My New Favorite Sound

... is the silence after a houseful of people have left.


It's been a lovely weekend.  Yesterday's class was preceded by an hourlong trip to the bookstore by myself.  Yes, I might have spent my time reading an entire People magazine for free because it annoys me that the website has pop-ups despite my blocker, but guilt be damned, I'm glad I did it (or as glad as I can be for reading that crap).  I also looked through some of David Sedaris' books that I haven't yet read.  I liked "When You Are Engulfed In Flames" and loved "Me Talk Pretty One Day," but the new (to me) stuff didn't hold my interest.


After the class we drove back up here and took the kids and ourselves out to dinner.  I have vague recollections of the last time that happened.  The weather was consistently warm then; that's as close as I'll come to narrowing it down.  We had a lovely time, and Mad wasn't any more difficult out than she is at home (which is saying a lot... she's an easygoing kid).  However, she did try to get the server to bring more milk many times.  She got to use that same cup this morning and it was fun to watch her remember where it had come from.  As she's losing her baby words, her facial expressions are also becoming so much clearer.


Last night we stayed up late.  Tom did the grocery shopping after dinner.  My first big hint that something was up was that he'd bought six bags of tortilla chips.  Now I did request that he purchase enough food to last the entire week, and we do live with a teen boy, but that wasn't quite what I'd had in mind.


I went to bed around 11:00 and awoke at 2:00 AM to the overwhelming scent of something lemony.  Turns out he was downstairs shampooing the carpet.  We've lived here 11 months and have cleaned the carpets four or five times.  I don't think it's an unreasonable amount in either direction, but the fact is the carpets get cleaned right before something is going to happen (except for when Maisy went through that phase in November).  I didn't figure out what the aroma was until this morning when I took Mad downstairs and saw all the furniture was sitting in the kitchen.


Tom came down and we put the furniture back.  He started doing some deep cleaning, but declined my help.  Normally I'd honor his response and "dutifully" go upstairs and take a nap.  This time I cleaned the bathroom downstairs and washed some windows and the slider screen.  By the time I finished, most of the rest of the work was done, too.  It was still only mid-morning, but Mad wanted her nap.  Once she went down, so did I.  Tom had some mysterious errands to run and Corey had a friend over to play video games.  Kind of a nice way to pass the time on a Sunday, I have to say.


When he returned home, Tom said I had to get showered and dressed and be ready to leave by 2:00.  In the meantime, he had another errand to run. 


I sent a text to Nance to say I was thinking about her.  We had been in the midst of a meeting at Starbucks the other day when an elderly woman walked by and Nance broke down.  Checking in on one another is normal for us.  She lied said she was at her mom's signing more papers (the home is in escrow for the second time this month... keep your fingers crossed).


In keeping with his family traditions, Tom wasn't home even by 2:10.  A few minutes later my mom walked in.  She could tell I wasn't expecting her (maybe it was the way I said, "Something is up, but don't tell me"... I'm subtle like that) and made up some cockamamie story about just coming up for a visit.  On a Sunday, when she's got church in the morning and in the evening.  On a spring break weekend, when the pass is filled with hundreds of thousands of cars returning from Vegas and the river.  And with her recent knee problems that are exascerbated by driving.


The doorbell rang and it was Nance and a small crowd of people, including Tom.  Apparently they'd all met up where Tom had ordered the cake and had come over together.  I almost cried when I saw them.  If they had been the only people to show up today, I would have been a very happy girl.  But the doorbell kept ringing and people kept arriving.  The last few times I suspected it might be one of our smokers or the kids just playing around with me, but it never was.


There were gifts, but none were as special as what Tom had done.  However, my second favorite has to be the one from my dad and Margaret.  We have talked about the cravings I've had with this pregnancy and about what a hard time we have finding decent cranberry juice.  Neither of the places we shop carry Ocean Spray's straight 100% cranberry juice.  Dad's gift?  Cranberry juice, lemons, tomatoes and salt.  Between that and the cake, I could be set for the next week!  I might not have any teeth left, but I'll still be smiling.


Once everybody left and Mad was in bed, Corey invited his friend back over.  I felt bad he'd had to leave earlier, but I thought we were going somewhere.  Tom and I played gin rummy and had a picnic dinner on the front room floor.  It was perfect.