Christy Phan lives with her husband An and their 7-year-old daughter, Tiffany, in Mansfield. A pharmacist for more than eight years, Christy dreams of traveling around the world one day.
7:05AM “Beep, beep, beep … ” The alarm goes off. Snooze! I just need five more minutes. “Beep, beep, beep … ” It’s been 10 minutes already? OK, it’s time to get out of bed now so I can get Tiffany ready for school. I quickly brush my teeth, wash my face and comb out my tangled hair. Next is the hard part: waking up Tiffany, the very sleepy princess. “Honey, get up or you will be late for school!” After a few stretches and turns, she’s finally up.
7:30AM It’s time to get Tiffany’s Rapunzel hair out of her face and put it into braids. In order to save time, I get her to eat breakfast and let her watch a few minutes of cartoons while I do her hair. Tiffany refuses to eat breakfast again. Well, milk it is. After 10 minutes, we’re school-bound.
8AM Now, it’s my turn to get ready for work. Straightening hair … done. Curling lashes … done. It’s only 8:25am. If my calculation is right, I’ll have plenty of time to get my morning coffee from my favorite place, Bistro B.
9AM Making it to work right on time. Armed with boba and jelly coffee in my hand, I’m ready to tackle the day. I’m sure I’ll hear plenty of, “Has my doctor approved my medications yet?” “What! Twenty minutes to fill my scripts?” or “I never had to pay that much before!” After working in retail for a while, all of the complaints have become a part of my daily routine. That’s OK. We’re there to take of care of our patients. My technicians are excellent; hence, we can handle phones ringing off the hook, filling prescriptions and checking out patients with no problem. Every once in a while, I glance at the clock to see whether it’s 3pm.
3PM Yay, my shift for today has ended. It’s time to pick up my princess from school. Tiffany always complains of being hungry right after school, so I make a quick stop by her favorite place to pick up a Happy Meal. Hopefully, I get Smurfette this time.
3:20PM Wow, the school pick-up lanes are so full. I’m two cars away from being in the street. With the car in park and 10 minutes to spare, I check Facebook for friends’ updates to pass some time.
3:30PM The bell rings. Everyone slowly moves their cars to the front of the school. Within a few minutes, I see Tiffany’s smiling face. She’s being escorted to our car by one of the teachers. As soon as she gets in, she asks, “Did you get me something to eat?” Proudly, I pull out her cheeseburger Happy Meal. “Thank you, Mommy. You always know what I want.” It’s nice being appreciated, even for something small. Unfortunately, Tiffany still doesn’t get Smurfette.
4:30PM Arriving at Hong Kong Market Place in Arlington, I decide to cook something fast and easy today. Nuôi soup (Vietnamese macaroni noodle soup) sounds good. Rambutan fruits catch my eye when I first step in. They look so fresh. I scoop the best box out of the bunch. Zooming through different aisles, I get all of the ingredients I need. Before leaving the market, I see the Mega Millions is hitting $70 million-plus. Well, it doesn’t hurt to try, so I buy a $1 ticket to test my luck. If I hit it big, I’ll be a stay-at-home mom and only do PRN work to keep my license active. All right, I need to stop daydreaming, because it’s time to go home and cook dinner. Tiffany and I rush to the car.
7PM I’m done cooking the soup. Hubby just gets home. While he’s outside checking on his koi fish pond, I give Tiffany a bath. He needs to clean up quickly, because we’re all hungry.
8:30PM In this household, it’s still not too late to eat. We talk about school and work while enjoying our hot bowls of macaroni noodle soup.
9:15PM Tiffany is ready for bed. I tell her to read for at least 10 minutes.
10PM Tiffany is sound asleep. Wow, she’s so big now. She takes up almost one-third of our bed. Maybe she’s ready to sleep in her room. Nah, she’s our only daughter, and I’m most definitely not ready to let go. Maybe next year I’ll make sure that she sleeps in her own bed. I’ve been saying this since she was 5 …
11PM I’m done with the last round of checking Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. Now it’s time to watch my daily Korean drama. Master’s Sun looks good. I make it the drama to watch for the next few weeks.
12AM I’m done watching the first episode. This drama is pretty good and funny but a bit scary. I still want to know how curious Joo Joong-Won, the main character, ends up with the ghost of his ex-girlfriend. All right, one more episode, then I’ll go to bed.
1AM My eyes are heavy at this point. I need to stop watching. Oh gosh, it will take me roughly 20 minutes to fall asleep. I can just feel it in my bones that the snooze button will get hit again.
Diaries are penned by moms (and dads) in the Fort Worth area. The authors volunteer to share a day of their choosing and are not paid or endorsed by FortWorthChild. Send your diary to editorial@dfwchild.com. All submissions are subject to editing and may be cut for space.
Published November 2013
