Countdown

The passports arrived (one Friday, two Saturday), all boxes are unpacked and put away, Goodwill now owns three more bags of clothes and one box of books, the two-car garage now accommodates one Jeep, the new cabinet is polished and full of miscellany, and except for the one last small basket of items on the floor of the laundry room and the clothes that everyone has on their back (which they had better remain in for the next three days if they value their lives) everything is clean, folded, and stacked.

I am nearly ready to begin making my final clothing selections from among the seventy-two piles located strategically around the house. I will still have bedlinens to wash and replace for our catsitters, and I am thinking that since I'm on a laundry roll, I'll get them done now and let everybody sleep in my bed for the rest of the week.

Instead I am on the internet creatively avoiding my responsibilities.

You must understand though, with two kids at a sleep over last night and one in school (yeah, I'm indulgent, letting Gracie skip school today to spend one last night with her bestest friend in the whole wide world) the house is organized and clean for the first time since we moved in back in October and should remain so until approximately 2:30 PM when classes get out, so I'm going to enjoy it for a few more minutes.

Saturday night I spent out carousing with three of my girlfriends and last night three more from work came over. Who knew this misanthrope would become such a social butterfly? I had to edit the intro to Alex's baby shower because it occurred to me that, somehow or other, I really do have a few flesh and blood friends. That's all out of my system now though, and I'm ready to hop on the plane and go somewhere nobody knows me and I won't have to talk to anyone for awhile. Being popular is exhausting.

Most of you are not going to fully appreciate what I have to say next, but my rain dance has finally paid off. We had our first downpour a few days ago (that unfortunately evaporated rather quickly) and today we are enjoying a day long, soaking, steady rain. Our grass is no longer crunchy! And maybe, just maybe, the fire danger will be reduced from a red flag to a nice orangey shade flag.

I hope you all had a happy Mother's Day. The girls and I went to the beach for a bit while Jorge struggled to get the storage unit emptied, then I picked up Chinese food and settled in to watch Terry get ousted from the final two on Survivor (at least Aras was a better winner than what's-her-name would have been. Serves her right.) Everyone humored me and was quiet during the show which was about the best present they could have given me.

The strip club owner who lives across the street from us threw a party Sunday afternoon. Jorge thought this odd timing since our normally subdued and very private good neighbor last opened his doors for some quiet cheer Christmas night. No major holiday, no major televised sporting event... Then after watching the guests arrive it occurred to Jorge that it was a Mother's Day party, and our neighbor with the heart of gold had invited all of his mostly single female employees and their children over for a cookout and a swim. That warmed my heart.