Some Thoughts on Another Exciting Morning...

...In the Life of Laura

This morning started out relatively well. If you take morning at its literal sense, I started it in a tub of cold water (which had been quite hot at 11 pm, but strangely enough, not so hot at 1 am) with a book. It's a library book that is due at the end of the month, when we won't be in town, and I don't know if I should wound my former reader pride by renewing it at the library. (I won the flippin' "Who Read the Most Books This Year" contest in sixth grade! It was a blow out. Come on, Laura! You can't even read one stinkin' book in a month?) But, the book is long, and I'm finally at the middle and the action is picking up. It's one of those books that spends far too many pages dealing with lots of navel gazing characters, and you don't really know if you like any of them, or care enough to read about them for over 400 pages. But, now, since I'm over 200 pages in, I have to finish. I really hate not finishing books after I've invested at least a chapter, let alone 200 pages. Now, Moby Dick is another case all together. Try as I might, I can't get into that bad boy. I've picked it up three times, and managed to make it about 100 pages last time. Maybe some day. I think the only reason I really want to read it is because it's mentioned in the awesome movie Heathers and it's where my home away from home, Starbucks, got its name.

Anyway, this morning, Hutton came in at 8:30 to wake me the first time, asking for "breastfast" (that's how he pronounces it, which is funny, because I used to call it that when the boys were breastfeeding) then about every ten minutes after until I finally got up. Before my final waking, I had a dream that I moved into an apartment that had an amazing view of the downtown Seattle skyline, yet also a great view of the Statue of Liberty, which for some reason, was in a little black cove of water in Lake Washington. I was sharing this apartment with two roommates I don't know in real life, but was thinking, wow, this will really make it faster getting to Hutton's ABA appointments at the UW. The roommates morphed into two of my college roommates at one point. The apartment (or was it a condo?) had cathedral ceilings, and one of my roommates had hung piles of books from the ceiling. I asked her how she did it in the dream, but she never told me. Did she rent scaffolding to get up there? I remember looking up and seeing a book with an artist rendering of some wild animal on the cover, and really wanting to read it, and wondering how Eva got it all the way up on those beams, and how they stayed without falling, as some were not even resting on beams. In the last part of the dream, I was going back to my car to get something. I had realized I hadn't locked the door, and, jeez, I'd even left the window open, and when I got there, sure enough, a man was leaning into the front seat, and his friend, or accomplice waiting by the car. In my dream, I became a crazy woman protecting her things, and I ran up and grabbed the man by the throat, even though I was thinking, "This is stupid. This guy or his friend could have a gun." But, as dreams often do, it worked, and I was able to get the guy out of my car, without his stealing my things. Strangely enough, I don't think I'll ever attempt that in real life if two big men are ever really stealing things from my car. I do have impressive "guns" but I don't think I could really grab a man by the throat. My dream self is quite the bad ass!

I finally got up and went downstairs. The pleasant surprise of the morning: Fergus had not peed on the rug at the bottom of the stairs. Well, he couldn't pee there unless he'd jumped the baby gate, which is now keeping him in the laundry room at night. He is not quite as skilled at jumping as he was as a younger dog -- just a few years ago, he'd have cleared a baby gate with no problems. He also hadn't soiled his doggy diaper or dog bed. Yippee! I was feeling better about leaving the dogs here with a petsitter for our trip. If Fergus can go overnight without having an accident, things are looking up! Of course, my love and pride in Fergus, due to his old dog bladder pulling through, were short-lived. Fergus came back into the house a few minutes later with some sort of animal poop on his muzzle, and as I scrubbed off his face with a baby wipe, I realized it was all over his feet as well. He'd been doing some snacking in the cat litter pile outside. After giving him a bath and cursing him out (don't worry - he's deaf now and could only guess that I was pissed at him by the way I sprayed him down with the bathtub sprayer in such an angry manner) I felt a little less angry, and still glad that he hadn't peed in the house last night. Plus, I felt guilty for having let the thought pass through my mind that I wouldn't have to do this much longer.

Then, finally, breakfast. And now, as I type this, still in my pajamas, I realize I have to shower and go to the grocery store, and Hutton's ABA home therapist arrives in an hour and a half. Hmm, I can probably wait on the grocery store. I only need hot dogs (still!) and snacks for our trip. I have a huge zit forming between my eyebrows I have to tackle with the arsenal of products I keep on hand for such occasions, and that will probably take all the time before the therapist arrives. I love going home for the holidays with zits. It makes me feel like I'm in college again!