This time of year, it’s all about lists. I have lists for
everything – my usual chore lists but also everything Christmas, with deadlines
based on shipping dates, flight times, etc. I made my big pre-Christmas list
and was attempting to check something off every day and had big plans for the
weekend. You know that didn’t go well.
The week itself was fine. Between it being the first week of
the month and having November training postponed due to Thanksgiving, work was
flat out and flew by. I had book club on Thursday night but had intentionally
not read the book (see the post from 2 weeks ago) and I wasn’t alone. Of the 5
regulars, the only one who’d read the book couldn’t come and so it was looking
like we’d cancel. But when I heard from a woman who was recently widowed and so
hadn’t been coming that she was planning to come for the company, cancelling
wasn’t an option. After a bit of doing, I changed the location for the 3 of us
(no one had read it) to Chips so instead of discussing the book, we had a
lovely chat over dinner. Salvaged that!
The next day was Friday and I had big plans for the weekend.
I had bought a popcorn popper for Erica at the thrifts and decided to drop it
at her house on the way home so that I wouldn’t have to get dressed Saturday
morning when she’d offered to pick it up. I had a bunch of things to do Saturday
but still planned to stay in my jammies until noon. So after stopping at the
grocery store, I headed to Erica’s. She lives beside the lake just north of
Wahoo but in the country and I’d never been there. But how hard could it be to
find? Ha!
First off, there are 2 exits off the new bypass – 17th
Street followed by County Road 17. I had only written down 17th on
my directions so of course took the wrong one. It was pitch black with no moon
and I ended up so turned around that I had no idea what direction I was headed
in. After driving around on gravel roads for 15 minutes, I found County Road P
so took that, knowing that I’d hit a paved road no matter which way I went,
which I did eventually. After hitting a closed road and having to detour, I was
getting pissed but I found her road so thought I was all set. Not so much.
Did I mention it was pitch black? Erica had warned me that
it was hard to see her road and after going down every driveway along the road
3 times, I saw what I thought might be her road but realized it wasn’t when my
car sunk into the mud. I was just a couple of feet off the paved road but my
drive wheels were up to their rims in mud. After 20 minutes on the phone, AAA
told me someone would be there within 2.5 hours! It was 8:30 by this time and I
was cold, caked with mud and had ice cream melting in the car. I declined and
started calling friends. I got Lorri, who sent her husband in her brand new car
to pick me up. After going back and forth with groceries, my feet were caked
with pounds of mud so I took my shoes off and held them in front of my face for
the ride home. I walked into my house at 8:45, exhausted, hungry and cranky as
all get out. Not only was my Friday night toast but I still had to deal with my
car in the morning. Sheesh!
Erica emailed that her husband could get me out in the
morning and that my car was within 100 feet of her house (not helpful to know!)
She called Saturday morning and picked me up on her way from the market. It
took 5 minutes to get my car out and I was home just after noon to try to slam
through my list. All thought of any relaxation was gone. Bummer.
I did manage to slam through my to do list. It was just warm
enough to be outside so I cut down all the perennials by the sidewalk and did
some more yard pick up. I finished laundry (I’d started that first thing in the
morning), did more chores then put up both of my trees – one on the deck and one
inside. I finished at 9:00 p.m., at which point I sat down with a glass of Kahlua
and egg nog to enjoy the end of It’s a Wonderful Life by the glow of my cute
little tree. Nice.
I had a bit more to do on Sunday morning before picking
Andrea up for an afternoon in Lincoln. I went through all my Christmas gifts
and got those all organized (I was happy to see I didn’t need to do more
shopping!) then cleaned the fridge so I could drop chicken scraps at Lori’s
before getting Andrea. We had a lovely lunch at the new restaurant in Ceresco –
That Place – then headed to UNL for a quilting lecture. It was interesting but
the Q&A at the end went long and it was a small enough group that we couldn’t
sneak out. That made us late to Aldi, where we stocked up on Christmas goodies
along with regular food, so we didn’t leave in time to get Andrea back to Wahoo
by 5:00. She was exhausted though so didn’t seem to mind. Of course I still had
things to do when I got home. It was mostly cooking but I got such a late start
that I still had soup cooking at 10:30 pm. It would be a short night since I
was going to Power Pump again so would be up at 4:45 but I’d made it through my
weekend to do list despite the mud. I can relax some other time. I’m not sure
when that will be but I live in hope that it’ll be soon.
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