Tra-la-la-la-la-la.

I just watched a commercial for Colgate Total. A lady was being shown how many germs were present in her mouth using some schmo’s toothpaste. Then the woman in charge said, “You wanna see a Colgate Total mouth?” And of course the first lady said yes. If she hadn’t, she’d have gotten punched. With a tube of toothpaste. Listening to her tone, it sounded aggressive. She was picking a fight. I might use that line the next time my mother-in-law tries to arm wrestle me. You wanna see a Colgate Total mouth? Yeah. I didn’t think so.

Mundane is probably not the right word for how I feel about things. I don’t feel negatively toward it. I am surrounded by busy people. Busy with jobs. Busy with appointments. Busy with organizations or hobbies. Busy. So busy that they look panicked and bewildered if asked to do anything social. The task of scheduling an hour with me to figure out how to dress up like a turkey and make announcements on a school morning show is enough to cause all of us to hit the speed dial entry for their therapist.

I’m not knocking therapists. I’ve been there. With bells on. But not for busyness and he isn’t on my speed dial. I actually have no idea how to even use speed dial. I’m freakish with phone numbers. I don’t need speed dial. I can call Mer’s parents right this moment at 555-893-3624 and she hasn’t lived there in 20 years. They still live there, though, and they would answer. I could call 555-386-6262 and the ghost of my grandma might hop up and try to chat. Probably not, though. Or I could dial 555-385-6553 and tell the person that answered that my best friend, Debbie, had this number in 1975. My own number was 555-385-9788 but with a real area code.

WHO CARES?

No one.

My point is that I appreciate the mundane. I appreciate a morning when my girls are curled up together on a couch watching a wildlife movie while I mop and do laundry in the background. I appreciate having nowhere to be at 4:30 in the afternoon while my boys roam the house with a friend from down the street.  And I appreciate the fact that we can have as much fun riding our bikes to McDonalds to eat happy meals as we could have doing something super difficult or fancy.  (Though I do not appreciate that just three of us spent $21.14 at McDonalds. WHAT? Hello. Could have gone to Applebees and eaten something that actually was alive at one time…something that wasn’t crossbred or cloned…) And I really, really, really appreciate that someday the mundane will give way to the college applications and the moving out of state. Someday my clothes will fit better and no one will be pawing at my hemline. I will sit through church with no one climbing up in my lap and yanking my elastic-collared shirt down to my waist.  I will have an entire conversation with another adult without the tap-tap-tapping and the “mommy, mommy, mommy” that comes with it.

And when that someday comes, I will reach for my phone.
And I will bypass speed dial and dial my therapist.
Because I will never forget his number.