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Hell Week: Part 1
We begin our adventures on Wednesday. By Wednesday, AUgust 27th, I had been getting about 3 hours of sleep a night (when I did sleep) and with no discernable reason. So of course, by Wednesday I had the brain capacity of a turkey and all the tolerance and patience of a highway patrolman whose wife had just been molested in the grocery store. To whit: I was simply a walking time-bomb.
I decided that the long weekend was a good time to accomplish several long-awaited tasks, including catching up on sleep. Baph had Friday and Monday off so it looked like we'd be able to accomplish whatever we wanted! My Lady decided that she and I had gone too long without seeing each other and we made general plans to get together.
The Yellow King calls me; he wants to help us with our projects so we make tentative plans to get together.
Then Kisses calls me upset; the situation with her and Warhol (which had already peeved me) had gotten to a kind of "make or break". I talk with her for hours, result being; tentative plans to get together.
I have a late night client. His place is a finer mess than usual. By the time I'm done, I'm grouchy and actually ask for more pay than last time. Go home, try to sleep, it happens eventually, but doesn't go well.
Thursday comes. I'm supposed to clean my brother's house but Baph told him how I haven't been sleeping and how exhausted I am and could he put it off? Bro calls me and says he'd rather put it off anyway because his place is so disorganized that he doesn't think I could get much done. I nap two times but still can't sleep more than 3 hours at a time.
My brother had come over at some point and started lecturing me about what I need to get done around the house to spiff it up. He said he will come over and paint the front.
I've been cleaning other people's houses for two weeks, do you think I really feel motivated to spruce up my own place beyond the basics?
But Baph and I talk. We decide we're going to get some stuff done this weekend.
See, a major bookshelf in my abode lost two shelves. That is pretty bad around here because I've got so many books that I have them stacked inside closets. Books are taking over this house, have been for a while yet. So I make it clear to Baph that I need a bookcase. We make tentative plans to go to a discount store and see if they've got anything. I won't use particle board. I won't use plastic. I won't use anything but solid wood. Period. Baph says that if the particular store doesn't have what I want (and have bought before) then he can make my shelves for me. I am skeptical, as always when a man says "I will do this project for you!" because enthusiasm counts for very little when hard physical labor is discussed. But okay. We decide we shall do the following: fix the front screen door, put baseboards all around the dining room (for those of you who haven't been here, my dining room got turned into a storage room when Baph moved in), put a trestle and rubber sealy-thingie on the back door to stop all that rain from coming in, and build shelves. I finally manage to get some real sleep. Eventually. Five hours, yay!
Friday comes. Baph sleeps until 2pm. We pick up boys from school and go home. Baph says he is taking son number one with him to go shopping tomorrow. We watch a movie, I try to go to sleep again. Numerous times getting up, going to the bathroom, blahblahblah. Sleep eventually comes around 1am.
Saturday Baph sleeps until about 4pm. He and son number one eventually get in car and drive off. Baph calls me about 30 mins later to tell me he forgot to bring my old wedding ring with him, do I know my ring size? No, of course I don't. We patch plans so that I will meet up with him at my parents house, where I will give him the ring, then take two other sons to go eat. We get there, Baph says "let's all go eat then you can come with me to find The Ring"
We go to Northlake mall. We visit every single jeweler. We look and look and look until I am ready to put a quarter in a machine and get a plastic ring just sos we can go home. But this is important, right? The boys trek with us from place to place. We stop at a clothing store and buy some clothes for younger two. But son number two is an odd size so he has to try out everything first. He's going through privacy issues now so I had to look away when he got undressed in the fitting room. Son number two becomes agitated. Begins mentioning the toy store. We go eat in the food court. We look at more jewelers. Son number two starts actively bitching. Son number one is getting antsy as well. Son number three is obviously getting tired.
Eventually, we decide to go somewhere else and look. Meanwhile, because of their (overall) good behavior during all this trekking from store to store, we have promised to take the boys to the toy store after The Ring is found. We pile back into the car and drive to a well-known jewelers in Alpharetta. They're closed now. So we pile back into the car and drive to the mall nearby. The kids are tired, so we tell them to wait in the car. We stop for coffee. I go to bath and body works to buy my favorite lotion. We go to every jeweler (only about four this time but all in opposite ends of the mall) until we are satisfied that we have picked out the best ring for our money. It was more expensive than we had planned but that was actually a good thing in the end. Being as Baph is planning on buying himself the latest phone/gamepad doohicky thing that is being advertised all over the geek-world, he previously decided he would rather spend more money on a quality stone and setting than risk looking like a selfish ass. Even though I personally couldn't care less. (hey I was all for getting me a crystal stone in a chrome setting and calling it a "diamond-ish ring" cuz that probably would have been less than $100)
You have to understand; I like jewelry, I like being pretty etc, but I really am not all that down with the whole engagement ring idea anyway. Socio-politico-feminist reasons mostly but practical as well: it's a traditional thing that's symbolic yet somehow people believe that it HAS to be expensive and showy. Whatever to that!
We find The Ring. It is tiny, delicate and lovely. A simple sapphire in between two tiny diamonds set on a white gold band. The thing is that we discovered I have very small and delicate fingers. A lot of the really nice rings we tried just looked too bulky on me despite looking quite dainty in the case. Go figure. I'm small, I'll grant you, but I didn't know my fingers gave off such an appearance of fragility until I put those rings on. The few rings I own are hand made and do not have center stones.
Anyway, we choose The Ring. Of course the one on display doesn't fit so I have to get sized. We'll have to return to pick it up. Baph stays to pay for it, sign the papers, get fingerprinted, whatever it is they do when you buy something expensive and decorative. I'm starting to get really nervous... the idea pops into my head "you've agreed to get MARRIED! you did! You will be someone's WIFE" AUUGH!
I go outside, to find the younger two sniffling. Wha? They are upset that I was gone "so long". I arch my eyebrow because frankly, they ignore me for much longer stretches of time than I had been gone. They also often elect to sit in the car rather than be dragged around doing whatever it is I have to do. Most times I won't let them but once in a while....
Oy... they play the whole guilt thing for a while until I put an end to it with "so you want to go to the toy store now?"
Suddenly everyone's fine. We realize the toy store is closed by now so we opt for Wal-Mart. Pile back in the car. Drive to another mall, walk up and down aisles until everyone finds what they want. Pile back into car. Drive back to first mall visited and split up so I can drive my car home. Get home. It's 10:30pm now. About 7 hours of shopping. Try to put boys to bed, try to clean up a little, end up getting into a major fight. By this time, I'm so exhausted I just cease to care about anything. I lay in the bed and feel nothing. All I want is to be left alone. What got us so riled? Everything and nothing. I'm just feeling so much pressure and stress that I can't hold it in. We fight until I can't fight anymore. Eventually, I sleep.
And then, on Sunday, things got really fun....
I decided that the long weekend was a good time to accomplish several long-awaited tasks, including catching up on sleep. Baph had Friday and Monday off so it looked like we'd be able to accomplish whatever we wanted! My Lady decided that she and I had gone too long without seeing each other and we made general plans to get together.
The Yellow King calls me; he wants to help us with our projects so we make tentative plans to get together.
Then Kisses calls me upset; the situation with her and Warhol (which had already peeved me) had gotten to a kind of "make or break". I talk with her for hours, result being; tentative plans to get together.
I have a late night client. His place is a finer mess than usual. By the time I'm done, I'm grouchy and actually ask for more pay than last time. Go home, try to sleep, it happens eventually, but doesn't go well.
Thursday comes. I'm supposed to clean my brother's house but Baph told him how I haven't been sleeping and how exhausted I am and could he put it off? Bro calls me and says he'd rather put it off anyway because his place is so disorganized that he doesn't think I could get much done. I nap two times but still can't sleep more than 3 hours at a time.
My brother had come over at some point and started lecturing me about what I need to get done around the house to spiff it up. He said he will come over and paint the front.
I've been cleaning other people's houses for two weeks, do you think I really feel motivated to spruce up my own place beyond the basics?
But Baph and I talk. We decide we're going to get some stuff done this weekend.
See, a major bookshelf in my abode lost two shelves. That is pretty bad around here because I've got so many books that I have them stacked inside closets. Books are taking over this house, have been for a while yet. So I make it clear to Baph that I need a bookcase. We make tentative plans to go to a discount store and see if they've got anything. I won't use particle board. I won't use plastic. I won't use anything but solid wood. Period. Baph says that if the particular store doesn't have what I want (and have bought before) then he can make my shelves for me. I am skeptical, as always when a man says "I will do this project for you!" because enthusiasm counts for very little when hard physical labor is discussed. But okay. We decide we shall do the following: fix the front screen door, put baseboards all around the dining room (for those of you who haven't been here, my dining room got turned into a storage room when Baph moved in), put a trestle and rubber sealy-thingie on the back door to stop all that rain from coming in, and build shelves. I finally manage to get some real sleep. Eventually. Five hours, yay!
Friday comes. Baph sleeps until 2pm. We pick up boys from school and go home. Baph says he is taking son number one with him to go shopping tomorrow. We watch a movie, I try to go to sleep again. Numerous times getting up, going to the bathroom, blahblahblah. Sleep eventually comes around 1am.
Saturday Baph sleeps until about 4pm. He and son number one eventually get in car and drive off. Baph calls me about 30 mins later to tell me he forgot to bring my old wedding ring with him, do I know my ring size? No, of course I don't. We patch plans so that I will meet up with him at my parents house, where I will give him the ring, then take two other sons to go eat. We get there, Baph says "let's all go eat then you can come with me to find The Ring"
We go to Northlake mall. We visit every single jeweler. We look and look and look until I am ready to put a quarter in a machine and get a plastic ring just sos we can go home. But this is important, right? The boys trek with us from place to place. We stop at a clothing store and buy some clothes for younger two. But son number two is an odd size so he has to try out everything first. He's going through privacy issues now so I had to look away when he got undressed in the fitting room. Son number two becomes agitated. Begins mentioning the toy store. We go eat in the food court. We look at more jewelers. Son number two starts actively bitching. Son number one is getting antsy as well. Son number three is obviously getting tired.
Eventually, we decide to go somewhere else and look. Meanwhile, because of their (overall) good behavior during all this trekking from store to store, we have promised to take the boys to the toy store after The Ring is found. We pile back into the car and drive to a well-known jewelers in Alpharetta. They're closed now. So we pile back into the car and drive to the mall nearby. The kids are tired, so we tell them to wait in the car. We stop for coffee. I go to bath and body works to buy my favorite lotion. We go to every jeweler (only about four this time but all in opposite ends of the mall) until we are satisfied that we have picked out the best ring for our money. It was more expensive than we had planned but that was actually a good thing in the end. Being as Baph is planning on buying himself the latest phone/gamepad doohicky thing that is being advertised all over the geek-world, he previously decided he would rather spend more money on a quality stone and setting than risk looking like a selfish ass. Even though I personally couldn't care less. (hey I was all for getting me a crystal stone in a chrome setting and calling it a "diamond-ish ring" cuz that probably would have been less than $100)
You have to understand; I like jewelry, I like being pretty etc, but I really am not all that down with the whole engagement ring idea anyway. Socio-politico-feminist reasons mostly but practical as well: it's a traditional thing that's symbolic yet somehow people believe that it HAS to be expensive and showy. Whatever to that!
We find The Ring. It is tiny, delicate and lovely. A simple sapphire in between two tiny diamonds set on a white gold band. The thing is that we discovered I have very small and delicate fingers. A lot of the really nice rings we tried just looked too bulky on me despite looking quite dainty in the case. Go figure. I'm small, I'll grant you, but I didn't know my fingers gave off such an appearance of fragility until I put those rings on. The few rings I own are hand made and do not have center stones.
Anyway, we choose The Ring. Of course the one on display doesn't fit so I have to get sized. We'll have to return to pick it up. Baph stays to pay for it, sign the papers, get fingerprinted, whatever it is they do when you buy something expensive and decorative. I'm starting to get really nervous... the idea pops into my head "you've agreed to get MARRIED! you did! You will be someone's WIFE" AUUGH!
I go outside, to find the younger two sniffling. Wha? They are upset that I was gone "so long". I arch my eyebrow because frankly, they ignore me for much longer stretches of time than I had been gone. They also often elect to sit in the car rather than be dragged around doing whatever it is I have to do. Most times I won't let them but once in a while....
Oy... they play the whole guilt thing for a while until I put an end to it with "so you want to go to the toy store now?"
Suddenly everyone's fine. We realize the toy store is closed by now so we opt for Wal-Mart. Pile back in the car. Drive to another mall, walk up and down aisles until everyone finds what they want. Pile back into car. Drive back to first mall visited and split up so I can drive my car home. Get home. It's 10:30pm now. About 7 hours of shopping. Try to put boys to bed, try to clean up a little, end up getting into a major fight. By this time, I'm so exhausted I just cease to care about anything. I lay in the bed and feel nothing. All I want is to be left alone. What got us so riled? Everything and nothing. I'm just feeling so much pressure and stress that I can't hold it in. We fight until I can't fight anymore. Eventually, I sleep.
And then, on Sunday, things got really fun....