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Time Travel, pt 8/10
11 years ago
Fast forward to waking up late. Chris had planned his own breakfast for work, so I had no need to wake early, like the other mornings. I opened my eyes, unusually thick with sleep. A... dark room and a white wall came into focus much too close to my face than I was used to and there was furniture I didn't recognize. I drew in an excited breath. Was she really...? I rolled over and hugged my elbows tight to me, but I felt her there before I opened my eyes. I didn't need to hope for anything... there was Terrana, still there where I'd left her when I went to sleep the night before.
I smiled and yawned, my dry throat demanding a drink and my numb limbs asking the morning medication to go with it.
By the time I took care of things and got dressed, Terrana was stirring. She slept hard. At least, she slept harder than I did. I remember exactly what I wore that day: I wore my Nyan Cat shirt and the light-colored jeans. I remember particularly because I had a hard time getting the matching Nyan cat seat belt buckle through the double belt loops, so was grunting and huffing when she turned around, rubbing her eyes and croaking out, "Hiiiiii."
My seat belt latch clicked. "Morning!"
We had some wonderful tea and breakfast, then headed over to the house to make chocolate-caramel-pecan pretzel treats and a rainbow cake. It was going to be great. I unwrapped the Rolo candies and placed them on the square pretzels, preheated the oven, and heard stirring from upstairs. I had planned on this being a low-key, stay-in-the-house-and-watch-movies-and-make-food day, since Chris had work most of the day and wanted to do things with us when he got home, so when I heard something upstairs, I was a bit concerned, then peeked outside. Oh: his car was parked outside. He must have called out or not had work. Well, maybe he could help us make...
... but when he spoke, I could tell the difference in his voice. He had called out. He had been planning on drinking all night and into the morning. I could see the laziness in his eyes. I hastily finished up the treats and packed them away in bags. I didn't want him with us. I told him to go ahead and get dressed if he wanted to go, knowing full well what he would choose.
I was right. Good. I only felt a little guilty for knowing ahead of time what his choice was going to be. Because I knew that meant, whatever it was worth, that I would rather spend time with Terrana than with whatever was flowing out of that bottle.... wait a minute... no, that's fine, actually. So, with my new resolve, and a bag of very high-calorie treats, we left in the car to drop them off at Ari and Ticky's house. I promised Terrana this would be the last fool's errand or favor I would make. I think it was. I did no one any more favors. I didn't even answer my phone or texts for the rest of the day. I had enough and so did she. The rest of the trip would be for us, dammit.
So it was. I took her to some of the more amazing places that I knew about. I didn't want a certain someone to follow us, even if he changed his mind, but tried not to make a big deal of it. I didn't want to ruin things, and I still felt like I had to cover for him, you know? Who wants to deal with that? I took her to Towson Town Center, which was a very large mall that I mostly know for the strange hybrid sculptures in the middle of it as a help for people to remember where they parked. There was a butterfly squirrel and a lion snail. While we were there, we had a nice lunch. P.F. Chang's is one of my favorites. I got my insanely spicy chicken noodle soup and Terrana got one of the lunch specials and some water. While we waited for food, we giggled like children and watched each other do "science" with the liquid in our straws and even took pictures of it. Why? I don't know. Science is enough of a reason for about anything fun.
About the most important thing that I felt growing inside me that day was the increasing need for me to take my desires more seriously. If I didn't act on what I wanted, it's possible no one would know. We did a lot of talking in the car and while walking about the mall and I think Terrana had a sort of pride for me for realizing it. It felt pretty good.
I made a note to do more of it... this 'taking care of me' thing that people have been telling me to do for over a decade and a half.
I smiled and yawned, my dry throat demanding a drink and my numb limbs asking the morning medication to go with it.
By the time I took care of things and got dressed, Terrana was stirring. She slept hard. At least, she slept harder than I did. I remember exactly what I wore that day: I wore my Nyan Cat shirt and the light-colored jeans. I remember particularly because I had a hard time getting the matching Nyan cat seat belt buckle through the double belt loops, so was grunting and huffing when she turned around, rubbing her eyes and croaking out, "Hiiiiii."
My seat belt latch clicked. "Morning!"
We had some wonderful tea and breakfast, then headed over to the house to make chocolate-caramel-pecan pretzel treats and a rainbow cake. It was going to be great. I unwrapped the Rolo candies and placed them on the square pretzels, preheated the oven, and heard stirring from upstairs. I had planned on this being a low-key, stay-in-the-house-and-watch-movies-and-make-food day, since Chris had work most of the day and wanted to do things with us when he got home, so when I heard something upstairs, I was a bit concerned, then peeked outside. Oh: his car was parked outside. He must have called out or not had work. Well, maybe he could help us make...
... but when he spoke, I could tell the difference in his voice. He had called out. He had been planning on drinking all night and into the morning. I could see the laziness in his eyes. I hastily finished up the treats and packed them away in bags. I didn't want him with us. I told him to go ahead and get dressed if he wanted to go, knowing full well what he would choose.
I was right. Good. I only felt a little guilty for knowing ahead of time what his choice was going to be. Because I knew that meant, whatever it was worth, that I would rather spend time with Terrana than with whatever was flowing out of that bottle.... wait a minute... no, that's fine, actually. So, with my new resolve, and a bag of very high-calorie treats, we left in the car to drop them off at Ari and Ticky's house. I promised Terrana this would be the last fool's errand or favor I would make. I think it was. I did no one any more favors. I didn't even answer my phone or texts for the rest of the day. I had enough and so did she. The rest of the trip would be for us, dammit.
So it was. I took her to some of the more amazing places that I knew about. I didn't want a certain someone to follow us, even if he changed his mind, but tried not to make a big deal of it. I didn't want to ruin things, and I still felt like I had to cover for him, you know? Who wants to deal with that? I took her to Towson Town Center, which was a very large mall that I mostly know for the strange hybrid sculptures in the middle of it as a help for people to remember where they parked. There was a butterfly squirrel and a lion snail. While we were there, we had a nice lunch. P.F. Chang's is one of my favorites. I got my insanely spicy chicken noodle soup and Terrana got one of the lunch specials and some water. While we waited for food, we giggled like children and watched each other do "science" with the liquid in our straws and even took pictures of it. Why? I don't know. Science is enough of a reason for about anything fun.
About the most important thing that I felt growing inside me that day was the increasing need for me to take my desires more seriously. If I didn't act on what I wanted, it's possible no one would know. We did a lot of talking in the car and while walking about the mall and I think Terrana had a sort of pride for me for realizing it. It felt pretty good.
I made a note to do more of it... this 'taking care of me' thing that people have been telling me to do for over a decade and a half.
