I had one of those nights last night when I just wanted help.  I wanted to come home and have that third coat of paint already on the walls and the tape removed and all of my furniture and books and pictures and stuff back where it belongs.  I wanted dinner to be made and the wine open and poured and waiting for me and Maggie to have been fed and walked and my bathroom cleaned and the laundry done and the dishwasher emptied.  I wanted to arrive at home and be able to simply sit down on the couch, flip through the House & Home that arrived in the mail and enjoy said glass of wine in peace, knowing that I had no further responsibilities other than eating the prepared for me dinner and getting ready for bed at the appropriate time (sheets would already have been washed and the bed remade, natch).

This is not, sadly, how last night went.  I had to go to Home depot and pick up another gallon of paint for the third coat.  Then get home and negotiate my way through the obstacle course that is the 700 square feet I call home due to the painting and the floors to change from my professional outfit into suitable painting garb and then tarp the entire living room so as not to get paint on my lovely new floors and then start the actual painting, all the while trying to give Maggie the love she was begging for and trying my best (not always successfully) not to trip over her and spill the bloody paint and so then I yelled at her and she got scared and hid under the table so then of course I felt GUILTY and sad and inadequate and all that fun stuff.

With the painting finally done, I still had to feed and walk the mutt, find something to feed myself and get the dishes and the laundry and all that other crap DONE.  By the time I finally sat down to dinner  (which, by the way, was stellar given the very limited raw materials I had to work with: oven roasted cherry tomatoes tossed with penne, arugula and Parmesan cheese – delish!) with that much-anticipated glass of wine it was gone 9:30 and I was plain and simply tired. 

And tonight will be a repeat, albeit without the painting, as all the STUFF still has to be cleaned and put away and sorted.

It’s at times like these that I just want help, or at least someone to share the misery with me.