6:45 I've already been up for 25 minutes dealing with book promo, because my book is free in ebook form today (my real book, not the trash I published yesterday). Now I leave to feed the dogs and kitten.

7:20 I get back, get ready for work, and eat breakfast. On work days, I always carve out 15 minutes before I can leave to sit with my notebooks and have quiet and my own thoughts. It fuels me. But this morning, my mom eats up all 15 minutes by sitting down and reading parts of her current book to me and talking about the things she finds interesting. Oh well.

8:15 I leave for work.

8:30 I arrive for work literally right on time. No one is here and I don't have a key to get in. I sit in my car listening to Hamilton. I also officially divorce Spotify because it won't even play my Hamilton soundtrack in correct order unless I give it money.

Eventually they show up and also the fact that I'm sitting in the parking lot reminds them to give me a key. I power up my computer and log in.

The morning consists of me doing tons of service calls and soliciting, and the guys, as usual, never shutting up and talking about:
-Kim Jong-Un crying at some missile parade
-Them saying "What the hell" and trying to calm themselves down after I say I don't watch The X Files.
-Skyrim
-Some Vampyre game
-More games I don't give a crap about
-NFL
-"Women get phone cords twisted"
-The one who grew up white trash listing all the random household objects that various family members beat him with
-One of them asking if I'm Rory on Among Us because of Gilmore Girls and I said no it's Doctor Who and he said "Ew."
-All of us (yes including me) arguing whether the owner is left handed or right handed and then texting him to settle it
-The owner and me bursting out singing "Life's a Happy Song" from The Muppets together.

12:00 I get home, unsuccessfully trying to stop at the library and the post office (both closed for Columbus Day or whatever today is) on the way. A backhoe is tearing up our front yard and I have literally no idea why. Mattie watches it out the window and wags her tail. I have to immediately change my clothes and leave to let the dogs out.

12:35 I get home, prepared to wolf something down and get to work. My to-do list is rivaling the length of China's Great Wall because I didn't do crap all weekend. However, my mom my intercepts me and asks me to make lunch for everyone. I make grilled cheese and tomato soup.

1:15 I finally, finally sit down to work. I'm not joking—the second my finger touches the power button on my laptop, my mom calls me and asks me to clean the kitchen. I'm really annoyed, partially at myself for not working this weekend.

After I clean the kitchen, I have to keep Mattie still while my mom trims some of her hair.

1:45 I am FINALLY able to get to work. While I usually schedule long shifts for myself on Tutor.com each week, this past week I didn't get on in time and barely any shifts were left. This means for most of the week, I'll be floating, which makes less money and is less dependable because you just have to hang around until someone needs you. I log on in hopes of a lot of traffic, anyway.

It ends up being a pretty good work day. I have lengthy sessions with...
-A 10th grader who needed to read and answer questions on the Nazi Death March. It went well at first, but it was clear he didn't have a deep enough understanding of the period in history to form complex answers.
-An audio session with a 6th grader who needed extra reading practice. He had no material, but I have plenty.
-A seventh grader who ended up losing connection.
-A middle schooler answering open-ended questions on Bud, Not Buddy.

5:00 I get on Zoom to meet the new family. They have a tenth grader who needs help organizing her virtual assignments. We're going to start together tomorrow.

After that, I take Mattie on a long walk and drop off the keys to the dogs' family, who has gotten back home.

5:45 I return home and log onto tutor.com again. I work with a college student who needs help with some science comprehension questions. He ends up losing connection before we can finish (this is a very common occurrence). After that, I browse Libby/Overdrive to find a book for one of my Wednesday kids. I love doing this.

6:30 We eat omelettes for dinner. I clean the kitchen afterwards.

Then I proofread a chapter of my REAL book. The last six chapters are, to me, actually good and it's smoother sailing because I don't hate myself while reading it.

I do more tutoring prep work, and play with Mattie because she brings me a tug toy and I can't say no. I was gonna link the appropriate Hamilton song here but that feature isn't working.

8:30 I feel guilty because my to-do list isn't done, but I end up playing Among Us. At least I'm walking around the house while I play it because I feel a little restless.

9:00 I sit down to type this.

Literally nothing else is gonna happen so here is today's gallery.

First of all, the hole in our front yard, which I found out is because something is wrong with the next door neighbor's electricity (we have underground power lines), but the houses are so close together, their lines are in our yard. Also this is the second time this has happened and the first time, they left it like this.

The kitten

Mattie watching the backhoe

An inflatable plague doctor