“That’s it!” I called as I walked in the front door and dropped my bags by the chair.
“Last day of school.” Alex said as he came around the corner from the kitchen. “Congratulations!”
“Thanks!” I flopped down on the couch and put my feet up on the coffee table. “What a weird year it’s been.” I shook my head. “All the pandemic protocols…” I looked over at Alex “It was all so crazy.”
“I know. You’ve been stressing about it all year.” Alex sat down across from me. “But it’s all over with now and you have the whole summer ahead of you, right?”
I had to smile. “You’re right. I should stop thinking about the school year and start thinking about all the things I want to do this summer.”
“What are some of the things you want to do?”
“Well,” I looked around the room and pointed to the basket by his chair that held my sewing things. “I’d like to finish that counted cross stitch piece I started a few years ago.”
Alex looked down at the basket. “You’ve got most of it done already.”
I nodded. “I’m sure I could finish it before school starts up again.”
“That’s a good one. What else?”
I had to think about it for a minute. “I guess I’d like to paint that back room.”
Alex nodded. “Maybe you should start writing this stuff down.”
“That’s a good idea.” I got up and grabbed a pad and pen from one of my bags. “I have a stack of books I’ve wanted to get to.” I sat back down and began to write.
“What else?”
“Well…” I was tapping the pen against the pad. “Oh! I want to get the car in the shop to fix that ding I got when someone hit it with a cart at the grocery store.” I began writing it down. “I should probably get some doctors appointments in.”
“See?” Alex reached over and picked up his water glass from the coffee table. “Look at all the things you can accomplish this summer.” He took a sip from his glass then put it back down.
“Oh! I also want to clean out my office desk.” I shook my head as I was writing it down. “That’s been a mess for way too long.” I stopped writing and looked up at Alex. “Well, actually my whole office could use a cleaning out.”
I held up my list for Alex to see.
“There you go!” Alex said. “Now you won’t be complaining at the end of the summer that you didn’t accomplish anything.”
I smiled as I got up. “I’m going to put this on the refrigerator so I’ll see it every morning.”
Alex got up and followed me into the kitchen. I grabbed a magnet and stuck it to the front of the fridge, then stood back to admire my list.
Alex patted me on the shoulder. “You can start first thing tomorrow!”
I looked over at him, hardly hiding my annoyance. “I just finished a Covid school year! I can’t get the weekend off?”
Alex held up his hand. “You’re right. Sorry about that.”
I sighed. “Thank you.” I went over to the drawer where we kept the take-out menus. Pulling out several of them I held them up. “What sounds good for dinner tonight?” I went over to get my phone. “Because cooking doesn’t start until Monday either.”
Alex looked surprised.
“Okay, fine.” I went to the table and sat down looking through the menus. “Maybe cooking starts tomorrow but right now what am I ordering?”
Slice of Life 