What Now

For all of you who followed my link yesterday, you know that Steve and I celebrated our fifth anniversary (and wasn't my mini website about it cute? *gag*!

He already had the day off because of Veteran's Day, so I also took the day off so that we could actually spend time together for the first time in a few months! We got to sleep blessedly late (7:00 or so for me) and we had a day planned of things to do. First we had to go to the Sleep Clinic where Steve found out the test results from his sleep study. Happily, he doesn't have sleep apnea (so no Darth Vadar mask, thank goodness) but they are going to do a couple of other tests later to rule out other stuff. We left there and got lunch, and then we went on to what we had planned our day around: NovaCon, the sci-fi convention they are holding in Huntsville this weekend. *pause for a few moments to marvel at our geekiness* It was only a little after noon by this point, so we got in and everything was still being set up. It wasn't big at all, but we had kind of expected that since it was the first year they were having it and everything. We went ahead and got weekend passes so we could come and go as we pleased, and we saw everything there was to see in about 15 minutes. Now, as I said, it wasn't supposed to be this huge thing like DragonCon, but to be able to see EVERYTHING in 15 minutes was not something we had planned on. We were actually hoping that the sci-fi celebrities who were scheduled to be there would have already set up, but they hadn't arrived there. We were specifically looking for Dirk Bennedict (The Face Man from the A-Team and the original StarBuck from Battlestar Galactica) so we could have our anniversary picture made with him. It was apparently still too early for him, so we kind of stood there for a few minutes while this guy in a Star Trek Voyager uniform told us -for the second time that day- to take a free copy of their newsletter, or sign up to become a member of their "crew". We decided that we would come back out on our way to dinner in hopes that everything was set up and ready by then.

We left and went shopping for our anniversary gift, year 5 is apparently wood, so we went to the unfinished furniture store, but didn't find anything. We eventually went home and after a while we got ready for dinner. Steve had gotten us reservations at this place in Madison that I we had heard all kinds of wonderful stuff about, and it's one of those places where you need to dress up, so Steve got all handsome and I did my best to look nice. I realized something while I was getting ready that sort of surprised me. As much as I like to get dressed up and go out and do fancy stuff, it had been almost a year since I'd had the chance! We've been so busy that we haven't done anything like that in a while, and not only that, but when I was dressed and everything, I didn't feel like myself. I felt like I was wearing too much makeup and that my skirt was too short. I mean, I know I didn't look bad, but it was something I wasn't used to anymore. It was weird! Anyways, so we finally get ready, take our commemorative anniversary snapshot, and walk out the door. Almost immediately, we hear this kid, somewhere outside, absolutely freaking out. At first I thought someone was getting switched, but we both stopped and realized this poor kid had apparently screamed herself hoarse yelling "Moooooommie, Moooooommie!" and she sounded scared. We had not been able to hear her from inside, so it kind of rattled us a little. We both stopped and kind of looked towards each other like, What should we do? Should we go over there? We listened to her freaking out for a few minutes (yeah, we'd make super parents, huh) trying to figure out what was going on. ***I suppose I should tell you that we have never met the neighbors who live there. We all have such strange hours, plus the fact that we aren't exactly the "take-the-new-neighbors-a-batch-of-cookies-and-introduce-ourselves" kind of couple, so we have never really crossed paths. I know that they have two kids, a boy and a girl, who I see walking to school, and I know they have that crazy dog that I've named Cleatus, but that's all.*** About that time, my imagination goes into overtime and I'm seeing this little girl standing over her mom's lifeless body for one reason or another, so I decide I'm going over to see what's wrong. I am in spiky high heels trying to walk through the yard (which with as clumsy as I am, could have been a broken ankle waiting to happen) and I amazingly make it to the next yard without falling, and I see this little girl of about 3 or 4 just standing there calling for her mom, and completely alone. So I reach inside myself and try to find some tiny scrap of maternal...whatever, and I start saying stuff like "Sweetie (because that's what you call crying kids, I guess) are you okay? What's wrong" and so forth. This little girl looks me up and down, and goes off on another gale of "Moooooomie!" So I look around, and don't see anything amiss other than this little girl alone outside. I looked at the house and realized someone was home, but no real idea ever came to me as to why a toddler was outside at night alone. So I turn back to the little girl, and I tell her we'll go knock on the door. She is still freaking out, but she walks with me to the front door. I looked at the door and realized the handle was broken, so she was probably just locked out, so I tell her I'll ring the doorbell, which I found out is also broken. So I just start banging on the front window. At this point I am close to panic myself because what in the world would I do with this child if this wasn't even her house, or if her parents were punishing her by making her stay outside, or dozens of other equally unsavory things. I see a woman sort of peek around the corner and come to the door. When she opened it, she had this surprised look on her face and she kind of looked me over. I could only read this look as "well, okay, there is a hooker on my front porch with a little girl! How odd!" The little girl runs inside to another lady (a visitor to our neighbors) who had walked into the room and I explain that we found her outside and she seemed to be scared and was crying. The mom of the little girl looked horrified. I kept trying to explain that "we" just wanted to make sure everything was alright, and that "we" didn't know if anyone was home and "we" blah, blah, blah. The moms then explain that they thought she was with the other kids, they surmised that the kids must not have let her into the back gate, and they both kind of had that slightly desperate "please don't call DHR" look on their faces. My neighbor smiled at me and asked where I lived, and I turned and pointed next door, only then relizing that Steve was still on our stoop and not next to me. He was afraid he'd scare the little girl more than she already was, so he'd stayed behind. While I had been talking and saying "We", they didn't see anyone. So now I'm the hooker who lives next door with an imaginary friend. She introduced herself and I did the same and we said goodbye. It was...uncomfortable. Hopefully next time we speak, there will not be a terrified, crying little girl involved!

Anyway, so we head back towards Madison, stopping again at Novacon, which only had about 4 more people there than when we had been there before, and no Dirk Bennedict. We severly stood out in this crowd, if you can believe it. I mean, there were fairies and Jedi and other manner of thingies, but we were dressed up very nicely. We wondered around a little more and left again. We had some time to kill before our reservation, so we went to CompUSA to look at some stuff, and we also had gone to Target and got our anniversary gift of some wooden television trays. Steve also bought me some color changing rubber duckies, they light up and change color so I was fascinated, and some shoes to switch with the ones I was wearing because I have indeed lost the talent of wearing spiky heeled shoes. We finally made it over to the resturaunt, and we had a great dinner. After that it was kind of late, so we came home, watched part of a movie and went to sleep.

Oh yeah, I almost for got to add this. While we were getting ready, Steve walked into the room with me and said "Today has been a good day" and I thought Awwwwwww, he's about to say something sweet! But then he finished what he was saying "I didn't even have to use my A.K." which I think is a part of a Snoop Dogg song or something. SIGH, oh well.

Good times...noodle salad. : )