La Bene Vita

Teenage Boys' Sleepover and Food Log: 9/19/15

How the hell did it get to be September 20th already?

The first fifteen minutes of my day this morning were complete and total shit. If you're intrigued, read on. And thank you for reveling in my misery. I love you, too.

I woke up early for bio reasons. I zombie-walked past the sleeping dog, out of the bedroom, down the stairs, and into the kitchen adjacent to the living room so I could start the coffee.

That's when I remembered the sleepover featuring four teenage boys.

They were sprawled all over the furniture and floor in the living room. I tried to be as quiet as possible while making the coffee, but you can't shush running water. They started to stir, and I felt guilty. But, damnit, I wanted coffee.

On a typical morning, I would gather up my computer and peripherals from the living room (where I "work" in front of the TV in the evenings) and move to the office (where I WORK in the mornings.) Luckily, I'd remembered to collect my stuff last night. Unluckily, I'd forgotten the Chromebook itself, which was tucked between the end table and the couch, which was occupied by a seventeen-year-old boy, and which I had to creep past and tiptoe over three other teenage boys to reach. 

So far, so good... until I realized that I'd also left my mouse in the bedroom. I didn't want to go back in there to get it because the dog always wakes the second time I go into the bedroom. Instead, I scoped out my husband's computer (my old broken laptop) to see if he had an extra mouse handy.

I found his laptop closed. I started to whisper obscenities.

You can't close that laptop. The screen is broken. I swear if that happens again the thing will never boot back up. You almost have to see it to understand but the screen is separating in the lower left-hand corner, near the fan, and when you open or close the lid, it puts pressure around the hinge. The pieces of the chassis separate and break further, and black liquid crystal stuff spreads across the entire screen. And the worse the chassis breaks, the worse the computer overheats. Eventually, the hard drive will fail.

You can't close that laptop.

Keith needs that computer operational in order to find a job. Otherwise we'll have to buy a new computer.  *points to the sentence indicating that he's looking for a job and therefore doesn't have a paycheck*

I specifically told the teenager who actually lives here to be careful around that computer last night when he was looking for ways to hook up his own laptop to the TV. It's only partially his fault. I know he has ADD. When I said, "Be careful around the computer and don't jostle it," I should have instead said, "Come here. See this computer? Don't close the lid. Don't touch the computer. Don't even breathe on it. But especially don't close the lid. Now repeat that back to me." So the obscenity-whispering was in part anger at the teenager for closing the lid and anger at myself for not being more clear.

The computer sits in the dining area, just off the kitchen, on the side opposite the living room. I realized that whispering obscenities defeated the purpose of all my earlier tiptoeing, so I shut my mouth and fumed silently, vowing to chew the teenager's ass out later when the rest of the boys were gone. I didn't find a spare mouse, so I went into the bedroom to get mine.

And since it was the second time I moved around in there, the dog hopped up and wanted to join me. Of course he wanted to investigate the boys in the living room.

Now, I've got him locked in the office with me. He's lying on the guest bed making puppy dog eyes at me, begging me to let him go out and play, or at least explore the house.

Just be quiet and chew your bone, Sammy.

Food Log: 9/19/16
- Coffee w/sugar-free creamer
- Peanut butter
- Maple brown sugar oatmeal*
- Leftover pizza
- Keith's yummeh homemade chili with cheese and sour cream
.......and then the craving hit**
- Chocolate chip Fiber One granola bar
- Toast with butter
- Handful of grapes
- Crystal Light

* The oatmeal is sweet and I probably won't eat it again, at least not before I meet my 21-day goal. However, I ate it because I told a friend about my addiction to cereal (it looks lie this: top off the cereal to use leftover milk; add a little milk because the cereal is dry; repeat) and she said she had the same problem. She switched to oatmeal because you serve yourself a fixed quantity and you're done. It appeals to my sense of logic, so I intend to implement it in the long-term. Interesting observation: I found the maple brown sugar flavor a little too sweet.

** I wanted cookies or a cupcake or a donut sooooo badly. It was all I could think about for at least an hour. I didn't eat the granola bar at first, but after an hour or so of misery, I folded. It's sweet, and I shouldn't have eaten it, but it was the "healthiest" sweet thing I could think of. But this isn't about health, at least not in the short term. It's about breaking addiction, and I failed just a little bit. And it wasn't even enough. The toast and the grapes were more attempts to satisfy that urge for sugar or just carbs or whatever. Bleh.

I'll do better today.