The potted Begonias on the deck are in full bloom. She thinks a bright apricot color will look quite lovely in a champagne glass. She is preparing the special weekend Tray of Love for her drowsy husband who is still lingering in his Sunday bed.
He caters to her every work day, gently opening the drapes to let in the morning light, bringing her coffee on the bed side table where the wafting fragrance of the strong brew will ease her awake to take her first sip of the day. He turns on some lively music with a thumping beat to hasten her good mood. She does not arise happily. She needs to be coaxed out of sleep. She much prefers the schedule of a night owl staying awake until 3:00 AM and not rising until noon. But…
It is early and it will be another long busy day. She must prepare everything down to the minute or her whole schedule will go all to Hell. She chugs down the coffee, does her morning ablutions: washing up, brushing teeth and hair, applying make-up, jewelry, and dressing for success. She liked to dress for her kids. She cared about presenting them with the best of herself.
While she gets ready, her prince of a husband prepares her two pieces of dry whole wheat toast which he wraps in a paper towel. She will eat the dry toast for breakfast on the way to work. He also makes her a turkey sandwich for lunch and snacks enough to last for her typical twelve hour day: yogurt, apple, carrot/celery sticks, string cheese, crackers or almonds.
She has a book bag, a gym bag, a purse, an insulated lunch bag, and a quart cup of coffee with a lid. Depending on the weather, she looks like a Sherpa descending Mt. Everest as she clambers down the three flights of stairs. She plops her packages in the shotgun seat and begins the half hour drive to her job.
She loves the drive up the canyon with the big trees on either side of her. She listens to all kinds of music on the way: jazz, pop, rock, even country. She tries to stay in touch with the culture so she won’t seem like an old fuddy duddy to the young teens she teaches.
Her job is to teach, supervise, and counsel middle school students in the following subjects: Language Arts (Creative Writing & Reading), Social Studies (History & Geography), Math, Pre-Algebra, Self-Esteem, Empathy, Art, Music, Drama, Speech, PE, and Health. She also tutors selected students for an hour after school each day.
After work she drives for one hour to the gym where she works the devil out of her body. She goes on the treadmill, lifts a series of weights, works out on the pull down and the leg press, takes a dance class, yoga, or swimming. After the two hour work out, she showers, puts on fresh clothes, packs up her gym bag, and drives home.
“What’s for dinner?” she asks her husband who is waiting for her at the foot of the stairs. He has just gotten home from The City. It is now 8:00 PM and they have both been working all day. Neither one of them feels like cooking. It is a twelve hour challenge everyday for twenty years. “Let’s go out,” he offers as a suggestion. This happens more often than she would like, but they are exhausted.
Saturdays are filled with household chores, gardening, laundry, shopping, and correcting. She sits all day at her desk correcting work and entering the grades in her record book. She plans next week’s lessons in between putting in another load of clothes in the washer or the dryer, taking a break from her grade book to fold or hang the clothes as each load progresses.
But Sundays, Sweet Sundays, are reserved for love. Sundays, after all the other days of work and neglect, she puts together the Tray of Love featuring one lone beautiful blossom from the garden in a champagne glass, a cup of strong black coffee, a cloth napkin, a glass of orange juice, and the Sunday paper. This Tray is offered with love and thanks to the man who takes care of her with all his heart everyday of the week.
Every woman knows how to make a man happy. If you want to put the spark back into your relationship, why not start with the Tray of Love?
(First published June 7, 2013)
