If I Could...

The list had started playing in her head. The seminar would finish at 3, the group would then head to one of the smaller breakout rooms where they would talk about the things they had learned and how they were going to apply them once they got back into the office tomorrow, possibly, most likely, there would be a request for a written proposal on their action plan. Then the suggestion would be made to have a team building drink before heading for home. It would be just a suggestion, of course, but you couldn't very well say no to your boss suggesting the whole team get a drink when they had just "given" you all the day off to attend this very helpful leadership seminar. 

Work finally done she'd head home around 6:30. Begging off earlier than most but not the first to leave but duty calls, gotta go!

And duty would call.

She'd call her husband in the car before leaving to make sure he had made dinner for the kids, when history shows she would find out that he hadn't yet gotten around to it and would she mind picking up a pizza on her way? He'd call it in for her and have it ready to go when she got there...She'd get to the pizza place by 6:45 just as they were hanging up the phone with her husband who had finally called to order dinner. She'd get home by 7:20 only to find the kids had helped themselves to bowls of cereal, they were STARVING, and were hopped up on sugar and pent up energy from their day's activities.

She'd stuff a piece of pizza in her mouth while trying to corral them and manage homework checks and special project timelines. And then she'd clean the kitchen, how did they dirty this many dishes just having cereal? And the dog would need to be walked, which honestly isn't that bad of a chore to do; it sometimes got her about a half hour of quiet. Sometimes. Unless their neighbors were out with their dogs and then it got her a half hour of listening to all of the ways she was personally disappointing the HOA. Tonight would probably be a disappointments night, afterall it was trash day and she would guess that the trash bin was not, in fact, wheeled back up to the side yard by 6:30. 

Coming back in from the dog walk it would be time to get the kids settled down and in to bed. This would be a stressful 45 minutes of teeth brushing, showering, oh I forgot that I need four dozen cookies each with the name of a kid in my class piped on them by tomorrow morning, gluten free, nut free and dairy free, I'd help make them but it's bedtime, thanks, Mom, you're the greatest. 

Her husband would love to help but he's got a report that's due first thing tomorrow and it will probably take him at least an hour to finish it up. Which means at least an hour of surfing the web before he settles in to work on what will actually take him about 10 minutes, but those Only Fans accounts aren't going to support themselves so add another hour on to that first hour and ten minutes and he'll be right there to help you out. 

Kids in bed, cookies finished, her own action plan written up for work tomorrow, she will settle in for some "Me time" which works out to enough time to brush and floss her teeth and wash her face before falling in to bed at 11:45 trying to fall asleep to the sounds of her husband's snoring as he would have beat her to sleep by at least an hour. 

She was pulled back in to focus as the seminar speaker repeated themselves, "Let me say that again. We all have excuses for why we don't have the time to follow our dreams. But that's all they are. Excuses. Now think, if you knew you wouldn't fail, if you ignored all of your excuses not to try, what would you do? Do that. Start now." 

She smiled. Dorothy, the lead from the sales division leaned over, "Did you think of something great?"

 
She just shook her head. Dorothy might not think it was a great idea.

The first thing she'd do? She'd murder this speaker. Oh you can't breathe because my hands are around your trachea? Just sounds like an excuse to me! Try harder!