There’s no such thing as a typical day anymore. “Typical” has lost all meaning and our days, in turn, are whatever they shape up to be, whatever we manage to make them, mere mortals that we are. A typical day for our family now means a day spent responding to immediate needs, a days of unexpected pleasure and responsibilities, an unpredictable gift of a day. I began yesterday by writing a lengthy to-do list on the back of an envelope containing a student loan bill, and knowing full well that most of what I was writing down would not be attended to that day. The plan was to begin, but most of the day was to be spent in Lincoln, at the wedding of a former student and future colleague of mine, one of the sharpest and most terrific young ladies I’ve ever met. It isn’t my place to tell her story — or even use her name, here in the blog, but I hope one day you meet her all the same.

After completing a few household chores, Sonja and I, wedding dressed, loaded the kids into two cars so that we could drop one at Costco to get new tires. We went to the chiropractor, found them to be closed, then went to Target, found them to be open, and bought Titus new shoes for the wedding. From there we went to Costco, where we first ate lunch: four huge hot dogs for $6 — it is literally cheaper to feed my family at Costco than to make them food at home. While my car was having new tires put on, we loaded the kids into a Costco-sized cart, did a little shopping, and quickly found a new mattress on sale.

I think the big appeal of the mattress, other than that it cost very little money by comparison to other mattresses, was brand name. No, scratch that. The big appeal of the mattress has been waking up in back pain for several years, despite frequent visits to the chiropractor. We knew our mattress was ten years old and sagging in the middle, but it’s one of those things that always feels like it can wait, you know? Maybe if a dash light popped on the way it does when your car needs maintenance: “Your mattress is 88% useless. Service soon.” Anyway, having two vehicles on us, and noting that the sale ended tomorrow nearly doubling the price of the mattress, we purchased the new mattress and I set about strapping it to the roof of the CRV using the baling twine provided to us by Costco.

We ditched the CRV, and the mattress, rather than driving it down I-80 to Lincoln, and took my car to the wedding. There, I saw my former student, met her wonderful new husband, ran into an old colleague and a few other former students, and in general had a wonderful time. When the kids started howling for food, we took off, stopping at a Ruby Tuesday’s on the way home and then dropping me off to drive the CRV ever-so-slowly down Center Street while Sonja took the Interstate home and put the kids to bed.

I pulled into the drive and went upstairs, where I heard my little Peanut crying. I cuddled her back to sleep, then went upstairs where Sonja was reading to Titus. I gave him a kiss and ten minutes later Sonja joined me in the driveway to cut off the twine. Before we got to work, I pulled a bottle of rose’ out of the fridge to bring the temperature up a big. Then together, we drug the mattress from atop the car and lugged it inside. It was light enough, and flexible enough, that we got it done relatively pain-free. Could this have waited? Maybe. But we wanted to sleep on our new mattress, of course.

Exhausted from the day, and from the physical exertion that was the cherry atop it, we tossed the old mattress in the corner of our room and I grabbed the wine. Sonja cued up season three of The Office, and we lay back on our new mattress to enjoy what remained of our evening.

The 2017 Marcel Hugg Rose’ of Pinot Noir is a really nice take on Alsatian rose’. Aromatic and flavorful with almost an electric pink hue, the characteristic dryness of the cold climes of Alsace are undeniably present, yet the dry strawberry and cherry flavors, maybe tinged in a hint of vanilla, make it a flavorful take on rose’. Of course, the warmer it got, the more flavorful it got. I think I’d serve this one right around fifty plus degrees, personally — it was best almost at room temperature.  Reasonably priced, this is a nice wine, and paired well with testing out a new mattress.  One of these days, I’m going to get around to explaining what new role The Office, my favorite television show of all time, is playing in our lives, but that’s an entirely different story.

This morning I awoke with the usual aches in my lower back — but to a far lesser degree of severity. I felt good. I felt rested. Upon consideration, I think I slept better last night than any night previous for a very long time. I’m enthused to ask Sonja what she thought of it when she awakes. Today, as I finish up writing, I glance down at the back of the envelope containing the list of things I need to do today. I have a 4pm deadline; at that time I’m interviewing a dozen or so people, looking for salespeople to work for the alcohol distribution company Sonja and I bought into. It should be fun — I’ve designed a rather rigorous group interview. In the meantime I’m well-rested, which is a good thing, because today like every others looks to be pretty typical.

Cheers to your typical days, and to a good night’s sleep when they conclude,

Mark