A Day of That Variety...

Enjoy the weirdness (weirditude? weirdiocity?) of TBGE over at (My New) Life Out Here. Her first post this morning put me in a really surreal frame of mind. Now, I've seen some pretty weird Google searches that get folks to my blog, and we've kind of had an unofficial contest going to see whose readers were weirder.

She wins.

(Present company excluded.)

Anyway, yesterday started out a bummer and kind of descended from there. All the stress (augmented by my caffeine intake) finally caught up with me, and by about 5PM, I was useless. I did walk to the store with Rae for dinner fixings. Made some grilled cheese sandwiches while she heated up the soup. Then I retreated to the quiet of the bedroom for awhile to watch some classic holiday television programming while Rae supervised Tyler's cake baking and Kayleigh worked on a story she's writing.

I gathered a bit of strength later, enough to help put the kids to bed. But I was out pretty quickly afterward.

Today I started with a cup of Scottish Breakfast Tea, and am steering clear of the bean for a few days. I took Tyler (and his cake) into the Teen Health Center at the high school, and his counselor exclaimed, "Oh, look how handsome you both are!" There I was, un-showered, in my worn jeans and baggy gray hoodie, half-awake and car keys in hand. I'm not used to being called "handsome" all that often, and usually only by my partner. It was nice, of course, but kind of a surreal addition to an already surreal morning.

I guess it's a day of the "WTF?" variety.

I do have a massage today, which should help my outlook dramatically.

And on Sunday, I Rested... Not.

Went up to dinner at Doug & Ann's Saturday night. Played some Guitar Hero Aerosmith Edition, played some real guitar, ate some fantastic food, visited with said Doug and said Ann, plus Ann's twin sister, Amy, and her daughter, Veronica. In the middle of dinner, I got a call from the girl. She's doing fine, hanging with the family and reveling in her bumpkinization for the week. And yes, I think bumpkinization should be a real word if it isn't already.

[mushy alert]
The phone call illustrated an interesting situation for me. Separation anxiety. Now before you wave your hand and label me a clingy boyfriend, hear me out. I was with a woman for over twenty years. She was imprinted on my entire emotional makeup. And she was taken away. Imagine my surprise when the woman I'm dating leaves for a week and I start feeling some of those familiar "where'd she go?" feelings (which I've never had in three years of dating, post-Sam, thankyouverymuch). So, in my mind, that's very encouraging. She ended with "I wanted to hear your voice and tell you I love you." That's also encouraging.
[/mushy alert]

Sunday was back to coffee with Ron (after several weeks of interruption with family obligations and dating), and what do you know? We picked up right where we left off, as if no time had passed. It was awesome. We chatted about new movies, his new pro digital camera and blossoming photography career, Duo production, etc.

I got home at Noon, and got the kids ready for swimming in Ballard. Tyler opted out, so Kayleigh and I went up to Katherine's to do a bit of swimming. I brought along Raechelle's digital camera so that if she couldn't get pics in WV, she could at least see what was going on back home. I swam some laps and got a bit of color (well, as much color as this Scottish lobster actually gets). Kayleigh is really advancing in her swimming. We had a quick "lunch" at Katherine's apartment and I got a very tired girl home.

We picked up lots of produce at the QFC and made tuna salad (like an actual salad with tuna on it) for dinner. Kayleigh had been wanting to see the first Highlander movie, so we put that in. She enjoyed the cheesy '80s action fantasy - like The Beastmaster, it's a campy, crappy-to-mediocre film which has become a geek cultural icon. How many conversations did Marc Hochman and I create completely out of Highlander dialog back in college, or soaked in rum and floating around the Virgin Islands on a sailboat? And it's not stuff you can repeat in a blog, because you have to do it in your best vintage Connery or your Christopher Lambert what-the-hell-kinda-accent-is-that voice (which sounds eerily close to Peter Lorre). Anyway, Kayleigh thought the fact that the actor playing the Kurgan (Clancy Brown) is also the voice of Mr. Krabs on Spongebob Squarepants (and a host of other animation voices, including Lex Luthor on the Superman and Justice League series) was pretty freakin' funny.

Tyler had Miles over for dinner and games, and after Miles' mom picked him up, Tyler was off to bed. I put Kayleigh to bed and crashed.

And here we are, another week.