Worn Out

That's me. But in a good way. I ran a mile this morning - first time in a while. Then walked over to the park with my niece. We hit the swingset and the monkey bars. So much fun.

A trip to the old house to load up the minivan - I forgot a few things, like the food in the fridge and freezer.

Then I headed over to visit fantasy parents-in-law. Went to gro with Mama Ruth. Grilled her about FF. Looked at family pics with Papa J. Listened to stories. Tried to set them up to Skype their favorite son, but realized they didn't have a webcam. FF authorized the purchase tonight, so I'll pick one up. I love to spend other people's money. It's nice that my clients pay me to do that. Can't wait to get them set up. The D loved it when we Skyped with Kiddo.

When I got home, Sarita was here, unpacking and putting away kitchen things. Deb was here, too. First thing she said to me was, "I see you've got this house all crapped up, too." Then, "Do you want that other refrigerator or not?" I asked her if she'd given The D his bible. He left it in her car last week when she took him to church. He's asked me about it a dozen times. He walked into the kitchen and I proudly showed him the two boxes of muffins I'd bought BEFORE he ran out. He has one every morning for breakfast. He angrily replied, "I don't want none of them muffins." Whoa. I realized that he meant he didn't want them right then. He was still full from lunch, I suppose. He loved the BBQ place where his sweet grandaughters took him. Wonder if he'd have loved it as much if I'd chosen it. Oh, well.

Deb left and Sarita and I walked down to Angela's. She was getting ready for one of her regular shindigs. I snuck some olives and pickled okra from the relish tray. Sarita fussed at me, but I knew Angela didn't care. She always has plenty. We said hi to MiMi (Angela's version of The D - her mom lives with her, too). I hugged my sweet niece. My gosh - she's getting so grown up. 14 years old. Wow. What happened to that little five pound baby Angela brought home from the hospital?

Michael (Angela's husband) was mixing up some sort of fruity, no doubt extremely strong, pitcher of adult beverages. I don't go near them. The last time I did was when Sex and the City came out. He made Mojitos for us. The last thing I remember that night was telling him to make some more, and he said, "Another pitcher???" That was the worst hangover of my life. No mo mojitos. Or anything harder than beer, for that matter.

So Sarita and I headed to the park and hit the swingset and the monkey bars. So much fun. It's a pretty good day for me when I get to go to the playground twice. I love living here.

Sarita went home and I sat in the living room with Daddy and he did color commentary for the Reds/Marlins game while I looked at the paper. He showed me the TV guide where he'd marked the channels he wanted me to add to his favorites on the remote control. Niece got him started on that. Damn. One more thing to figure out. He told me he didn't want any dinner. I ate half the Cobb salad I'd gotten him at the grocery.

Skyped with FF for a little while, but we had technical difficulty. That reminds me. I was talking to him this morning when his mother called me. I told him I had to go - Mama comes first. She's so sweet. She is such a talker and has so many good stories. She tells me about FF, but prefaces everything with, "Don't tell him we said this." She said she didn't know what I did to him, but they'd never seen him this mellow before. I have to admit I blushed a little, but I'm sure she didn't realize how that might've come across. When I told FF about it later, he had a good laugh.

A good laugh. As bad as it's been at times lately, I've had more than my share of laughing and smiling. Due in no small part to dude. He has just the right balance of smart and goofy. Which is to say, he doesn't take himself seriously. And that's so much fun.

So, I'm totally exhausted, my muscles are sore, and there's still so much to do, but I have a big grin on my face and I'm quite sure I'll sleep well. And have lots of sweet dreams.