Morning all. I hope your first week of December is going well. Every December I all ways feel my todo list multiply in the night. Fairly certain that it is the time off for holidays spiraling down towards the end of the year that does it, but there is a small part of me that thinks there are some evil elves that have mastered my handwriting and add things to the list once I go to sleep. For now though, I will try to think of a better elf trap and we can start on the morning prompt. So timers set for fifteen minutes and let’s see what unfolds from today’s sentence.
Huh. I think this might have blended with my feeling of too much going on. I kind of like it though.
Tuesday, December 2nd: We only arrived yesterday.
We only arrived yesterday. I lay back on the bed, the thought spinning through my mind. We only arrived yesterday. As I lay there I realized I should have taken off my boots before I lay down. My feet were hanging off the end of the bed so I wasn’t concerned about getting anything on the coverlet. But now that I was supine, my feet seemed so much further away.
I tilted my head up and looked down. The brown hiking boots were flecked with mud and I was certain, they and my feet were located at least the next state, possibly further. I stretched my arms, knowing they wouldn’t reach. The childish part of my brain still hoped at times like these that I would get magical powers, even if only temporarily.
My legs did not magically rise to my summoning. The laces did not magically untie and the boots did not slide gently off my feet. I did notice that one of my laces was untied. I lifted the other foot and using one foot managed to get it all the way unlaced and with a bit of effort I managed to get one boot off. It thunked onto the floor. I looked at the other boot. Somehow it seemed somehow even more obscene to have only one boot remaining then to just have both of them on my feet.
I used the increased dexterity of the sock coated foot to untie the laces of my remaining boot and after a herculean effort, it too managed to thunk to the floor.
I lay back against the bed, victorious. Would it have taken less time and effort to sit up and untie them? Sure. But I managed it without siting up. That was my victory and I would celebrate it.
‘At least I have a victory.’ I thought. ‘Two if I count the lying down part.’
I arrived around dinner time the day before. I expected I would park, greet everyone and join them at the table. I should have known better. The house was in an uproar and nothing was even remotely ready for the table. A calamity struck. I wasn’t sure what sort of calamity it was. They struck the house and family with regularity so it always seemed strange when there wasn’t a calamity to contend with going on.
That calamity I was not needed for, so I was sent to the kitchen to get the meal ready while the others dealt with it. I retreated to the basement kitchen and overhead I heard footsteps crossing hurriedly overhead, calls and yells and doors opening and slamming shut accompanied everything. I decided I was well out of it and after so long in the car standing and moving about in the kitchen felt good.
The fridge was stocked although nothing looked like anyone even started prep work on anything. I made something simple that would feed everyone and a few minutes after it was on the table, the first calamity seemed to have sorted itself.
‘At least temporarily.’
Over the meal, talk ranged from what needed to be done before bed to what needed to be done in the morning. Occasionally thee was talk about what needed to be done before the end of the week. Planning was not my family’s strong suit so there was little of that. Often I wondered if my ability and reliance on plans came from a hidden gene no one else got or was a self-defense mechanism I created out of sheer hatred for the constant chaos.
Dinner was barely gone from the plates when the phone range and the chaos erupted again.
Ten til Midnight 