What Now

For the third time in the past 5 days, I have awoken with absolutely no idea where I was.

That's a strange feeling, you know. I mean, it possibly has a lot to do with whatever I'm dreaming at the time, I guess, but it's still kind of frightening when you wake up, tangled in bedsheets and have to really concentrate on the last thing you remember doing before you go to sleep. Not that I tend to fall asleep in strange places, mind you, but Crazytown is apparently a place that can follow you around no matter where you lay your head. : )

Thank goodness I remembered who Steve was before I smothered him with a pillow. Heeheehee

OK, so Thanksgiving.

I won't lie about it. I was dreading the trip this year. As you know, Steve's mom passed away earlier this year and since the Thanksgiving tradition has always been one that revolved around her side of the family, I was worried that there would be too many painful memories to really make it easy to be thankful for anything. Luckily, things actually turned out very well. True, we all missed her and there was a definite empty spot where she should have been, but I think we were all able to remember her in our own way and work it out. One has to do that, or go crazy after all, right?

Wednesday Steve and I left work at noon so that we could get home and ready to go. We had to take our two babies to the kennel, which was an adventure. The vet had given us a bottle of tranquilizers for Bear to take before he came back for his next appointment. Since Butler and Bear are roughly the same size, I figured that I could give them both a pill (done with no fuss and no muss, amazingly) and after that, it would be gravy. Well, it wasn't so much gravy as it was THE FREAKING PILL DIDN'T DO A FRACKIN' THING! Bear was cool, albeit a little nervous, but Butler was all but bald by the time we got to the pet resort. It's only about 5 minutes or so away, but he still managed to cover me and the interior of the car with about twelve pounds of dog hair. So after we take care of them, we go back home to rewash clothes and get on the road. Steve had decided to take a *koff, koff* shortcut this year. Well, not really a shortcut as much as a different route as it turned out. We ended up getting a little lost due to one wrong turn, but I got to see a whole lot of new places. We passed Barry College, which Steve says is lovely, and I got to see Cartersville again. I think I've only been outside of the car once in Cartersville, about three years ago, but one day I hope to get to explore. Sometimes I think my lot in life is to see the world through the car windows, but never get out to experience it! Grrrrr. Oh well, I have friends who travel and get out in interesting places, so I get to live vicariously at least! There were more places, but I don't remember the names of them all right offhand. We finally found our way and made it to Waleska and the Puckett plantation. : ) It was about 8 our time when we got there, so there was plenty of time to talk and laugh before I just couldn't stay awake anymore. Steve and his dad ended up staying awake much longer than I did! Just when, exactly, did I get older than them? : )

Thursday I slept in a bit, for me anyways, and then got up to begin the traditional helping of the cooking of Thanksgiving lunch. We normally don't do the whole dinner thing since Steve's cousins are married and have other family functions to attend, so we have our big meal in the middle of the day. Aunt Brenda and Uncle Garry had already gotten most of the food cooked, but there were still a few things left to do. I got to set the table, and unfortunately I still have no idea which side the knives and forks go on! The effect was nice, though! Heeheehee. We had SO much food and babies everywhere! Thank God this part of the family doesn't bother asking when I'm going to spawn anymore. I'm running out of witty things to say! We ate and laughed and I cliche-ed myself by falling asleep on the couch after I ate. Granted, it was an accident, but how can you NOT nap after a meal like that? It should be a law! Later that evening, as the family went their separate ways, we ended the day with more talking and laughing...and me going to bed before everyone else!

Friday was the designated "Christmas Dinner" day, so the morning passed quite lazily. Steve, Jon and Mr. Lee had decided to go shopping that morning. Can you believe it? I'd rather remove my own gall bladder with an oyster fork than even drive anywhere on Black Friday, but the menfolks always want to go shopping! I spent most of that morning working on "Stupid Paper III" because I have been procrastinating. Unfortunately, all of the research I thought I had done turned out to be quite useless. I had managed to save information on my thumb drive, but absolutely none of it was what I needed! GAH! I realized at that moment that I wasn't going to be able to do much of anything while all of my info was in Alabama! So I went outside and played with the animals. Olive, the basset hound; Lucy, the jack russel...something; and a cat which amazingly decided it loved me. I found this odd, because cats, as a rule, kind of hate me. I think they realize that I prefer dogs and they get offended. Somehow they know this without me having to say anything! I like cats. Heck, I like any kind of nice animal really, but somehow they always seem to suspect that I'm a dog person and they quietly plot my death in the ways only cats can do...except for this one. So the 4 of us played for a while before I went back inside to crochet. Sadly, I ended up falling asleep again with my hook in my hand and about 6 pounds of yarn in my lap, but at least I was warm! : )

*As an aside, you can tell I'm quite the party animal, right? The three-toed sloth of good times!*

We made it to Kristen and Greg's house for our "Christmas" and everything was, of course, perfect. Kristen is one of the few people I know who can make her house look like something out of Better Homes and Gardens! So, of course, I tried not to knock anything over. : ) I hung out with their 6 month old son, Collins, and talked about theology and philosophy (as anyone would with a 6 month old, of course) until we opened our gifts. I was filming everything with my early Christmas gift from Steve, which is a DV recorder, and everything was so great. At some point I had a violent FFA State Convention flashback. I swear, I experienced the whole three years of those conventions through the view-finder of Mr. Harris' video camera. : ) Mr. Lee had brought a gag gift for Katie, Amy's daughter. To my chagrin, I had turned the camera off to open my own gifts and didn't get this recorded. Inside the box was a roll of toilet paper. Katie, who I swear is a 30 year old woman in a 6 year old body, kind of looked taken aback for a moment before smiling and saying ever so politely..."I was really not expecting this, but thank you very much!" What a great save! After gifts was dinner and then the sitting about and talking. Poor Sean, Amy and Jon's son, wasn't feeling well, so they had to take him home early. Once the rest of us got back to the house, I did a little more work on my paper and then we went to bed. I actually stayed up later than Steve, but all that got me was locked out of the bedroom. I had to knock for about 5 minutes before he woke up and let me in. Geez, he could have just ASKED me to sleep on the couch. : )

Saturday Mr. Lee left for home and Steve went back to Greg's house to watch the Georgia/Georgia Tech game. Greg went to UGA (hunker down dawgs and all of that), so he's a serious Bulldogs fan. I stayed with Aunt Brenda and Uncle Garry and did more homework. When I went as far as I could, I watched the game with them. It was a good game, as far as football goes, so that was fun. Then we flipped on the funniest holiday film ever "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation". It's not the holidays without that being on at least once! Steve and Greg came back later on and everyone else played cards while I crocheted and listened to an Agatha Christie "Miss Marple" audio novel on my iPod. I swear, a can of Ensure and a Matlock marathon, and I'd be set! : ) Actually, it was nice and cozy and I enjoyed it a great deal. I'm very glad I'm the kind of person who can entertain themselves and be satisfied with "Kelly-Time". Otherwise, I think, I'd be quite miserable!

Sunday Steve and I got up, had breakfast and headed back to Alabama (no banjos on our knees, though). We picked up two very clean, very happy to see us dogs, and came home.

All in all, a very lovely holiday.