I stare at this computer screen through one bleary eye. The current buzz of the room and weakness in my chest accounts for the whopping two hours of sleep I managed this morning. I am creating a blog on the suggestion of Davina. I think it is an excellent idea. I can express my life through words and others can see what goes on in in the atmosphere of Adwoa Tacheampong: Mother, Wife, Healer, Musician...
This weekend was a prime example of my life in general:
Friday, I oversleep, but still manage to get Kwesi to school on time and me to work on time. I frantically contemplate how to squeeze 8 hours of work into 3.5 hours because I need to leave early. The phone rings approximately 97 times in the span of two minutes and I put out fires, assist with computer issues, make flyers, and give advice...oh, I also do tasks that are relative to my job description.
12:00 arrives and I prepare to leave. This takes a while because I don't like leaving my desk messy. I run downtown. The parking gods are nice to me and I find a parking space right around the corner from the Sheraton downtown...on to play batá for a conference on ethnomusicology.
After the presentation, I'm off to Trader Joe's. I am famished at this point and devour chocolate and sea salt covered almonds in the car. It's then off to pick Kwesi up and take him home...trade car keys for a baby in the span of 10 minutes that I see my husband during the week, then with a kiss he is off to work. Gotta work on my two papers for class. One needs to be 8-10 pages. The other needs to be 12-15 pages. Uggghhh... I do laundry, then work on the paper, then go to sleep.
Saturday, I arise and try to add more to both papers. I don't get much added. Time flies as it comes closer to the time I need to leave to go back to the Sheraton. This time, I am performing with PhillyBloco. Chuckie leaves to go play batá at a bembé. My mom comes over. Anisa smiles when she sees her...that is until she remembers that when Nana comes over, that means mommy and daddy are leaving. Anisa's smile turns to crying. After some moments of consoling, I sneak out of the door. Performance is great and I have a good time. I did a bit of Maculele and jacked up my old lady knee...dangit!
Home again and working on paper until around 1 AM when I cannot keep my eyes open...I succumb to sleep.
I wake up on Sunday a bit late to a baby who is annoyed because I took too long to wake up. Kwesi is outside with the girl across the street, Kareema...he asked me could he go outside when I was fast asleep. Apparently I said yes... I peel myself out of the bed and get myself ready to leave out of the house...off to the studio... Recording vocals with Elizabeth and Susan. The studio goes off without a hitch and I soon head back to New Jersey. I go grocery shopping before heading home. Now, I must REALLY tackle my papers...after all, I have a 2 AM deadline (midnight, MST).
My vocation is Mental Health Counseling. I am midway through my quest for a Master's Degree in this field. The first paper I must complete for the end of this semester is for my Diagnosis and Assessment class. I must present a Five-Axis Diagnosis of an individual, fictional or real. I chose Animal...yes, the Muppet Electric Mayhem drummer. I decide he is manic-depressive. With one page left to the paper, I hit a mental roadblock. I decide to turn in the paper under the page requirement. I rather have points taken off for failure to meet the requirement, than to fill a page with fluff. Anisa wakes up...boob time.
Next paper: for Lifetime Development class. Lifetime development of an important individual. I chose Miriam Makeba. I have worked on the paper for a few weeks...so I only need to add... TEN pages to meet my page requirement. Melancholy continues to hit me as I write this paper. Miriam Makeba is my idol. I wish I had the chance to meet her before her death. Half-way through my goal, my laptop overheats. It becomes sluggish and disagreeable. I hurriedly e-mail my paper to myself. Anisa wakes up again...boob time.
I switch my work to my desktop. Working furiously to complete the last few paragraphs, I fail to save every few seconds as has become custom for me when working on something important. My desktop computer decides it has had enough. It faints. I nearly faint. The computer tries to turn on again. It faints again...and again. I begin to cry. I turn the computer off completely, then turn back on in safe mode. I am able to reopen my document and realize I lost an entire paragraph. I have no idea what I wrote, nor do I care. I can't access the Internet in safe mode, so I have to roll back my computer to fix the issues. This takes a while. I try to occupy my time by taking out Anisa's clothes for the next day and doing laundry. It is way past the 2 AM deadline. I don't see Anisa is asleep under her blankets on the floor. I trip over her and wake her up. Chuckie comes and gets her. He has stayed awake this entire time in order to support me.
The desktop is finally over its issues and I am able to complete my paper. I go slightly over the minimum of required pages...slightly...the paper is about 12 and 1/8 pages long. I hit send to submit and breathe a sigh of relief. It is 4:30 AM.
After a hot bath, my husband rubs my lower back which is killing me. It is 5 AM. I contemplate just staying awake so that waking up in 2 hours won't be as painful. I decide to go to sleep....
Anisa wakes up again...boob time...
Just a catch up to my weekend. I promise that most other blogs should not be this long!
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