My Week as an Au Pair

This is an unusual week for me. Usually I work in my loft office on this blog and on the rewrite of a novel as well as doing some marketing for clients. Today, and for the rest of this week I’m playing au pair for my daughter’s family. And instead of driving 45 minutes up Route 495 to stay overnight I got on a Jet Blue flight to BWI to spend the week in the Mother In Law suite of their new house. It’s an adjustment.

Not the least of it is working on a new computer that will remain here so I don’t have to lug a laptop back and forth every time I visit.  It’s a beautiful HP machine but I’m spending time setting it up so I can eventually zip back and forth from one app to another as I do at home. Everything I do requires a first-time set up or log in. It’s mildly annoying but majorly time consuming. After this set-up work it should go more smoothly, though.

The Morning

My day started, not with a half hour of meditation followed by yoga stretches while I catch up with the news and weather but with managing the production of blueberry pancakes and turkey bacon. This is a much heavier breakfast than anything I typically eat. I won’t use the word cooking because what we did to produce the pancakes bears no relationship to actual cooking. The kids did a lot more than I supervised directly and a lot of batter went onto the counter. The pancakes came out OK even if cooking them was somewhat unorthodox. My day started, not with a half hour of meditation followed by yoga stretches while I catch up with the news and weather but with managing the production of blueberry pancakes and turkey bacon. This is a much heavier breakfast than anything I typically eat. I won’t use the word cooking because what we did to produce the pancakes bears no relationship to actual culinary skills. The kids did a lot more than I supervised directly and a lot of batter went onto the counter but they learned. M got better at flipping. The pancakes came out OK even if cooking them was somewhat unorthodox.

Then off to camp: M (7) to swim camp at the Y and T (5) to drama camp at the theater company. I would have said that T provides more than enough drama already but at least the pros can channel that vibrant energy productively.

In a little while I’ll walk up to the center of Silver Spring for lunch and to do a little shopping for things I want to keep here and something for dinner. That will probably be my exercise for today — no yoga stretches.

I’m alone in the house with the cat, who was somewhat surprised to realize that she had company for the day. We have the Olympics on for the sound of it more than for the actual competition.‘

After Lunch

A brisk walk up the street brings me to the center of Silver Spring, which has a wonderful collection of shops and restaurants. I had a healthy salad at Cava, which sort of makes up for breakfast. Then on to CVS and Whole Foods to pick up some things for dinner. No, it is not any cheaper down here than up in Massachusetts.A brisk walk up the street brought me to the center of Silver Spring, which has a wonderful collection of shops and restaurants. I had a healthy salad at Cava, which sort of makes up for breakfast. Then on to CVS and Whole Foods to pick up some things for dinner. No, it is not any cheaper down here than up in Massachusetts.

I’m going to try to post this somewhat abbreviated post before I go back to my chauffeur duties. If I’m lucky I’ll get some time to work on the rewrite. First, though I have to contact Nook customer support and find out why the book I downloaded, our book club selection for next Monday, only appears on my phone. It’s always something.

Last Night and This Morning

The Gilded YearsMy son in law connected my Nook to the network and somehow found the missing book, which was still not appearing in the library. How? It’s a mystery.

I’m over 100 pages into “The Gilded Years” by Karen Tanabe and should have no trouble finishing it by Monday’s book group.

The kids have been fed (scrambled eggs and toast), packed, and dropped off at camp. Today is a new day.