Well now, that was some morning!
The trouble with having Christmas Eve fall on a Tuesday is that half of humanity takes Monday off from work to do food shopping. I should have anticipated that. I should have picked any other day in the month to shop, other than today. However, like everyone else, I thought -- my, that's convenient! Shop on Monday, cook on Tuesday!
Mistake.
Here's another mistake: I woke up early (significantly before sunrise) and I decided to try to figure out what combination of physical indicators might lead you to diagnose yourself with one thing or another. I came up with a theory and I was excited to tell Ed about it. His response: A.I. could do it better at one hundredth the amount of time. Feed me the indicators and let's see what happens! -- he suggests.
He was right, of course. Same diagnosis (So A+ for me for coming up with it in the first place), but much more nuanced and of course, speedy as the devil. Ed's been rather obsessed with AI lately, feeding it all sorts of questions on machine design. Perhaps not surprisingly, he has been very impressed with its capabilities. The reason I mention it here though is that the whole "game" threw off my schedule. Not enough sleep, and, too, I lingered in bed luxuriously while he read out loud funny articles about "shouses" (combination houses and very large garages) and people's comments in the paper -- all well and good, but as a result, I began the day focused on stuff other than what I should be doing. I was running late before I even got out of bed! And all this playing around with questions and answers? It will come back to haunt me later in the day.
Animals were impatient. The snow? Starting to melt.
And then -- here's the really stupid thing: I decided that I would "run out" to the grocery store to pick up foods from my holiday list before we sat down to breakfast.
Be back in an hour! -- I shouted up to Ed.
Ha.
Ha.
Ha.
True, I had to stop at TWO grocery stores because the first ran out of meat. I buy red meat exactly once a year -- for the fam, for Christmas. I guess I did not remember that you have to preorder it. Oops!
Big crowds in both stores. I mean, hugely big crowds! But, I got it done. And I pulled into our driveway in time for breakfast at... 12:30 p.m.
Things aren't that bad. The house is warm, the lights on the tree are especially delightful because it is rather drab outside. W're having a very light snow fall, changing to rain this afternoon.
A friend stopped by with an annual gift of a homemade nut roll. I find this to be a really warm and kind gesture. There is no reciprocity here: we dont bake treats for people, let alone bring it to them. And yet, here we are, on the receiving end again.
And this is how it gets to be dusk before you even sit down and allow yourself to feel the beauty of this pre-holiday evening. Unfortunately, that tranquility doesn't last. It is about now that I get an email from my doc's office. "You should be checked out by a real medical person (rather than by AI)..." Wait, you're telling me this at 5p.m.? When it's already dark and your offices are closed and tomorrow's Christmas Eve??
Dutifully, I follow her orders and drive myself to the hospital. I'd rather do it tonight than waste time on it tomorrow. And of course, I'm fine.
And that's how the day got filled to overflowing. But tomorrow -- ah tomorrow. The day before Christmas, when all through the house...
with love....
