Category Archives: Dave

the first day on my own

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I dropped Dave off at the airport yesterday afternoon. I hadn’t realized that he was flying out on Sunday so he could be there bright and early on Monday morning. I guess it’s logical. But it means he’ll actually be gone for five nights rather than four. FIVE! It all equals doom, I tell you!

And of course, as soon as I got home from the trip to the airport, I managed to have a total freak-out session. I had crawled back in bed when I got home (part of my self-imposed bedrest; which is not so much my idea, but more of a necessity because I don’t do too well when I’m out of bed for more than two hours at a time). While I was lying down, I got a weird feeling that was sort of like menstrual cramps. Hmmm. Seems like I’ve read this symptom before, yes? Oh wait, that’s right: every single freakin’ pregnancy book under the freakin’ sun describes early labor as feeling like menstrual cramps. Heck, even my cousin described it like that. And at that precise moment, Dave was probably on a plane somewhere over Oregon. Do I have phenomenal timing or what?

(Note: I’ve been having Braxton-Hicks contractions like crazy for the past few days. This was noticeably different, believe me.)

Just to be safe, I checked the clock next to the bed. It was 2:58 p.m. The cramp-like feeling passed after about a minute. I had the same crampy feeling again 12 minutes later, at 3:10. Then… nothing. Na-da. Lots of baby kicks and dancing, and my hips still ached and I had weird shooting pains down my inner thighs, which is basically what the past couple of weeks have been like for me. But no more crampy contraction things. So ok, that’s good. As much as I would like to get this kid out of me, I would definitely prefer that it happen when Dave is around. 
 
Later that afternoon, my cat Teenie managed to totally freak me out too. When I’m in bed, she generally wants to cuddle up near me, but then she goes to sleep. Her favorite spot is in the little nook between my pillow & Dave’s; I suppose it’s an ideal location to be petted by two people rather than just one. But she’s an old lady cat (she’ll be eleven this year!), so she doesn’t have the super playful kitten energy anymore. Once she’s settled, she’s out. She might occasionally wake up to give herself a bath, or to go get some food. When she comes back to bed, she’ll usually purr for a minute or so while she gets herself re-settled, but that’s about it.

But no. Yesterday? She stood next to me, totally staring at me for a very long time (like 20-30 minutes), purring very loudly at me, and she’d occasionally lift one paw and sort of rest it on my arm. As totally bizarre and out-of-character as the little paw-pat was (like she was trying to reassure or comfort me), it was actually the staring that freaked me out more than anything. She was boring her eyes into me like that little terrier Eddie did to Frasier. It was creepy. I felt like she was trying to tell me something. It seemed as though I was on an old episode of “Lassie”. What is it, girl? Is Timmy stuck down in the well? Do I need to call my ob/gyn?

It was totally bizarre. My mom says she thinks animals pick up on “those types of things” (whatever that means), so maybe she was giving me a sign that I’m going to go into labor sometime this week. I’m not kidding, that’s totally my mom’s theory. Nevermind any of the symptoms I’ve told her about, it was only when I told her the story about the cat that she was all, “Well, that seals it. I guess I need to start keeping the phone ringer turned on when I go to bed, just in case you need to call at 4 a.m. to tell me that I have a grandbaby.”

Although you know, assuming my labor takes long enough for Dave to fly home, the idea of having the baby this week is quite honestly fine with me. I’m not anywhere near being done with my to-do list, but seriously? I am so over this whole pregnancy thing.

So please, send me happy “dilation and effacement” vibes for my OB appointment this afternoon. I’ll update again when I know more.

foreshadowing imminent DOOM

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So there’s this little thing that I haven’t mentioned, because I’ve been trying not to think about it myself. Dave is going out of town next week. For the entire week.

Remember last month, when he left town for one measly night – just for one final interview with the company that later hired him – and how all holy hell broke loose? Can you imagine what kind of catastrophic mess I’ll end up in when he’s gone for FOUR nights instead of just one? And all because this company needs him to come back for “new employee orientation” or some such nonsense. (I’m kidding. We love his new employer. They are lovely people who gave him a lovely job doing exactly what he wants for a very lovely paycheck.)

The funny part is that in our relationship, Dave is normally the calm, rational one and I’m the one who freaks out over every tiny god-blessed thing. But right now, with me feeling as miserable as I’ve been lately, I think he’s the one who’s starting to worry about the idea of leaving me alone for a week. I honestly don’t have the strength to get all worked up about it. I’m more like, “oh, just leave the frying pan over there on your side of the bed, and let the serial killers come get me.” He’s been talking about postponing the trip, but I think that would just be worse, because I’d rather not be left alone with a newborn for an entire week.

I think he’s also concerned because I’ve started showing signs that I might be starting to dilate (cramps in my hips, inner thighs, and… um, well, let’s just say that there have been some internal twinges too). I won’t know until my OB appointment on Monday afternoon if I am or not, but even if I’ve dilated a centimeter or two, it could still be weeks before I go into labor. But over the past several days, I’ve suddenly shifted gears from talking about February as the timeframe for the baby to being all, “I don’t care if it’s early, get this kid OUT of me, NOW!” So I can see why he’s a little worried.

We’ve already worked out our contingency plan. Kris is “on call” in case of emergencies, and my friend Janet is around too. And Dave knows that he absolutely has to keep his cell phone on him at all times, and if he gets a “911” text message from me, it means that he has to stop whatever he’s doing and get his butt on the next plane back to Seattle. It’s only a two-hour flight from the Bay area, and my understanding is that first labors generally take a while, so even in a worst-case scenario, he should still be able to get back here in plenty of time.

But so help me, if we lose our power again, I’m packing up my body pillow and the cats and checking into a hotel until the day my water breaks.  

the end of '06

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It’s been hard for me to sit down and blog lately, because I am so completely exhausted all the time. I think it’s partially post-Christmas letdown, partially the leftovers of that weird stomach bug, and partially the realization that I have a million tiny things on my to-do list before this baby arrives, and my due date is less than 5 weeks away, which is sort of making me panic. So I’m spending a lot of time in bed with the covers pulled over my head, trying not to think about it.

Although today I spent in bed with the covers over my head because it was freezing in this house. We finally got our electricity back, and then the furnace decides to stop working. I’m not kidding. Isn’t that lovely? We just wrote an exorbitant check to get someone out here to fix it today, so I’m starting to defrost now. (Sunday and a holiday! Double-overtime for you, mister! Happy freakin’ New Year!) Do I need to mention again that I want to move?  

Anyway, since this will be my last post of the year, and I can’t think of much to write about, I thought I’d rip off this little meme from Gwen and Shannon (thanks for the blog fodder, you two!):

1. What did you do in 2006 that you’d never done before?
Made a baby. I’m sure there are other things too, but that’s the first thing that comes to mind.

2. Did you keep your New Year’s Resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I almost never make them, because for me, they never seem to last past January 5th or so. I don’t really have any in mind for 2007, either.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Yes! One cousin and one cousin-in-law. And more in the near future. Not just me, but I also have two friends who both have due dates relatively close to mine. Oh, and the check-out lady at my supermarket is having a scheduled c-section on my birthday, January 16th. (Random, I know.)

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Not that I can think of. I know my dad lost at least one friend and one family member this year, but neither were people that I knew very well.

5. What countries did you visit?
Sadly, nowhere outside of the U.S. Although there was a big cross-country roadtrip in there, so I guess that helps.

6. What would you like to have in 2007 that you lacked in 2006?
More patience. Less worry. Yadda yadda.

7. What dates from 2006 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
* January 16th – I turned 30. Blaaaah.  

* February 16th – The day I flew to Memphis to help Kris move to Seattle.

* May 13th – Not technically our first anniversary (that’s May 15th), but the 13th was the night that Dave and I celebrated our anniversary. We went back to the inn were we got married last year, had a fantastic romantic meal, got sloppy drunk… and most likely, made a baby. (I was charting my cycles, so I’m almost positive that was The Big Moment. Apologies if that was TMI.)

* November 7th – I only remember the day of the mid-term elections because it was the same day of the big flood that kept Dave and I from being able to get home that night, and I remember watching election coverage on the TV in the hotel room. That was the first of the Signs from God we’ve gotten that we are clearly not meant to be in this house for another winter.

* December 14th – also known as The Windstorm That Almost Destroyed Christmas. Heck, also known as Sign from God #2 that we need to move. (I think the furnace dying today officially counts as Sign #3.)

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Made a baby. (Sorry, I think that answer is going to come up a lot.)

9. What was your biggest failure?
I feel like I’ve been very wrapped up in my own little “holy god, I’m going to be a mommy” world, and in doing so, I’ve neglected some people who are very close to me. So I feel like I’ve been a bit of a failure as a friend – and sometimes as a wife, although I doubt that Dave would ever acknowledge that.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
I’m a klutz, I’m forever injuring myself. I couldn’t even count the number of bruises I acquired this year. The only illness was that weird stomach thing that made me drop 10 pounds last month – which thankfully seems to be mostly over and done with, but my stomach is still somewhat iffy at best.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
A video camera. And a ton of baby gear.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
My husband’s. I’ve honestly never really needed Dave to take care of me, and it’s not easy for me to admit when I need help, or that I can’t do something myself. But the last two months have been really hard on me, and he’s just stepped in and made everything easier on me. He has earned so many Good Husband points over the past several weeks, and I don’t think he has any idea. I cannot begin to express how happy I am that I found him, and how much I look forward to seeing what a fantastic father he’s going to be.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Oh, Britney. I was so happy for you for about a week. Now I just want to give you a hug. And some panties.

14. Where did most of your money go?
The house. The hoooouuuuussseee. It’s never ending. Although I did also spend a small fortune on baby stuff and maternity clothes.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Baby! (Good grief, this is getting repetitive.)

16. What song will always remind you of 2006?
I’ve been listening to my iPod in the car all year instead of the radio, so I don’t really know anything new. So, whatever. This isn’t a new song, but I’ll pick “The Day After Tomorrow” by Tom Waits, because I heard it for the first time this year, and I’ve been obsessed with it (playing it over and over) ever since.  

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? Happier overall; only sadder because of the hormones, but I know that’s a temporary thing.
b) thinner or fatter? The number on the scale is basically the same, but I feel huge. Weird how that works. Ask me again next year and we’ll see.
c) richer or poorer? We paid down some debts and acquired some new ones, so I think we’re pretty much breaking even with 2005.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Exercise. Yoga. Relaxation. Sex. Reading. Generally making the most of my downtime.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Worrying. Moping. Feeling sorry for myself. Being a big whiny ball of hormones.

23. What was your favorite TV program?
Project Runway! Oh, Tim Gunn, how do I love thee…  

25. What was the best book you read?
“Night” by Elie Weisel. Yeah yeah, I know, Oprah’s book club, I should be ashamed of myself. Whatever, it’s really good.

27. What did you want and get?
To get pregnant. And a new job for Dave, because I knew he was unhappy at his old one.

28. What did you want and not get?
A new house. Or even better: this exact house in a totally different location. Like the suburbs.

29. What was your favorite film of this year?
Finding Neverland. I think it came out last year, but this was the year that I saw it. I also loved Little Miss Sunshine, Brokeback Mountain, Good Night & Good Luck, The Family Stone (which surprised me because I thought it was going to be silly and it totally wasn’t), and a whole bunch of others that I know I’m forgetting.

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 30, and it was drunk cosmic bowling. Worst hangover I’ve had in a looong time, but it was a lot of fun.

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Weird that I can’t really think of anything. I know I whine a lot, but I’m actually pretty content with my life, I can’t think of anything that would make it that much better.

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2006?
Maternity. Comfy, but not very sexy.

33. What kept you sane?
I don’t know if that’s a “what” answer as much as a “who”. The #1 answer is Dave. Next on the list is my mom. And pretty much everyone else in my circle of family and friends.

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
George Clooney. That one doesn’t really change from one year to the next. It’s pretty much been Clooney for the past decade.

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2006.
God, do I have to? I imagine that I’ll have a lot of them next year, after I’ve experienced this whole motherhood gig. The only valuable life lessons I can think of right now are that (a) pregnancy really can be just as miserable, and just as awesome, as some women describe it; and (b) apparently I am actually capable of surviving for nine days in a house with no electricity in the middle of winter. (That second one was certainly news to me, since I am not what you would call a “roughing it” kind of girl by any stretch.)

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
This is impossible, because there are a million song lyrics that I could use. So I picked one that’s totallly cheesy: it’s from a Sarah McLachlan song (“Push”), and it is absolutely 100% for Dave:
“There are times I can’t decide, when I can’t tell up from down;
You make me feel less crazy, when otherwise I’d drown.
But you pick me up and brush me off and tell me I’m OK,
Sometimes that’s just what we need to get us through the day.”

Yeah, I know. Sorry. Feel free to go throw up now.

Oh, and since I haven’t said it already – happy New Year, everybody. May we all have a fabulous, joyous, blessed, kick-ass 2007.

Multimedia Christmas

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I really had to give up on the idea of having my house in perfect condition before my family arrived. Let’s face it, there isn’t much you can do when you have no electricity for nine days. I couldn’t vacuum, couldn’t do laundry, I had to wash dishes by hand… hell, I couldn’t even charge up the drill so I could hang the curtains in the guest room. (Although technically that would’ve been Dave’s job, because I don’t drill.)

So I thought to myself: you know, my parents’ house is often cluttered (not dirty, they just have lots of stuff), my brother probably wouldn’t notice any degree of messiness, and the only reason my sister would ever go nine days without power in Manhattan would be in the event of some sort of nuclear disaster, so she couldn’t really judge me either. (Not that she would.) So what the hell. I did what I could with the house, and let the rest of it go. It wasn’t easy for me, since I tend to be a little OCD-ish about those types of things, but I tried to just relax and be happy that they were all able to fly here for the holidays.

Once I got to that point, I had a pretty awesome time.

You can see the rest of the photos from Christmas here.

Oh, and speaking of photos, since I’m able to use the scanner now (ah, the simple joys of electricity!), here’s my favorite photo from the ultrasound last week.

Have you ever seen such a perfect little profile? I think not. And those lips! I cannot wait to meet this kid in person.

Oh, and just to complete this very visually-oriented post, here’s my first experience at uploading a video on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRX0rt49reU

(If that embedding trick doesn’t work, you can see it here.) Some background: we were cooking Christmas Eve dinner, and my sister and I were trying to find some uptempo, dance-y music to keep us energized while we were working. So yes, that is in fact “Bootylicious” and the N’Trance remix of “Stayin’ Alive” that you hear. Our iPods might be a bit dated, but they’re fun. And it’s proof that at any of our family gatherings, all of the action really does happen in the kitchen.

And if nothing else, when Baby Girl decides in fifteen years or so that she wants to sue her parents for emancipation because we are certifiably insane, this ought to help her case in court. I mean for heaven’s sake, just look at how her parents were behaving only weeks before her birth. Atrocious.

still not good, but better

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I think I’ve at least somewhat recovered from my little meltdown yesterday. We still don’t have power, but I’m not feeling quite as fragile and on the verge of tears about everything today. Just so I’m not terminally whiny, here’s some good news:

* The hospital tour is over. I don’t know why I thought it would help alleviate some of my anxiety about childbirth, because being in one of those birthing suites only made me feel like I was going to faint. (It’s a very nice hospital, but still, it’s just the idea of what I’ll be doing there that scares me.) Maybe it’ll help when the time comes, to know what everything will look like when I arrive at the hospital in labor, and it won’t all be so new and foreign. But for now, seeing the room and realizing that I’m going to be using it in about a month or so honestly just scared the crap out of me. I’m not sure that I’d recommend it to a first-time mom.

* The ultrasound today was good, and I’m really looking forward to getting our power back so I can scan the photos. Baby Girl is in the 45th percentile for size and weight, which is good. As my doctor pointed out, I really don’t want to give birth to a 12-pound baby, so not being in the 90th percentile is just fine and dandy. I’ll take that average size measurement without complaint.

Also? Baby Girl has got a serious kisser on her. Dave and I both have pretty full lips, so I’m not sure whose DNA that is, but it looks like we’re going to have a little Angelina Jolie on our hands. Dave says we could just stick her to the windshield and let her lips act as a suction cup. Maybe we’ll just tell people that we had the pediatrician give her collagen injections. Hee.

* When we got back from the doctor’s office, and I felt like I had been run over by a steam roller and had to lie down for an hour? My wonderful, darling, amazing husband tidied up the kitchen and living room for me.

I don’t know if I’ve sufficiently given Dave credit for how awesome he’s been during this past week, but seriously, he has rocked the house in a big way. I’m not used to feeling so feeble and weak all the time, and it’s not easy for me to admit it when I physically can’t do something. (Especially when it’s something easy that I should be able to do, like drive two miles down the street to pick up sandwiches for lunch.) He’s just taken over and made this all so much easier on me, and I cannot begin to express how grateful I am for it.

* My family is booked at a hotel for both Friday and Saturday nights, and my sister is renting a car, which will save me a whole lot of headaches. (Like the 25-mile trip to the airport, for example, which I was going to have to do twice on Friday. As she has done so many times in the past, my sister has saved my butt yet again.) I’m hoping that we’ll have our power back soon, so we can have the whole family here on Christmas Eve (Sunday), but we’ll do what we have to do.

My family is another one that deserves a big shout-out, because they’ve all been so understanding of how emotional I’ve been feeling lately, and they haven’t complained once about the last-minute adjustment to their holiday plans, or how it’s going to suck that they have to pay for a hotel in addition to all of their other travel expenses, or any of that. (Well, my dad might gripe about the hotel. But my mom has already assured me that if he says one word about it, they will all jump down his throat before his words ever reach my delicate little ears.)

* I was able to take a hot shower last night. Yes, the water was brownish – not that I could tell since the only light in the bathroom was candlelight. (Trust me, it’s not nearly as sexy and romantic as it sounds.) But it’s funny how something as simple as being able to attend to your personal hygiene can make the world feel like a nicer place.

* I read online today that the next town over from us (Carnation: home of the milk of the same name, for those of you who like random bits of trivia) got their power back yesterday. That means it’s getting closer and closer. I’m hoping, praying, crossing my fingers, and making wishes on pennies/stars/whatever I can find that we’ll get ours tomorrow. You guys all do the same for me, ok?

another edited timestamp post

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Sorry for the delay in getting these online, but you wouldn’t believe the last 48 hours we’ve had. More updates to come too!  

It’s funny that I wrote the title for that last post at the time that I wrote it (Thursday night), because I assumed (since I had no TV or Internet access) that the storm was only affecting us out in the boonies. As it turns out, not so much. There are close to a million people in this area who still don’t have electricity tonight, and it just happens that our happy little home is one of them.

Last night was quite possibly one of the scariest nights of my life. Even in a house as solid as ours, 70 mph winds make the entire house (including our bed) shake, and every time I heard some unknown noise, I was convinced that it was someone in the house. Who on earth would go out looking for rape or murder victims in the middle of massive windstorm? I have no idea. But I was sure he knew that I was alone in the house. So even with the benefit of Unisom, I didn’t exactly have what one might call a restful night’s sleep. I was more in a drugged state of panic for hours on end.
 
This morning I got up and checked out the damage. There are branches everywhere. A tree in our front yard came down and took out part of our fence (that’ll be a fun expense). There was this big white metal thing in our front yard, and I couldn’t figure out what it was, until I saw that Carol (our across-the-street neighbor) had her entire fence taken out. Then I remembered that she had a little shelter for her horses in her yard (sort of a metal framed carport-style thing with a canvas roof), so that solved the mystery of the big pile of metal in our yard. Apparently when it came rolling out of her yard and into ours, it took out our mailbox. Carol was very apologetic about it, and said that she’d pay for the mailbox, but seriously, if she hadn’t said anything, I would’ve just thought it was the wind that had done it.

I drove all over the Eastside today looking for what, I’m not exactly sure. At first I thought I’d just find a Starbucks, get online for a while, charge my cell phone, and head back home. I quickly realized that every retail establishment imaginable was closed, because no one had electricity. I stopped at a hardware store to see if they had any regular old-fashioned phones (you know, so I could just plug it into the wall and have a dial tone? Instead of stupid cordless phones which need electricity to work?), but they were sold out. I managed to play the “I’m 8 1/2 months pregnant” card so they’d feel sorry for me and let me use their restroom. (There were 2 candles on the counter. The guy handed me a flashlight on my way in. Lovely.) I did manage to find one store that was running on generator power, and they happened to have a car charger for my particular model of cell phone, which made me ecstatically happy. That’s the best $7 I’ve spent all year. 

Finally, I gave up and headed home. Carol, the lovely across-the-street neighbor (oh she who has helped me break into my own home before) came over and helped me start our generator, which I didn’t know how to do because that’s always been Dave’s job. (Figures that the one time I really need him for something like this, he’s in another state, hmm?)

With the generator running, I was able to get online for a little while and get that last blog post up. The generator has since run out of gas, so I’m back to typing in the dark with the laptop on battery power. It appears that the wind took out a lot of cell phone towers in the area, so my one source of communication is pretty flaky. Oh, and the stupid, stupid well – our home’s source of water, which I hate with every fiber of my being – apparently runs on electricity too. So I have no tap water, and I can’t flush the toilets. Niiiiice. 

Just about the only good bit of news that I’ve heard all day (oh yeah, forgot to mention this earlier) is that DAVE GOT THE JOB!!! Which is awesome-awesome-awesome, and I’ll fill in more of those details when he gets home tomorrow and I can talk to him for more than 30 seconds without my cell phone signal breaking up.

For now, though, I have another date with my good friend Unisom. Maybe he’ll be more effective when there aren’t freight trains of wind whipping past my windows.

I wanna move

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Dave left tonight to fly to California. Well, to try to fly to California anyway. Turns out, we’ve been having some crazy weather here – tons of rain (moreso than usual), high winds, etc. He got to the airport with plenty of time to spare, but the parking garage was flooded out, so it took him a while to navigate that. Then, once he got inside, the airport was a madhouse because of all the weather delays, so he ended up missing his flight.

The reason he was trying to fly tonight is because he’s supposed to be interviewing all day tomorrow with the company that is his #1 job pick. He’s had numerous phone interviews with these people (seriously, I lost count somewhere around teleconference number eight), and it sounds like the job is basically his, but they have this whole thing about wanting to meet the people they hire in person. Go figure.

The thing is, this is the perfect job for him – it’s exactly what he wants to be doing, it’s local (in fact, it sounds like he’ll be mostly working from home, which is awesome for me and the baby), the pay is good, it’s basically ideal. He’s gotten himself pretty stressed out during the past week preparing for this interview because he really wants this job. Which is totally unlike Dave – I’m the one who worries, he’s the one who’s always calm and says that everything will work out just fine. So if this is making him anxious, it must be a really, really big deal.

So, since the flight tonight is apparently not going to happen, and it takes over an hour to drive the 25 miles from our house to the airport in rush hour traffic, he decided to just find a hotel room near the airport so he can get up early and catch the first flight out, and hopefully still make it to his interview with plenty of time to spare. The alternative is that he’ll have to say “sorry, unavoidably bad weather” to these people and reschedule for next week sometime, which certainly wouldn’t be the end of the world, but I know that he’d like to go ahead and get on with the interview process. (As would I – it’d be nice to not have to think about his job situation over the holidays.) So I’m really hoping and praying that there are no problems with early flights tomorrow.

Meanwhile, back to me: you know how we live in the boonies? And how our power goes out every time the wind blows? Well, just try to guess how well we’ve fared with this crazy weather. Right. I’ve been sitting in the dark for the past few hours.

Because really, it’s not like being alone in the boonies at night isn’t creepy enough on its own. And it’s not like I don’t already freak out over every little god-blessed noise when Dave isn’t here at night. For example, I’ve never almost jumped out of my skin because of the sound of the auto-scooping litter box. No, seriously, it’s totally ok to just go ahead and turn off all the lights in addition to all of the creepy isolation. I’ll be fine.

I’m actually typing this entry in Word while my laptop is on battery power so I can post it later. I’ve taken a Unisom (a whole one instead of my usual half) in the hopes of knocking myself unconscious for the night. And since I don’t have a baseball bat, and we don’t believe in having guns in the house, I’ve put a frying pan on Dave’s side of the bed, because it was the only blunt, heavy weapon-like item that I could think of. Well, there is the garden shovel, but the shovel is dirty so I don’t want it in bed with me. At least the frying pan is clean. And that sucker is pretty solid, I think it could do some damage if a serial killer were to sneak into the house and try to murder me in my sleep. (Because you know that type of thing happens all the time.)

The wind outside is making creepy whooshing noises like something out of a bad horror movie. One of the candles I had going in our room just flickered out. And I’m starting to seriously reconsider this whole anti-gun stance of mine.

Edited to add: I changed the time stamp on this post to show when I actually wrote it. Another update will be coming soon.