Groundhog Day

A friend of mine from high school is a professional musician, a percussionist.  You could tell that he was going to be something special even back then...I remember hearing him play "The Star Spangled Banner" on a snare drum in band class and being absolutely blown away.  The fact that the song was recognizable at all was amazing enough given that he only had the one drum to work with, and he just killed it. 

This is a snare drum.  One drumhead, two sticks...simple enough.

He went on to one of the major music-program universities after high school, and has been a touring musician with all kinds of huge, famous acts for years now.  He's currently several hundred shows into a major world tour.  As I looked at his latest Facebook update a day or two ago, the thought crossed my mind that I wouldn't want to play the same show hundreds of times in a row.  I think I'd start dialing it in after a while, which is totally against the spirit of the thing.  I've actually had the same thought in the past about professional cooks...not the big-name chefs who can change their menus on a whim, but the line cooks who make the same meals at the same station every night.  Not sure I could do that either.  I used to work with a woman who had no ambition at all beyond the position that both of us held at the time, and I just didn't understand that at all.  I can't wrap my head around the idea that anyone could be happy doing the same thing over and over forever.  Or that anyone would even consider it.    

All deeply ironic, of course, because as a stay-at-home mother, I do the same damn things over and over every day of my life!  Cooking, laundry, dishes, cleaning (is there any more pointless activity than cleaning something that will immediately be dirtied again??)  Taking kids to school and from school, to activities and from activities.  Going to the grocery store, the dry cleaner, the department store, the drugstore, the gym.  There's nothing exciting about my day-to-day life: it is routine if ever there was routine.  

And the number of times I have to say the same things over and over to my kids???  I'm sick of hearing them...can't imagine that they aren't!

  

I'm fortunate that I don't have to work.  I know this.  I've thought about going back to work a million times, just to have something outside this house in which to be involved beyond my volunteer stuff (and face it, it would be nice to get paid for something that I do!), but then I'd be responsible for the house and kids AND a job, which isn't appealing either.  And then there were all those years where Thing Two needed every second of time and ounce of energy I could spare anyway, back in the dark days.   

I've come to terms with the day-to-day sameness, mostly.  It's my life right now, and that's ok.  It won't be my life forever--the kids are getting older, and I am clawing back some independence and free time.  Soon enough I will be able to find something else to do, hopefully something that keeps me learning and growing.

After all, "the only difference between a rut and a grave are the dimensions!"