The Time Hath Come

Finals week: day five

My lovely fiancee Daisy is on her way to Kansas as I type this, coming to town for my graduation tomorrow. Her parents, regretfully, cannot attend, and neither can mine. It'll just be the two of us, which works well since there's the graduation party afterwards to attend tomorrow night.

Here's my schedule for the next week, which will go something like this (roughly):

Tomorrow: Graduation. Graduation party. Taking care of the last stuff I need to do at school. Cleaning out the rest of my office. Possibly returning my office keys to the main office (I don't know what the protocols are for this sort of thing).

Saturday: Leave for Omaha around noon-ish. Arrive in Omaha that evening. Possibly go out to dinner that night if we aren't too exhausted.

Sunday: Daisy's sister (the one I have not yet met) visits the family. Daisy works that night on the overnight shift, the only night she has to work for the next week. I will have to find a way to kill some time that night after she goes to work and her sister goes home, which is why I'm bringing my laptop with me (aside from the fact that if I went almost a full week without internet, I'd go fucking insane). Apparently sometime in here I'll be tie-dyeing stuff with Mama, too.

Monday: Daisy sleeps for a bit, then we go out to do stuff and go bowling with her friends, most/all of whom I have not yet met.

Tuesday: Time spent all around Omaha, doing shopping stuff and the like, and probably going to see Star Trek Into Darkness if we have not already done so by this time.

Wednesday: Possible other shopping/exploring-type-stuff in the morning and early afternoon hours before returning to Kansas.

Thursday: Daisy returns home and goes back to work that night.

Last night I went to sleep around...3? ish? I can't really remember. I spent most of my day yesterday cleaning the rest of the house and trying to tidy up what I could. While I'm done now, and have slept and showered, I'm still not completely done because I still need to go to Walmart before Daisy gets here tonight. For one, I would imagine she'll want something (vegan) to eat when she arrives, and for two, I need to pick up some essentials -- though not too many essentials, as I will be gone for the better part of a week. The cats will need extra litter for the second litter pan I'll put out while I'm gone, and I need cigarettes and coffee because I am very close to being out of both. This isn't a big deal; I'm trying to wait a bit to go to Walmart so that I don't get bored waiting for Daisy to arrive tonight (I doubt she'll be here before 10PM or so) and proverbially kill some time; as you folks know if you've paid attention to this blog, Daisy operates on what I call Daisy Standard Time, or DST. This means, basically, "I'll be there when I get there," and also means that I can never get a timeframe out of her, for any event or visit, until zero hour. For anything.

Also, if you know me well, you also know that this is the only aspect of Daisy's personality that absolutely drives me insane, as I am an extremely punctual, time-metered-out-and-set sort of person. I'm the kind of person who is an hour early for everything if I can be, and the kind of person who sets a timeframe on everything and sticks to it. If I leave my house without my watch on, I go similarly insane, as I'm the guy who must be able to know what time it is at any given time. Daisy isn't like this at all; in fact, she's diametrically opposed to this sort of lifestyle (and hates that I'm so ingrained in it). Therefore, when she tells me she'll be here by a certain time, I tend to tack two to three extra hours onto that figure -- it highly irritates me every time, but I get over it quickly, because I love her. Daisy is also the person who doesn't keep a clock in her room; I have three in mine, not counting my watch. Yes, three clocks in one room, all synchronized and set to the second. I've jokingly threatened to buy her a clock to put on the wall of her room, and she very seriously told me no, because it would be a waste of money and she wouldn't use it/would actively put it away.

This is really the only real, true clash our personalities have with one another. Everything else we roll with. And I really do my best not to let it affect me outwardly, even if at times it can drive me nuts.

I really don't want to make the trip to Walmart; I hate going there unless it's the middle of the night, but I can't do that this time around -- tonight in the middle of the night, I must be asleep to be able to wake up at 5AM and get ready to go to campus in the morning. I'm basically going to be doing little but running around for the better part of the next week, as you can see above, so I need to take care of what I can while I can do it.

While Skyping with Daisy this afternoon, we checked the weather for both here and for Omaha during the time I'll be there; there's the potential for severe storms both here and there on Sunday, and the storms are supposed to continue there on Monday. Otherwise it's supposed to be pretty pleasant; I packed my bag for Omaha about two weeks ago, and stuffed into it some comfortable clothing as well as some dressier clothing (if the situation calls for it), while leaving a lot of extra space for anything I find while shopping up there. I can't wait to hit the thrift stores, the discount stores, TJ Maxx, Target, Burlington, etc. It will, hopefully, be a blast. Even if I don't find anything, it's about the adventure -- and it will get me out of this house and this state for a few days. I can't tell you how much I look forward to that.

Because the weather may (read: probably will) turn shitty while I'm gone, tonight when I return home from Walmart, I'm putting the car in the garage, where she shall sit, well-protected, until I get back from Omaha. We're taking Daisy's car tomorrow to graduation and to the party, as it'll be easier and we won't have to worry about it breaking down (like I worry about mine on occasion). Plus, her car actually locks, and as I'll be putting hundreds of dollars worth of electronics and other stuff into it from my office -- such as my computer, stereo, and laser printer -- that's sort of important when it's sitting in the parking lot all day during the graduation ceremony.

Tomorrow during graduation, I will of course be wearing my overpriced gown, but underneath it I will be wearing a Hawaiian shirt, shorts, and flip-flops. This is as dressy as I get, folks, and I'm not taking a change of clothes with me to school when there's no point to do so. I also want to be able to be comfortable at the graduation party afterwards, so yes, that factors in as well. Strip off the gown and it's party time.

Wow, that totally sounded different in my head.

On that note, I'm going to Walmart now.


*intermission*



 Update: upon my return, I found that Daisy had texted me that she'd be here in four and a half hours. That puts her arrival at 12:15 in the morning. Again, Daisy Standard Time. This is, of course, adding three hours to her original schedule that she told me this afternoon, of arriving no later than 9 or 10. Daisy. Standard. Time. I really do wish I could put into words just how much this irritates me without offending her or hurting her feelings, but I really don't think I can.

At Walmart I purchased the necessities -- cat litter, coffee, cigarettes, and food for her/us tonight (though if she gets here after midnight, who knows whether or not she'll want to eat). I also got some chips for the road trip on Saturday, as she likes to eat while she drives. Again, hoping she's doing that tonight so that we can actually get some sleep when she gets here. And, of course, I did put the car in the garage. The house is prepped for her arrival; now all she has to do is actually arrive. I'm already tired; the last thing I want to be doing at midnight is cooking.

So, regardless, in the morning it will be time to go to campus and graduate -- and this is the last blog post here that you will see before I am a full-fledged MFA. I will, of course, update you on the events of tomorrow and the weekend/trip to Omaha whenever I can, though that may be a week or so from now. Until then, my friends? Fare thee well.