A post in which it is vacation!!*

It had been a while since I shared a bed.  Last night I remembered why.  I was up and down all night.  It didn't help that neither Chip nor I are used to sharing a bed.  He's a bed hog, and I'm a blanket hog.  Eventually I just got up for good.  He wanted to be up by 8am, and I went in the bedroom to find him already awake.  He declined my offer of breakfast, showered up, and hit the road.

I had thought I would take a nap after he left, but there was a ton of stuff to do, and I was too excited. 

First I went over to White Horse flea market to look around.  Sadly, there weren't many people out today.  In Anderson at the Jockey Lot, there is a whole rush of Christmas activity usually, but not at White Horse apparently.  That was fine.  I was in a terrific mood, and walked around smiling at people for no good reason.  I bought a pair of the new 'arctic blue' sunglasses after being assured by the hip guy selling them that I looked 'fresh'.  Whether I did or not, I'm not too proud to take the compliment.

I picked up some produce so I'd have some stuff to cook up and eat on while I was out of work, but the main purpose of the trip today was to get cucumbers.  Eve had declared Christmas at their house was to be Dec 26th.  Apparently they aren't going to get up and drive to Lisa's since Ava isn't going to be there.  While I can understand it, I'd be a bit put out if I was Lisa.  Eve had asked that I make my refrigerator Korean (inspired) pickles, of all things, for Christmas.  Since I probably wouldn't be back at the flea market until next weekend, I needed to go ahead and get the cucumbers.  The problem was that there weren't any little pickling cucumbers.  All I could find was big honkin' salad cukes.  After going to every produce vendor, I finally just gave up and got the big ones.  I didn't think it was worth going to another flea market just for that.

After stowing the produce, I decided to go ahead and get the oil changed in the car.  It needed to be done before I hit the road.  In theory, this should have taken about twenty minutes.  In actuality, of course, it was about three times that.  Although they told me my tires did not need to be rotated, I needed some filter that goes to the AC, and they didn't have it there.  So I waited.  And waited.  And waited.  I had been told it would take them "10-20 minutes" to get the filter there, and when I asked about 20 minutes later, I got the same answer.  That told me that either a) they were totally blowing smoke up my skirt; or b) that they had no idea how long it would actually take.  I left to go home, on the understanding that they would call me when it got there.

I had just the time to get to the house, change out a load of laundry, make the bed, and throw some lunch in the microwave before they called.  I went back over, and it took a surprisingly little amount of time for the filter to be installed, after which I was free.  I had put the recycling in the car before I went back out, so I took that off.  I was at the Family Dollar when I got a text from Jeremiah.  I told him I was close to the house, but when he found out it would be a half hour before I could see him, he begged off.  Apparently I am supposed to lay up at my house, showered and ready for him at all times.  Whatever.

I got back to the house and started getting cleaned up.  I had a text from Billy about picking up Logan's second present from me (Billy had picked it up for me, but I wanted to wrap it in my own paper), and I headed over there to pick it up.

I found Billy in the midst of present-wrapping.  He apparently enjoys this.  As we all know, as much as I LOVE to by Christmas presents, that's how much I HATE wrapping them.  I just have no patience with it.  Billy offered to wrap my presents.  I was thrilled to accept.  We visited for a bit while he finished up some of their stuff he was working on, and then scampered home to get my presents.

When I returned to the house, there was a work truck in the driveway.  I was struck with a sense of foreboding.  Anyone but him, please; I thought as I parked.  Sadly, my 9intuition was correct.  It was Brenden, the clinically depressed deck builder.  Brenden, for those of you who don't recall, lived with Russ and Billy for a while a year or so ago while he was building their deck.  He's a nice enough guy, but his life is a train wreck.  He's also clinically depressed, and has been suicidal.  Brenden likes me.  Oy.

It's not that I dislike Brenden.  I'd just rather not dislike him from a distance, and preferably out of his company.  To make matters worse, Brenden reported to Billy a month or so ago that he had been experiencing a series of sex dreams about - wait for it - yes me.  Ugh.  I do feel bad for Brenden, and I don't have it in me to be unpleasant to him, but he's just.  So. Creepy. 

Determined to make the best of things, I went into a great kerfuffle of activity.  I unloaded gifts, discussed paper with Billy, wrote out gift tags, organized the presents, and kept up a running commentary about the gifts, etc.  I tried to keep things light.  I tried to keep my interaction with Brenden to a pleasantly brusque scuff-and-go rhythm.  Of course Brenden found a way to deflate my carefully constructed social souffle. 

He got around to asking if I had heard about his dreams.  I plead ignorance, partially because I didn't know if Billy had been allowed to tell me about them, and partially because I was fervently hoping that he would be too embarrassed to tell me about them.  No such luck.  He started off by telling me he'd had a series of interesting dreams about me.  I wasn't biting.  Although I made no show of curiosity about his definition of interesting at all, of course he proceeded to enlighten me.  Oy. 

Of course, what he expected was for me to strip down naked and throw myself at him, panting for him to have his way with me.  I guess that's what straight guys always expect.  He had about as much chance of that happening as I do of Blake Harper begging me to carry my love child, but of course I couldn't tell him that.  So I danced the light fantastic all around his tissue of sexual connotation all afternoon.  I'm fairly good at the verbal parry, but it was exhausting.

The official reason for the visit was to deliver Russ and Billy's Christmas present, which was very nice.  It was a cedar and teak garden bench he had made himself.  He is good with his hands.  But he wanted to see Russ's reaction, and so was waiting for Russ to get home.  Of course, this being the midst of the Christmas rush, Russ had closed the shop on time, and was out being Russ.  Piddle-farting around in the retail rush and generally wasting time.  We waited and waited.  The gifts did get wrapped, thankfully.  Russ came in (finally) and dutifully admired the bench (which really was very nice). 

Brenden being (finally) dispatched, I exhaled, and we went out to Irashiai for supper.  It was a very pleasant evening, and I feel really caught up now that the gifts are wrapped!!