I wish I could load up this blog more often. I love to reflect on so much. Last night as I drifted off to sleep, I thought of an idea for a children’s book that included birds, feathers and finance. I should pursue that. Suze Orman would be proud. I really should pursue my personal writing more often. It’s like a bottle of bubbly with an uncaged cork. I need to control its release or it will explode, evaporate and leave a sticky film all over my life. I’d only regret that. Better to pour.Â
I do a lot. I wake up at 3:30 a.m. Monday through Friday to workout at 24 Hour Fitness Hawaii Kai. I get home from the gym at 5 a.m. and get ready for work, hoofing it down to theBus stop by 5:45 to catch the express #80 into town. I connect to the first bus going back toward my offices on Keeaumoku Street and get there by 6:45.
At work I have my tea and my breakfast, four hours after I wake up. I then write, edit, update web pages, meet with people in other departments to plan on creating communications materials, layout and design a monthly newsletter, and offer moral support to my boss and colleagues. I am a cheerleader for my company and my department.
After work I drive home because my husband leaves the van near my office. He rides his bicycle home when he gets off work later in the evening. I pick the girls up at the after-school program and bring them home or to swim team practice. Once home, I start dinner, maybe do a load of laundry, go through planners, review homework, sign permission slips and write checks for field trips, lunch money accounts, feed the girls, wash the dishes, straighten the house up, take out the trash and recyclables, and set up for the next day. That includes setting out an outfit to workout in, an outfit for work, packing breakfast and lunch, getting everything into my purse, including my wallet, my bus pass wallet, my iphone, my cellular phone, my sunglasses, my reading glasses, my work badge, my Weight Watchers food journal, and everything else I cannot get through a day without.
For some reason, it is hard to get to bed before 10 p.m. on a week night. I keep wondering how I can be more efficient.
Thank goodness weekends are a bit more relaxed, but no less busy. We run errands, go to piano lessons, workout for longer sessions at 24 Hour Fitness, and try to squeeze in some fun like riding bicycles or going to the beach. Three or four times a month I like to go surfing or do a beach excursion. Immersing myself in the ocean is my psychotherapy. Coming face to face with a sea turtle or a sea lion, paddling through a cloud of moon jelly fish, stepping over the reef and seeing an octopus side wind its way out of my path, give me a chance to think about the world’s wonders.
Right now a happy cardinal is king of the avocado tree in the backyard. The cats are comatose on the tall coral walls, dangerously close to rolling off. Kid1 has her nose in a book, Kid2 is stealthily searching for lizards and other small creatures in our garden. It’s Sunday afternoon, life is as slow as it will get for us.
Thought I’d take a minute to write about it.
Lavagal 
I need a nap just reading your schedule! You always make the read so enjoyable, Paula. Yes, you should write more often but where would you find the time?!
Phew, now there’s a schedule! and I thought mine was harsh. I’d leave for work right from the gym. That’s what I used to do when I lived in NYC.
Thank you again for your fabulous story of your daily life. Hope Kid2 caught the lizard!
Very enjoyable to read; write the childrens book. There are millions of dollars to be yours, I will illustrate and we’ll be rich. You can have a limo vs bus ride to work, better yet never have to work again!
I tell you! I’d love to blog more, too, but life gets in the way.
I totally agree with the need to take the time to write for ourselves – and also wonder where to pull that time out of busy days. Before I started writing for a living, I wrote for me. Somehow the ‘me’ writing got left behind in a cloud of dust (unfortunately, not a cloud of cash). Ever striving for balance.
Powler, loved this post. The busy-ness of it all seems so necessary, though huh? And normally, it all is necessary anyway so like you, I’d never lament any of it — just like to meander through how all of it seems to ribbon back to the question of “Did I miss something?”
Thankfully, Kid1 is not ‘Olive’ from Little Miss Sunshine standing outside a Chevron in the middle of nowhere, because you ran off in such a rush. LOL.
And didn’t your blog all begin with the thought of it being your ‘outlet?’ It began for me that way, but apparently it became a chore at some point because my last post was some time in mid-April, ranting about some idiot driver I almost ran into because of his crazy habit of going 25 in the fast lane.
I digress. Thanks for the pep talk, literally; I’m back to post in my blog now.
Oh and I forgot to mention, Powler is how you say Paula right? đ Well at least if you’re a cockney weirdo HAHA.
Wow, and I thought I was busy! I’ll never say that again! đ
As much as I would love to be a morning person, I know by age 41, I am never going to be one – kudos for getting up and working out that early!
Whew, you sure you aren’t two people? Don’t know how you can possibly get up that early in the morning, but kudos to you for your dedication!
While minus the fat ass, I take a lot away from your post, love the eating a Rainbow concept, never knew that b4.Thaks Paula, and keep up the good work!