There Is No Try

According to Yoda’s philosophy, I just spent several hours doing nothing. You remember that scene from one of the Star Wars movies when Luke was practicing using The Force and he whined to Yoda that he was trying, and Yoda responded with the immortal words, “Do or do not. There is no try.”? Well, I’m having one of those days when the starfighter is staying resolutely mired in the swamp. I was trying and trying, but there was no do.

The morning started off with such promise: Ryan woke up happy as a clam, ate his breakfast without too much flinging of food, he even played contentedly in his playpen while I took a shower. So when I packed him into the car, I had lovely visions of sipping my Dunkin Donuts iced coffee while pushing him down the sunny street in his stroller as we waited for the service station to change my oil and issue my new inspection sticker. Unfortunately, when I got to the service station it was so crowded that there wasn’t even a spot for me to park so I could go in and ask how long the wait would be.

Eh, minor setback. I also needed to go shopping for a gift for my sister (actually, “gifts” – not only is her birthday this weekend but she’s also getting married next month so there are shower and wedding presents on the list as well), so I figured I’d just head over to the mall. Ryan was getting sleepy in the backseat, so I was hoping that he’d hold out till I could get him strapped into the stroller and then he could snooze away while I shopped. Naturally, by the time I found a parking spot he was out cold. He only woke up a bit when I moved him from the car seat to the stroller, so I thought I was golden. Until he woke up 15 minutes later. Oh well, he likes riding the stroller around the mall, so that wasn’t too much of a problem. So I went to several different stores and couldn’t find a THING that I was looking for. Seriously, how can I be in a mall with literally hundreds of stores, looking for multiple (not particularly unusual) things, and not find a single thing that I’m looking for? It was absolutely crazy.

So after spending several hours checking out every store that I thought might possibly have what I needed, I gave up and headed home. Ryan started getting squawky as we neared the car, so I made up a bottle for him for the ride home. He managed to finish almost all of it before he threw it over the edge of his car seat. And since we were still 15 or 20 minutes from home, I hoped he’d fall back to sleep on the way. Ha! No such luck. He seemed to get his second wind and by the time we turned off the highway he was starting to squawk again, this time because he didn’t want to be strapped in any more. He was so squawky, in fact, that when I couldn’t find the bottle he’d flung away, I didn’t even stop to hunt for it, I just freed him from the prison that is his car seat (in his opinion, anyway) and brought him inside.

As soon as I’d changed his diaper, I put him in his crib, hoping against hope that he’d give in and finish his nap. He spent a few minutes yelling and an hour playing before he finally went to sleep, but at least he finally did.

I guess getting him to finish his nap counts as getting something done today. Too bad that’s the only thing I can count as getting done! I’m thinking that, given the day’s track record, I’d be wise to not try to do anything else today except take a nap myself. Yeah, I’m pretty certain that’s the best idea I’ve had all day.