9:05am: Pour coffee into two travel mugs, add cream and Splenda. Put lunches in lunch bags. Double check tote bag: phone, wallet, gum, two water bottles, book, reusable shopping bags. Put on sweater and shoes.

9:25am: Arrive at work, put lunch in disgusting fridge full of garbage. Grab water, gum, pen, hand sanitizer, lotion and cram into pockets.

11:40am: Break is 10 minutes late. Where is relief? Need coffee, bathroom break.

1:47pm: Lunch is 17 minutes late. Am starving. Need food. Need to sit down. Is unnatural to stand 7 1/2 hours a day.

4:57pm: Think last break has been forgotten. Have to ask for last break. Only 1 1/2 hours to go.

6:37pm: Punch out and head home.

6:49pm: Arrive home. Take dog for quick walkie. Forgot baggie. Try to remember location of doggie deposit. Feed and water dog and cat.

7:00pm: Wash dishes from last night (or last two nights). Take out meat to defrost in microwave. Remember before preheating oven there are more dirty dishes hidden in there.

7:30pm: Start dinner. Something easy on a work day: nachos, spaghetti, quesadillas, burger helper, breakfast. Try to keep things clean while cooking.

8:00pm: Sit down to eat dinner on tv trays while watching “Good Eats” or “Friends” reruns. Comment that we live like old people.

9:00pm: Pack up leftovers, label, freeze. Soak pans and dishes. Prep and program coffee pot. Fill four water bottles and two juice bottles. Make sandwich for Dear Husband, pack chips, breakfast snack, cheese stick or fruit. Take out frozen soup, slice some veggies, pack some dip for me.

9:30pm: Take dog out again. Beg and cajole her to potty as is dark and raining. Acts like she is being punished by “Spring Sprinkle Gods”.

9:45pm: Plug phone into charger. Pick out sweater, socks, undies, shoes for tomorrow.

10:00pm: Take a long shower. More standing after over 13 hours of standing. Shampoo, soap, shave, condition. Comb, dry, lotion, mousse, gel. Face cream, face cream, face cream. When did little lines get so big? Ahh, jammies.

10:30pm: Check email. Check fave sites. Aww, cute kitties. Hey, new coupons to print. Ooh, a fun questionnaire to fill out.

10:45pm: Dry hair. When did so much hair go so gray? Maybe more face cream.

11:00pm: Glass of wine. More web searching. Read a bit. Chat with hubby. Need to go to bed but now feel oddly wired and awake.

12:10am: Clean contacts, wash face, face cream, face cream, face cream. Put on fuzzy socks and climb in bed. “House Hunters International” is on HGTV. Hope it’s rerun so can tune it out and go to sleep. And repeat the events of today. Life of a working housewife…

somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond
any experiences, your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me
or which i cannot touch because they are too near

your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have have closed myself as fingers
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skillfully, mysteriously, her first rose)

or if your wish be to close me, i and
my life will shut very beautifully, suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;

nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility: whose texture
compels me with the colour of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing

(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens; only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody, not even the rain has such small hands

• Animal Farm – George Orwell
• Anthem – Ayn Rand
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn – Betty Smith
• High Fidelity – Nick Hornby
• To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
• All Creatures Great and Small – James Herriot
• My Antonia – Willa Cather
• Night – Eli Weisel
• Diary of a Young Girl – Anne Frank
• Secret of NIHM (also known as Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIHM) – Robert C. O’Brien
• Sheila Levine is Dead and Living in New York – Gail Parent
• The Wish List – Eoin Colfer