A post in which it is Christmas Eve*

Not that I took that much notice of it.

I did have my morning guy come by this morning. That was another little present for myself. Apparently I have been pretty damn good this year.

My goals today were to get my car if I could, to get the computer back up, and to get my presents wrapped for tomorrow.

I worked cleaning up the green room to clear out where I could set the computer back up. When I put it back together, it didn't work. I was very upset. I called Michael, thinking that he could walk me through whatever I had done wrong, but he couldn't. He was very patient, but it was morning (not his best time) and he had to catch a flight to Florida today to see his family. I was more upset when we got off the phone. I texted Billy. I knew he would be sleeping in, and didn't want to wake him.

I was up twice last night, so I was really still tired. After breakfast I was still sleepy, so I went back to bed. They called me from the dealership about 11 to tell me that they wouldn't be able to get my car to me until Monday. I was pretty bummed about that, but I'm off work, so I'll be able to go get it as soon as it is ready. That was somewhat cheering.

I got up and called Billy. No answer. I have all this financial stuff going on this week, and I really needed to get online to balance my checkbook. Trying not to panic, I had started to straighten up the house a bit when he called me back. Sweetheart and saint that he is, he said he would come over and take a look.

The house is a disaster. It's making me nuts. But I can't really start putting anything back together until the blinds are taken care of. Because of the way the new windows are mounted, my old blinds wouldn't go back up. That was fine with me, it was a good excuse to get rid of them. (I hate washing blinds almost more than buying a car, and they were filthy. But I would have had to do it if they would have gone back up because I would have felt wasteful throwing them away.) Eve had suggested that I get some of the new bigger blinds that are made to look like old Venetian blinds from the 50's. I decided that sounded like a good idea. Since I just spent a fortune on new windows, I really want to show them off. So while I was waiting for Billy, I ran to Home Depot and bought $200 worth of blinds. I blew the smoke off my Visa card, went home, and got to work.

Billy got there shortly after I got home, and I worked on blinds to keep from pacing and acting nervous so he had room to work. He couldn't get the computer working either. Although this made me feel less stupid, it also upped the alarm level that a professional IT guy couldn't get it to work. I was envisioning a Christmas vacation completely cut off from the world, and not happy about that.

Eventually, we decided that the modem/router was the problem. Billy had his laptop with him, and found one that would work at Best Buy. So off we went to the shopping center on Christmas Eve. I was reminded of last year when I had to go buy a DVD player on Christmas Eve. Only this was much worse. The parking lot was so full I didn't think we were going to be able to find a space. Inside was a mob scene.

The one Billy found online cost about $90. We couldn't find that one in the store. After looking for a while, Billy told me the one he found that would work was $100. I told him that I didn't care about $10. I was very mindful that it was Christmas Eve. If the cost of getting out of there faster was $10 I was willing to pay it. We went to the front of the store, and got in the long, snaking line. It looked forever long, but it actually only took us about 20 minutes to get to the register. Where the $100 thing rang up for $182. I was like "excuse me"... Turns out the part was in the wrong place on the shelf. So we went back again. Billy enlisted the help of a very busy salesperson, who fortunately knew exactly where to find what we needed. It was $106. We never did find the one that Billy saw online. After fortunately being able to bypass the forever long line, we triumphantly checked out - then had to get out of the parking lot. Whoever designed this parking lot had parents too closely related. It was a nightmare. We finally got out after about a half hour. Getting home after that was nothing. I hung the Visa out the window for a bit on the way home to cool it back down.

I got back to work on blinds, and Billy went back to work on the computer. He worked and worked and worked. He eventually did get everything working again. I am insanely grateful. He spent of four hours today fooling with that. He wasn't able to cook the dish he had agreed to take to his family's Christmas tonight because he spent too much time with me. Friends like that are worth their weight in diamonds. Unfortunately I can't afford that (particularly after this week), but I'm going to buy him dinner, anyway.

So Billy went on to do his family stuff, and I kept working. I had finished the blinds in the study and put up valances in there while he did computer stuff. I had some valances that my mother gave me a couple of years ago that a woman she works with made. She didn't like them, so gave them to me. They aren't what I would have chosen, but they were free and all the work was already done. They look pretty good. I haven't had any window treatments in the study since I've lived in the house, so it was high time.

After all this, I was pretty worn out, but the house looks so bad I felt compelled to go on for a bit. I hung the blinds in the living room, washed the valances, and hung them up to dry tonight. Then I decided I had done what I could do for today. I took a long scalding-hot shower, put on my jammies, and ate some supper. It was kind of piece-meal since I haven't gone to the store this week, but that was fine.

Then I turned on telly and wrapped the gifts for tomorrow. While I was doing it, I finally let myself watch Muppet Christmas Carol. I'd been saving it as an incentive to wrap gifts, but I still ended up wrapping them at the last minute. That done, I picked through my ruined house and gratefully lay my body down. I have a long day tomorrow.