minikin

I cannot think of a happier prelude to Mother's Day.

Friday, I set off from the house to work for my annual review. Good employee, 4% biscuit. :)

Then I drove to Clarksville to pick up my girlfriend. I had a card and present ready, but hadn't liked any of the available wrapping choices at home, which called for a short trip to Hobby Lobby. One of the bits of the wrapping idea on which I settled didn't work out, but now I have an ingredient for one of my many-presents for Christmas, so bonus. And pats on my back for escaping Hobby Lobby for under $10.

We headed over to the hospital, where after finding out which room sydb42 was in, I was able to lead us straight there. Living for almost a week in a place does help one find one's way around. ;) We were greeted outside the door by the most impressive set of lungs I've yet to encounter on a newborn. Snoopy is a feisty one. :) She and mom have already figured out this nursing thing, and she can roll from her back to either side, and etc. etc. darkwolf69 was a bit tussled, looking pretty well shagged out after a prolonged squawk, as it were. The relatively easy packaging of Snoopy's birth present momentarily befuddled him, for instance. Bonus, Gram showed up with Roo, and we got totally chipper toddler time. I even gave Roo a twirly hug from Cinders, since (a) Camel is getting a bit too much daddy-built for that, and (b) I was actually quite atwitter, nervous, uncertain and a bit uncomfortable being in way close proximity to him for the first time since last fall. I was grateful to have hippychicx with me, and that aforementioned close proximity made subtle touching unnoticed in the presence of Gram.

We headed back to Alaska's house. Her sister C was there, and I started to talk about Snoopy. She interrupted almost immediately with "already?" And after a tiny bit of confusion we found out that their sister J was in labor. Three weeks early. My sweetness was abubble with energy, bouncing up and down, and beaming wide enough to light the room. I called Grace and asked her to drive Tigger home for me, then called Flar to get an okay to stay overnight.

In a down note, but me I think a rather therapeutic one, C's boyfriend E (which is not supposed to stand for Evil) dumped her yesterday. That put her in a mood not ready to be happy over her sister's new baby, so she and I hung out at Wendy's all night while Alaska worked. We mostly hid in a couple of my Find-It puzzle books¹ with the occasional life sucks comments all night. When her shift was over, we drove Alaska home and tucked C into bed, and Alaska drifted me off to sleep in the most delicious and dreamy way.

And none of my elaborate, entertaining, exciting dreams contained a whiff of Camel. I work up in a happy dreamy state, high on the optimistic note of the last dream, and confident to meet the day. Alaska and I drove over to the hospital to see J and her new baby boy, and later decided to visit Snoopy again, since the hospitals are within blocks of each other.

Today I was comfortable and relaxed around Camel, who was in much better shape himself -- seems he got a bit better amount of sleep. I asked for a hug and it didn't destroy me. I got a little teary when he chose to actually allude to any of it, but I find myself actually accepting the possibility of being friends now. It just hurt too much to think of it before, but I guess time really does help.

Even if I still think his reasons were stupid, his logic faulty, and his solution JPW.

Then we did some shopping. We went by Books a Million to look for Dream Shade by Daniel Morrison. He's an employee of Arby's, and they had a display advertising his book at the Arby's where C works. I was very impressed by this, and picked up one of the reminder cards they provided. Turns out I need to order it online, but while we were at Books A Million, I picked up the two latest Merry Gentry books. I'm building my summer reading list, since I don't anticipate much book time before we take off on the train trip.

Then we went to Wal-Mart to pick up a bigger film card for Alaska, before we headed back to her house. Her empty house. Giving us time for a nice longish shower and some cuddle time before I needed to head back to Nicholasville.

I'm feeling up and alive and loved and optimistic and well, high. :)

I've had a great hair weekend so far, and I'm even planning some sun-time tomorrow, cleaning the water garden. :)

Life is good.

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¹ Thank you Demariana. Yes, I am still working on the stash you gave me years ago.