A Very, Very Long Day – One Mom’s Whine

Today was a long day.  It was especially long because a good friend of mine was having surgery that was scheduled to last 8-10 hours and she was thousands of miles away.  My first inclination was to stay close to the computer, working at my desk all day.  But I soon found that I couldn’t sit still, much less concentrate on writing or anything else.  So I looked through my to do list and decided to tackle a project I had been putting off for months – striping wallpaper from my daughter’s old bathroom!

I knew i needed something I could do on this long day without having to concentrate but something that would keep my hands busy at the same time.  So I trudged down to the basement to pull out the gallon jug of wallpaper remover and the faithful old scraper.  I’ve taken down a ton of wallpaper in this house, but this is the first I’ve taken down that I put up myself.  And I loved this wallpaper – still do, but it has seen better days and this room is ready for a more grown up look!

The thing about a project like this is that once you make that first tear there is no going back!  So I spent a little while checking in on Facebook and checking emails before I got the courage to start.  Rip!!! Ok, no going back now!  If you’ve ever striped wallpaper before you know it never comes down in long or large pieces.  And once you get started it occurs to you that taking the wallpaper down is just the beginning of a long project!

But the good news about the process is that it did the trick of keeping my mind and hands busy for hours!  I took time out every so often to check Facebook for any news about my friend and finally stopped to fix dinner.  As I was cleaning up the dinner dishes a message came through from my friend’s daughter to let me know the surgery was over and went well.  So tonight I’m able to sit down and write without having to jump up and pace the floor every so often.

And now I have a project that will keep me busy for the next several months!  But I’ll be taking a break soon for a meet up with my friend at one of our favorite places – Walt Disney World Resort, of course!