Wednesday

As a part-time employee at The News- Gazet te, I have the privilege of taking Wednesdays off. This was an arrangement that was made back in April 2020 during COVID’s reign of terror. And now Wednesday is my favorite day of the week.

I begin my day around 10 a.m. or so. Generally I stay in bed watching short videos on social media until my bladder tells me it’s time to get up and I can no longer argue with it.

Then it’s medicine time. I’m a middle-aged woman now so I have a spot in one of the kitchen cabinets designated for the four prescriptions I take every morning. While I’m taking my meds, my coffee is brewing in the Keurig. Once the coffee’s ready, it gets a splash of half n’ half and a trip to the kitchen table. There I sit and put together a to-do list for the day. I heard recently that one should get the major household chores out of the way during the week so that the weekend is a true and well-deserved break. I cram a lot of laundry into my Wednesday off.

If there’s any coffee left, I then go to my computer to access the supermarket circulars online and make meal plans for the rest of the week. To save money, I only buy items on sale unless there’s something I’m running low on like condiments or cat food. I can never let the supply of cat food get too low. There are five cats living in the house and they cannot shop for themselves. One of the most expensive items on my weekly grocery list is cat litter and with five felines, we go through a lot of it. A box of cat litter is the item most likely to be left in the trunk until it’s actually needed because sometimes lifting a box of litter is like picking up Thor’s hammer.

Once the coffee is finished, the coffee cup gets a wash along with the dishes from the night before. This is my time to daydream. I think of that old motel on U.S. 60 in Amherst County that I would absolutely love to buy and remodel. I’d have the exterior painted white, but each guest room door would be painted a different pastel color. Each room would have a different theme and its own access to a balcony overlooking the Pedlar River. As I’m washing out my coffee cup, I’m thinking about how I’d only serve locally sourced eggs and bacon on the breakfast bar.

With the dishes stacked in the drying rack, I check the lottery numbers from the night before and realize my dream of buying and refurbishing that old motel will have to wait, at least another week. Putting out a hot and homemade breakfast every morning for the motel guests would require me to get up at 5 a.m. and I’ve never been an early riser, I tell myself in a consoling tone.

I talk to myself a lot when I’m alone at home. This is something I’ve done since I was a child. I catch myself speaking my thoughts aloud at the grocery store, too. Please tell me I’m not the only one who says things like, “Do I need a jar of sundried tomatoes?” or “Wow, I haven’t heard that song in a long time!” while cruising around the produce department.

The rest of the day I’m tackling items on the to-do list. If all the laundry is washed, folded and put away by 5 p.m., I reward myself with a couple chocolate truffles from the candy jar. But if the laundry isn’t folded and put away until 11, I cut myself some slack; Wednesday is my day off, after all.

My favorite lunch on my Wednesday off is leftover rice topped with a fried egg, shredded sharp cheddar cheese, mild salsa and a dollop of sour cream.

I try to avoid time on the couch until late in the day. If I feel tired mid-day, I may feel tempted to take a nap, but then I say to myself, “Good grief, woman! You’ve only been awake since 10!”

So there you have it, folks. My Wednesday off. I know what I do on that day isn’t very interesting, but I do enjoy that time to take a cleansing breath and prepare for the rest of the work week.