise he'll be a hungry little monkey.

And that was the first half of my day.  I've since dozed for a few minutes in front of the television and checked Facebook.  Momma is stopping at the co-op for me and bringing me coffee when she brings the boys later, and as soon as I see her car in the driveway I'll get water on.  The French press is already clean.

Right now I'm hungry and tired.  I really hope the boys don't have any/much homework.  I don't feel like dealing with it tonight, though so far we haven't had any problems.  The Boy is behind where his class mates are, so we're working with him to catch up.  He's a smart kid, and when we work on combating the frustration he easily understands the math.  The reading/writing may take a bit more patience, but it's good for me to learn some of that.