Home Alone

So Tim calls me today and tells me that a friend of his from hockey needs help doing something with the tires on his car tonight. He then, very politely, asked if I minded if he stayed late at work. Of course I told him that was fine, I never want to be THAT WIFE, and really I had nothing going on tonight. I looked at the clock and it was 4:45 pm and then 20 minutes went by and I looked at the clock again and it was 4:47pm. I was trapped in the slowest afternoon ever.
At 5 on the nose I fired up some mac and cheese for A. Lo, which totally screwed me because it took all of 5 minutes to make, eat and clean up. I know my kids go to bed early, but 5:30 is pushing it. We made cards for the teachers (tomorrow is the last day of school- yikes!), called an old friend, fed the cat, and still the clock wouldn't tick any faster. I then got a brilliant idea...a pajama walk! We used to do this when we were kids, and loved it! Abby got all dressed in her jammies, I got Nora ready for bed and we piled onto the double stroller. Of course, I am slightly a moron and forgot that it was 90 degrees today, and despite the brief cloudburst we had earlier it was still pretty hot out. When I noticed that Nora's (all decked out in her fleece footie jammies) hair was starting to curl by the time we got out of the driveway, I decided to make it a quick walk. Abby loved being out and about in her jammies, and it did kill about 11 minutes so I decided to let her have an extra story tonight and call it a day. Of course the baby fussed all through the stories, and I got more and more irritated with Tim. Why wasn't;t her there to read to Abby so that I could feed the baby? Why wasn't he there to hold the baby so I could read to Abby? I hate doing bedtime alone.

As irritated as I am at Tim for abandoning me for the evening so that he can drink beer with his buddies while rotating tires or whatever he said he was doing, I know that I am wrong to be. There are plenty of nights where I leave him while I go off and do whatever it is I do (I am getting a haircut tomorrow, pilaties starts in a week, belly dancing the week after), and while he has not been with the darlings all day he has been working too, and I respect that. But that doesn't make the witching hour any easier, and it doesn't make me want to kick him any less.

Now I am left home alone with 2 sleeping lovelies, hours of Tivo to catch up on, a new book from the library that I am finding too painful to read (anyone read Smashed?), bills to pay, a house to clean, and toes that need to be pedicured...where do I start? I think I'll have a snack and figure it out....