she who keeps this diary


14 October 2003 - 10:29 AM

Too Much of Everything

I don't know where to start.

The weekend was supposed to be relaxing, except of course it wasn't. The plan was that the immediate clan would extend our traditional October day-trip to Thurmont into a weekend, and this was the weekend Maman and Sis picked. I agreed to it, stupidly forgetting to check the calendar in the Acorn, and therefore didn't remember that Crusades was also this weekend. Frankly, Crusades wouldn't have mattered much to me, anyway, but the Viking, being Calontiri-bred, believes it is the duty of every authorised fighter to muster with his kingdom for every war. No excuses, unless you are so injured that you cannot put on your armour and walk to the list table under your own power. Spending time with the inlaws, therefore, does not qualify as a valid reason to skip a war.

So, I was in the garderobe for that little mental lapse. Add that Maman was away most of this week and therefore Sis was supposed to be in charge of arrangements, but Sis was having a flaky seven days. As a result I didn't know any particulars (dogs? no dogs? when? where? how many vehicles? etc), which only made the Viking grumpier.

The actual being gone part was OK, save for the impossible crowds at all area restaurants at dinner time and the bit where the Viking and I had to share a hotel room with Maman. Not that Maman is an unpleasant roommate, but hotel bed = playtime in the Viking's book of mental mathematics, and, well, that's a little tough when one's mother(-in-law) is sleeping in the next bed. Additional grumpiness. Not relaxing.

School was closed for Leif Ericsson Day, which should have been a good thing, but since Grandmaman is supposed to be going to the smaller assisted-living apartment in about a month's time and must reduce the quantity and volume of her possessions, Sis and I were called in to help go through certain things -- china, serving pieces, and stemware, yesterday.

We got through one closet. And we didn't even get to the stemware in the closet. Fibber McGee would have been six shades of green contemplating the contents of that closet. In addition to the stemware we didn't get to, there is still an enormous corner cupboard and two smaller cabinets with china, serving pieces, and stemware in them. Not to mention the clothes, the furniture, the carpets and the various pieces of bric-a-brac which clutter up the surfaces.

It's Spirit Week at school, which means I have to live through four days of increasingly wacky costumes and other silliness building up to Homecoming. Nothing remotely academic is going to be accomplished, and I'm tempted to skip even going through the motions. I shouldn't cave. I should carry on. But oh, the temptation ...

verso - recto

The WeatherPixie

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