Anatomy of a Snowy Post-call Day

6:53 a.m.: Beeper goes off. It's one of the CRNA's calling to say she's stuck in blizzard traffic and won't be at work on time.

7:03 a.m.: Offer to stay past the "official" duty time to help with pre-ops, IVs, and case starts if needed, considering half the staff are experiencing snow delays. Luckily half the patients are too.

7:35 a.m.: Go to locker room. Get dressed. Pack up stuff from being on-call.

8:08 a.m: Stop at grocery store to pick up stuff for meals.

8:43 a.m.: Hit the road. Drive slowly and try not to skid.

9:36 a.m.: Drop off car at the shop to figure out, finally, why the engine warning light's been on for about a month.

10:13 a.m.: At last, a cup of coffee, with a side of e-mail checking.

11:30 a.m.: Fix lunch for family (curry chicken salad sandwiches).

After lunch: hunt all over the house for daughter's gloves, without success. We find an old pair, and the kids and their dad pile into the minivan to go sledding. Ordinarily this is my cue to practice oboe or do a little reading...but I'm sleepy...

1:30 p.m.-ish: Torn between taking a nap, doing laundry, and filling out forms for various things. Do none of the above and have a cup of honey vanilla chamomile tea instead. Then load dishwasher while listening to Slumdog soundtrack.

2:03 p.m.: Start working on party invitations for son's birthday party which is being held about, oh, seven months LATE.

2:55 p.m.: Start ultra-jejune blog post about what I've been doing on my post-call day.

3:14 p.m.: Kids and hubby back from sledding. Realize there is no apres-ski prepared. They eat Cheerios.

3:43 p.m.: Start roasting the chicken breasts for tonight's chicken pot pie.

Cooking, cooking, cooking...

6:15 p.m.: Wave goodbye to daughter as she goes to dress rehearsal for Lowell House Opera's production of Otello.

7:15 p.m. Hubby's parents, brother, niece, and nephew over for dinner. Chicken pot pie is a success.

But the best, best, best moment of the day, besides Daughter's return home, is

Son reading to me from the Natalie Babbitt's laugh-out-loud book The Devil's Storybook at bedtime. This book is MEANT to be read aloud - especially by a child who enjoys reading and reads well. We laughed together till my sides hurt.

It just doesn't get better than that.

And now it's time to go to bed, in anticipation of the alarm going off at 5:40 tomorrow...