I’m Tired, People! Good tired, but Tired.

Link here to find out how your name will be defined in the dictionary. I entered my proper name (well, the nickname version that everyone calls me vs. the full, flowery version that only one person ever called me, and he turned out to be a sexual harasser. The flowery name resulted in “like in nature to a train-riding hobo”).

“Benevolent to a fault”. Let’s disregard the fact that each time you redo the ‘test’ you get something equally flattering: sexually stunning and visually addictive were the next two results.

Benevolent to a fault fits the last 36 hours.

I left work last night in search of a showerhead. I called my impending house guest, found out she was still an hour up the road and scooted up to Lowe’s. The only had one brass version. (Can I just say that I’ve always been the silver girl, even when gold was in style? It HURT me to pass all the simple, elegant silver fixtures and ask for the gold. I felt like a bad romance writer doomed to take bubble baths while contemplating my next smutty novel.) And they were, of course, out of stock. He called his girlfriend at the store across town to verify they had one in stock. He offered to go pick it up for me and have it there the next day. I know the offer was completely altruistic, but I needed the stupid thing now. So, I sped home, dropped off the dog, picked up my friend, (who’d just driven 6 hours) and drove half way to NYC for a stupid (did I mention it’s gold?) showerhead. Dinner at Chick Fil’A. Home to chat. Well, she and I chattered while Jrex stared bleary-eyed at his laptop.

Thursday I left the dog at the house with her. She visited another Baltimore friend while I went to work. After work I met with two people from church to do a counseling session for one of them. As I drove home after grocery shopping and dropping the counselee off, another friend called. I walk in the house, dragging grocery bags while listening sympathetically on the cell phone. My house guest (Let’s call her Little Sis) had fed the dog (love her!). She put away food. I’m still on the phone. Little Sis goes into the living room to read while I’m on the phone another 45 minutes. Had it been a light chat, I would have called her back later, but no, it’s another discussion of childhood pain, going to counseling, healing, and dealing with life. Don't get me wrong, I love those conversations, but it was 11 PM. We finally hung up and I ended up chatting with Little Sis 'til 1 AM.

Jrex was in lab all night working on his presentation for lab meeting. He arrived home at 6:30 am to sleep for an hour. At 7 Muttola demanded her morning ritual of licking him into consciousness. I figured 6 hours of sleep beats a single hour so I got up to entertain her and let my poor hubby rest.

Downstairs, I finally swept the house. Did I mention that Little Sis has really bad allergies, and we have a dog? Did you notice that I didn’t mention that in why I needed to sweep the house? Have I told you that I’m really bad at remembering little facty details? I’ll remember the emotional conversation: how you felt when your Dad said you were lazy and what you did as a result. But not key life details: you love the color purple, you hate mushrooms, or pet hair equals death. When Little Sis was breaking out in hives as we chatted at 12:30 am, I thought, “oh yeah, maybe sweeping should be moved back onto the to-do list!”

House swept, I sit on the couch to read, journal, and ease into the day. The phone rings. Who the heck is calling me at 8 am?!!! I run to grab the phone so it won’t wake up Little Sis or Jrex. It’s a friend who’s living overseas. She’s in a country where any discussion of the Big Man Upstairs might get her killed. But she needs to talk about some differences she’s having with her teammates. I say, “OK. Let’s call them #1, #2, and #3. Not your teammates, your Teammate. Get it?” She does. So we talk about God the Father as #1, Jesus as #2 and the Holy Spirit as #3. (I know it’s theologically incorrect to have a ranking system, but I was tired.) I’ve never played religious spies before; Star Wars, yes, Cops and Robbers, I’ll be the robber, but ‘they only want to talk to #1 and I want to talk about #3’ was never on the play list! Obviously, I was happy to hear from her and give her some reasons to laugh in the midst of her situation.

Got off the phone with her and conferred with Jrex about some hard stuff in his life. Chatted with Little Sis then ran off to work.

I do love all these talks, but, phew! That’s a whole lot of personal interaction, even for an extrovert. It would be better if I knew I had a day of nothingness coming up, but I don’t see one for a while.

Do you do days of nothingness? (I’m sure all Moms, Dads, teachers and lab junkies out there are training their bazookas on my charming, inquisitive face.) For me it’s a day where I know that no one is coming over, I don’t have to look good, change out of my pajamas, answer the phone, or make any food. I can do art; I can sleep, or take a bath and give myself a pedicure. Somehow in college I did that once a week. Now, I’m lucky if it’s three or four times annually. I’m sure that once kids arrive, it won’t happen again for 20 years or so. Sigh. How do you live without that?

PS. In case you’re wondering, otr girl = “a person who falls into an outhouse and dies”