Mondays

Okay, so I was going over my oh-so-neat-and-tidy list of blog-able topics, trying to find something that would fit a Monday morning and nothing really grabbed me. For each one, I thought, Hmm... that might work... on another day. I just didn't feel like writing about any of them.

So then I read through the many blogs I read on a daily basis (for the most part), wondering if someone else had blogged on a topic I might be able to steal. Just the idea - not the entire post, of course. That would just be wrong.

Nope. Nothing out there I wanted to yap about - though they made for some great reading, and - in the case of December Quinn's series on writing sex scenes - some great learning as well (you can check out her series here.) But still, nothing I wanted to write about.

Part of it is that it's Monday. You know how Saturday and Sunday have a particular feel to them? Well, Monday's feel is unlike any other day. I never liked Mondays - ever. As a kid, it meant a long week at school. As an adult, it meant back to work after a nice lazy weekend. Now, as a parent, it means "And now the ^&#! starts all over again" - school, after school activities, yadda yadda yadda. Although, now that it's the middle of summer, the Monday feel isn't quite as strong, but it's definitely still there.

But this Monday is a little different. For the first time since the middle of February, my husband is at work on this sunny Monday. Yep - you read that right. He's been out of work since February. See, on one hand, being in a union is great - benefits, retirement plan, a trade. But on the other hand... when the construction industry slows, the layoffs are looooong. This was the longest stretch he's been out since joining the union almost seven years ago. When he was an apprentice, the layoffs were maybe two weeks, a month at most. Apprentices work cheap, so it's usually easy to find a slot for them. Now journeymen, on the other hand... well, their rates are higher so they can sit longer. Like almost 6 months - ugh.

It's weird, not having him home. It's just me and the kids... which is cool, since they play together and Mommy can get some work done. But, it means Mommy has to get up a little earlier than she did when Daddy was home. See, my husband's pretty understanding about my night-owl-ness and he's always been an early riser. So, when he's riding the bench (laid off), he gets up with the kids and I get to sleep in, since I'm usually up until the wee hours of the morning when I'm writing.

Unfortunately, I was up until the wee hours last night, simply because now my sleep cycle's all out of whack. I was watching Apollo 13 on TVLand - I love that movie. Absolutely love, love, love it - and since I have a laptop, I simply make myself comfy on the sofa, and type away.

So this Monday morning was a little rough. I did get about 5 pages written last night, in between looking things up and poring over a map of London to get my geography right.

Well, maybe tomorrow I pull one of those topics off the list. We'll see.

But for now? Time to get back to work. Research is a -waitin' and the kids are outside playing, so I've got some free time...