All By Myself

M left to spend the night at Granny's house yesterday, the first time she's been away from us when I wasn't taking the bar or having surgery. She's not coming home until about 5:00 tonight. No sooner had she left (and I stopped sniffling -- seriously, when does this wimpy "my babeh! Don't take my babeh!" phase end?) than I started making grand plans for the day. Here's what my schedule looked like:
8:30 -- spring out of bed after a refreshing full-night's sleep (no, M doesn't sleep through the night).
9:00 -- After a nutritious breakfast, leave for the gym, where I will do a vigorous 45 minutes of cardio followed by full-body strength training.
11:00 -- back home, start cleaning house.
2:00 -- house spotlessly clean, head out for my first haircut in almost 2 years.
3:00 -- on the way home from fabulous haircut, finally bring the car in to be washed.
3:30 -- take gleaming car to grocery store, where I will plan and shop for a fabulous and complicated dinner for my beloved family.
5:00 -- refreshed and well-coiffed, welcome back my sweet baby into our shiny clean home, where I will lovingly feed her the fabulous meal I spend the afternoon preparing.

So far, it's 11:15 am, and here's what my day has been like:

8:15 -- get out of bed (yes! Ahead of schedule!). Turn on bedroom tv while I get dressed for the gym.
8:16 -- Cool! Mad About You reruns! I'll just watch for 5 minutes.
10:00 -- Ack! Have I really been watching TV for two hours already? Crap. Ok, regroup. Skip gym, start cleaning.
10:02 -- well, might as well check email. It'll just take a second.
11:15 -- ok, I swear, as soon as I stop typing, I will start cleaning. Really. I promise.

Of course, the fact that I'm totally off-plan isn't entirely my fault. The truth is, we're on a strict budget this month. We're about $50 away from hitting our self-imposed credit card limit, and we have three more days to get through. So I can't actually afford a haircut and a carwash and a nutritious and complicated meal that doesn't consist of beans and rice. So the only parts of my grand plan that are actually within reach are the least fun bits -- the exercising and the cleaning. Is it any wonder that I'm feeling the huge gravitational pull of the TV and the internet?

But still. Cleaning. Right. I'm picking up the toilet brush right now.

Just let me check my email again...