Here I Am!

I haven't had a chance to write since last Friday when I told you about the calendars (C, yours should arrive today or tomorrow, and yours, LH, will go out on Saturday).  And, Susan, you had asked about the new header image which I said I'd used in a past calendar?  Well, at least I knew I'd used it:  it's December in the new 2011 calendar!  :)

I worked a long, 10-hour day nannying on Saturday and then visited Bundle of Joy and her mama for a short time on my way home that night.  I felt as bad as I EVER have about the dogs that day:  aside from a few jaunts out of the truck to get a little exercise and relieve themselves, they'd spent the WHOLE DAY in the back seat.  When I nanny for Baby Girl, the dogs play well with the resident Black Lab, but it was so cold that I couldn't leave all three out all day.  I'm kind of in the market for a Suburban (I need a truck with more room . . . as well as a second truck for the wintertime when the 1-ton is hooked up to the plow), and I'll feel slightly better about leaving them for those long hours when they have more space in which to stretch out . . . and maybe even play or chew on bones.  Yes, I know I could leave them at home, but then their bladders would burst . . . and, I know that they are so used to being with me constantly that they get a little upset (Maisy, especially) when they're away from me.

I can't remember what I did during the early part of Sunday, but I think I had to run into town that afternoon & evening to do some work at the office.  Anyway, it was another day that zipped by with me feeling like I had nothing much to show for it.

I woke up when the alarm went off at 6:30 on Monday morning feeling like death.  I was scheduled for some car work and my first eye exam in the big city, some 3+ hours away, and my first appointment was at 11:00.  During the night, I'd dreamed that, while the doctor said that I did, indeed, need an eye glass prescription, what he was more concerned about was my heart.  And, oh, how my chest ACHED once I finally did get up - psycho-somatic, huh?!  Anyway, I let myself sleep about two more hours and then finally DRAGGED myself up out of bed.

I switched my 11:00 car appointment to 4:00, but I was still going to be about 30 minutes late for the eye appointment.  I called, trying to bump it back, but there were no openings, so, when I did arrive there, we filled out paperwork instead and rescheduled the visit.  When I'd dropped the dogs off at my folks' on the way out of town (thanks, again!), they both asked me if I felt okayaQQQQ==E (that, from Bonzi, the cat).  Obviously, how I WAS feeling was fairly clear.

Too, I'd asked Mama & Papa Pea if there was a chance they'd take Maisy & Tucker overnight that night:  my list was, LITERALLY, 3 full pages - typed (!), and I'd been thinking about staying overnight to get everything done.  After the visit to the optometrist, I called around for some motel rates.  And, here is where I got a good lesson in honesty.

The Days Inn's most inexpensive room was $84.95.  "May I ask what you're in town for?," the desk clerk politely queried.  Instantly, my hackles went up.  Even though she sounded genuinely interested, my gut reaction was, "What business is it of YOURS?"  Instead, I said, "Ohhh, I just have some appointments."  She said, "Ma'am, by any chance are any of those doctors' appointments?"  Me (again, bristly, but wondering if this line of questioning was "going" somewhere):  "Yes, but just an eye doctor."  Receptionist, "Oh!  Well, in that case, ma'am, may I offer your our Medical Stay Special?  We can give you that room for $52!"

My mood instantly changed, and I said (literally), "Holy Moly, Rocky!  (I'm such a nerd.)  Uhhh, YES, I'd love that!"  So, the deal was done:  I would stay overnight.

I zipped right over to the motel and got an early check-in.  Then, with fast food to-go in hand, I settled in, determined to make the rest of my Monday better than the first part.  45 minutes later, feeling (and looking - thank you, makeup!) MUCH better, I headed across the state line to my auto appointment in Wisconsin.  Thanks to Target having begun their holiday hours (open 'til midnight) that very day, I shopped straight through 'til about 11:30 PM, following the car appointment (where I ordered 2 new rims & Blizzaks for the rear of the Yaris AND scheduled a repair to the hatchback for the car . . . both parts & labor [which was going to be between $200 and $300] 100% covered thanks to the platinum warranty the ex and I had purchased when we bought the car.)

More fast-food in hand for dinner (what else is open at that time of night?!), I tiredly returned to my motel room just before midnight.  (And was reminded why I don't have TV:  with so many channels, there was literally NOTHING to watch . . . not even a cheesy reality show.  I ended up watching a documentary about Area 51 in the desert.  Hmph.  So much for catching up on junky TV!)

I let myself sleep in on Tuesday morning . . . but so much so that I didn't have time to take a shower before the by-11:00 check-out.  No matter.  I made use of my second day and shopped, straight through (well, I did take 10 minutes to stop at Caribou for a latte and lemon poppyseed cake slice when I'd bonked) from 11:00 until 6:01 when I was heading out of town.  I was E-X-H-A-U-S-T-E-D.

The car was SO FULL that, in order to get the last purchases to fit , I'd had to break up the box of booze I'd bought at my final stop of the day and leave the cardboard box in the cart at the cart station.  There wasn't a spare inch for that liquor box to fit.  So, instead, bottle of wine were stuffed under the seats and snuggled here and there throughout the load.  I took pictures:  it was pretty hysterical.  (Unfortunately, for illustration's sake, those images are now on my computer at work.)

Well, the computer froze up and I had to reboot . . . but now I can’t access the Internet.  So, I’ll finish my post here on Word and then paste & copy when I can get to the iHighway again.

On my way home, I realized that there was ZERO room for the dogs, so, after a call to my folks to find out if one of their Suburbans was available (neither was, as luck would have it), I called the ex to see if I could unload some of the loot into his Jeep for the night.  I knew we’d both be at the same birthday party Wednesday (last) night, and so I could make the final transfer then.  So, that done and the dogs picked up, we finally returned home about 11:30 Tuesday night.

It was cold out, already below zero and dropping, but did you hear me singing as I made trip after trip to unload the car?  I was SO happy to be home that I bustled back and forth (to stay warm!) and sang a cheery little homemade ditty about “home, home, so good to be home”!  :)  (With the temps so low, there was no option of leaving everything in the car until the light of morning.  Anything liquid would have frozen and burst its packing.  Even at the ex’s we had to haul a couple of very heavy boxes into his apartment for the night to avoid the same problem.

Quick story:  thinking about even the booze freezing reminds me of a New Year’s Eve, some years ago.  We were at friends’ new property (next to where The Peanut now lives, these folks being her aunt & uncle), and their cabin was super, super tiny.  Matter of fact, I don’t even think the stove was hooked up yet.  Anyway, for whatever reason, we were all outside and taking advantage of the snow cover to burn a huge brush pile and try to stay warm.  I’m not sure if that was the same year that it was -25 (F) when we got to the lodge we were all having dinner at or not.  At any rate, it was C-O-L-D.  While we were enjoying other libations, we set a bottle of wine (or was it champagne?) on the tiny deck in preparation for midnight.  As the night passed, one of the women suddenly exclaimed, “Ohmigod, look at the wine!”  Despite its high alcohol content, it had been freezing as we’d been tending the fire, and the cork had pushed up THROUGH the foil wrapper and was a-l-m-o-s-t out!  Now, THAT’S a cold bottle of wine (unfortunately, I think it was a red that SHOULD have been served at room temperature!).  Anyway, it was a fun way to learn (with no harm nor foul) that even booze on the lower end of the alcohol content spectrum, will freeze in cold weather!

After sleeping poorly after my big city trip Tuesday night and waking up yesterday still feeling and looking like death only slightly warmed over, I spent the day trying to unpack a bit, get my head on straight, prep for Bundle of Joy’s first birthday party, and get some business & personal mail ready to go out.  I had a little must-do work at the office, too, and I’d hoped to run in and get that done before the birthday party and dinner . . . but I didn’t.  And, in my focus to get everything ELSE together (some stuff for both the ex and My Girl, who would be at the party, as well as some groceries and party supplies I’d bought for it . . . and the mailings that needed to go out including a stupid busy-work [is this really necessary?!] form for the assessor’s office that needed to be there by the end of the day), I forgot Bundle of Joy’s birthday present.  Oi vey.  What a dum-dum.

Anyway, I got myself into town after the party last night at 9:03 PM.  I finished up at the office around 11:30 and headed home.  That done, I could finally “take the week off” to prep for Christmas – that being my original plan.  Yes, I did have the two days in the big city, and that DID need to be done (both for supplies and in prep for the holiday), but now I’m left with only THREE days– today, tomorrow, and Sunday - to get done what I’d hoped to get done (“week”, my arse).  I’ll go in and have the gallery open all day on Saturday, hoping to catch some last-minute shoppers.  I won’t even bore you with the details of all I’d hoped to do this week:  it’s too unrealistically hilarious.  I’ll leave it at the fact that I still don’t have a SINGLE, SOLITARY Christmas decoration down from storage yet, but I hope to change that by the end of the day.  Oh, and I have given myself a small reprieve:  I’m going to make my Christmas cards be New Year’s cards this year!

Okay, Internet’s back up on my laptop now, so off I go to post this epistle (sorry it’s so long)!