24 Hours (or so) In The Life of JMS

I drove to G'Ville SC yesterday afternoon and arrived at SM's house shortly after dark. The first thing I did (after lugging my crap inside) was help her carry the hundreds of gifts she'd purchased down to the living room from her bedroom. Then we chatted, and ate, and chatted some more. We lamented about her crazy, scared-of-everything-that-breathes-or-looks-at-him-cross-eyed cat - and, though we decided he is a lovely feline specimen, he is absolutely worthless otherwise. We got to spend some much-needed alone time sans kids, husbands, friends or even feline accompaniment. We went to bed (it was a sleepover, so I stayed with her in her room) and we watched the end of Prancer (ugh...) and the 1984 version of A Christmas Carol with George C. Scott (love it!). The end of this movie put us somewhere near midnight. We were both actually almost asleep when her next-door neighbor started banging nails into his walls! (SM can't fall asleep without the TV on and I can't fall asleep WITH the TV on - so she was asleep and I was fading quickly, having suffered greatly through all the flashy lights from the TV and the loud, obnoxious commercials.) SM commented that her neighbor has no concept of time and that he frequently does this (apparently he's a photography fanatic) and that it just made her laugh. Then, after all was quiet for a few minutes, the phone rang. It was MIDNIGHT at this point!!! It was a friend of a friend looking for said friend who had taken off without her cell phone and now, no one knew where she was so they were all having panic attacks...and apparently drunk, too. Then next-door neighbor on the other side decided to come screeching into the parking lot, revving his engine and squealing his tires. Slamming doors on both his car and his condo, and then yelling at someone (probably his dogs, come to think of it) before he, too, fell silent. It was a nuthouse! SM and I both got up around 6:30 AM, having managed to get a few hours of sleep, but we were both exhausted. SM commented that she felt like she was hungover. (I guess sleep deprivation can do that to a person. Wonder why I haven't started feeling the effects of it yet? Maybe because I've been sleep-deprived since Kiddo came along nearly 5 years ago and I'm used to it by now?) We were able to leave her house right at 8:30 AM for the nearly four-hour drive back to K-Town. Thankfully, traffic was light and we only had to make 2 pit stops. I would have preferred to plow on through, but SM's bladder thought otherwise. (Well, since we're being honest here, I didn't complain b/c I had to go, too!) When we got back to K-Town, Kiddo and Little Bit were eating. After food, Little Bit went down for a nap and SM and Kiddo hung out together while Hubby and I had a couple of hours to get some last-minute shopping done. Dinner was an easy event - though I baked cookies, chopped red cabbage, put green beans in the crock pot and generally prepped for tomorrow's meal. I have a TON of dishes to do in the morning, but right now, I'm too tired to even think about them. Kids fell asleep very easily. I thought Kiddo would fight and squirm and generally make a nuisance of himself, but he slipped into Dreamland almost immediately. Little Bit was more-than-ready for bed, and we have not heard a peep from her since she went down. I stuffed stockings, wrapped a few final items and we (me, Hubby & SM) put everything under the tree. It's amazing! There is SO much stuff there, I can hardly believe it. Kiddo and Little Bit aren't going to know what to do with themselves in the morning! Oh - and there are even cookies (freshly baked) and milk for Santa. It's been a busy, chaotic, 24 hours - but I wouldn't trade it for anything. Merry Christmas! TTFN JMS PS: I know I said I probably wouldn't post again until after the holiday, but I guess I lied. It was unintentional, though. I just can't stay away from my blog for that long.