When I was a little girl, we’d watch The Wheel of Fortune on TV in the evening after dinner.

I think it was on at 7 or 7:30 and I remember trying desperately to figure out the phrases before the contestants. I learned the most common letters: L, S, R… But one thing always threw me: I never understood why they would stop and “buy” a vowel.

I knew the rules of the gameshow, right there along with a younger Pat in his brown suits and an even younger Vanna in her sequined mini skirts. But I always wanted the contestants to figure out the sentence without having to use their hard won money on a measly E or O. I thought that they were throwing away cash just to try to fill in the blanks.

Today, in the midst of my how-did-I-get-here afternoon, with my first grader taking way too long on her homework and my toddler dumping the toys in the newly tidied family room, I thought that I’d like to buy a day, rather than a vowel, to fill in my own blanks.

I think I’d like to buy a day from each of my daughter’s infant months…the sweet baby smell and the hours when all that stretched in front of me were naptimes and nursing schedules.

I’d like to buy a day from the first year of my marriage, when the most difficult thing we faced was trying to make our $600 rent on our 1 bedroom apartment and our best friends lived across the complex from us. Borrowing sugar and flour was more than easy.

I think I’ll buy a day from my junior year of college when my new best friend and I would skip our class work and watch movies in our dorm room when it rained outside.

Or maybe I’ll buy a day from the December I met Chad. I knew from the very beginning I would marry him. I’m not lying. I just had to convince him.

If I could live a day from the past, with all of the knowledge and experience of me now, maybe it would help me to fill in the bits of lost memory, the parts of me that I have forgotten. Maybe it would help me understand why my husband’s words sometimes sting, or I get angry at my girls too quickly. Maybe it would help me know myself better. Maybe I’d be more grateful.

However costly, I think I’d like to buy a day to help me fill in my own blanks.