Ritual Cleansing, Part II

Countdown to Spring Semester: five days

I slept until almost noon, when I heard a car's tires driving over the ice in the driveway. This woke me out of a dead sleep, and I sprung out of bed to dash to the window to see if it was Daisy. I'd overslept (by a long time) and if she'd left the house right after work, it could have been her.

It wasn't. It was my neighbors coming home from work (they work really odd hours at Walmart, and all three of them work there on different shifts).

By the time I gathered myself and went upstairs, I was fully awake and no longer confused or jarred by the swift punch of reality that greeted me upon my awakening. I checked my messages to see when Daisy had left...and found nothing.

Odd, I thought, but not too odd, considering it's Daisy.

I'd messaged her last night before I went to bed to tell her that I needed to sleep, and that I didn't know when I'd get up. This was shortly after 3AM, as by that time I'd exhausted myself enough to try to sleep again. She'd responded telling me she'd gone out to lunch with friends (because, yes, there are places in Omaha that are open all night), twenty minutes after I'd gone to bed. But I had no further messages from her.

"Okay....well...eight hours later and no ETA, no updates, dunno where you are or when you're getting here, etc..."

My message was met with no response.

"Helllooooo"

No response.

"HEWWOOOOO"

No response. 

An hour later: "Okay, I must make the assumption that you are either 1.) sleeping, 2.) driving, 3.) dead in a ditch somewhere. I'd rather you weren't dead in a ditch somewhere, obviously, but where the hell are you?"

An hour after that, she responds and tells me that she took a one-hour power nap when she got home from work, and didn't wake up. So, really, her one-hour nap turned into six hours of sleep. She said that she was awake and would be leaving the house soon. I told her that she should probably get something to eat (she usually stops at Subway in York) because since she would be getting here late and we wouldn't be able to do any of our shopping until after she does get here, I have nothing in the house for her to eat. I don't even have anything else in the house for me to eat, really -- not even sandwich stuff. I ate the last of most of my foodstuffs yesterday and the day before, as I knew we'd be making a shopping trip once she was here. 

I have since gone out to the gas station down the street and purchased a pack of cigarettes and a fountain soda. I'm not doing any real shopping until she gets here and settles in -- there's no point to it, and grocery shopping with her is one of my little pleasures in life. It's fun. Plus, until she's here, I don't know what we plan to eat or what she wants, as we tend to plan our meals when she's here around what she'd like to have. This is, of course, because she's vegan. We cook and make good, healthy meals when Daisy is in town, and I love planning out those meals with her. 

So there's nothing left to do, really, but wait. As usual. Again, I know at this point that I should always add about eight to twelve hours to Daisy's original planned arrival time, as this is who she is. I keep hoping she'll one day prove me wrong and show up at the time she originally told me she'd be here, thus proving that the woman does indeed have the capacity and ability to keep a schedule, but that hasn't happened yet.

I can't blame her, of course -- it's a long drive, she worked all night, and it's not like she gets a lot of sleep when she is off work. Daisy is one of those people who work nights but also tries to have a social life and spend time with her family...which doesn't really work, but she tries. She ends up sacrificing a lot of sleep and downtime for it. I, on the other hand, found that when I worked night shifts for years on end, all I wanted to do was eat and sleep when I was done with work, and accepted that I wouldn't have this thing called a "social life" or see that big glowing ball in the sky they told me was "the sun."

In the time until she arrives, I am taking care of the stuff around the house that I've needed to do -- I mean, I'm awake and have to stay that way (the four or five "energy boost" syrup shots I squirted into the soda at the gas station fountain is helping with that, believe me), so why not? I have washed all of the sheets and blankets, which I meant to do last night but forgot, and while I wait for the water heater to give me hot water again so that I can shower, I have gone about reconstructing the syllabus for my 102 class, as well as creating the first unit's daily lesson plan. Both are ready for printing and copies. With that, all three of my classes are about as "prepped for" as they can be at this point, and all that remains is to create my rosters and send out welcome messages to my classes...once I have access to and can do those things, of course. I guess I could create handout folders and the like as well, but as most of that stuff is at work locked up in my office, well...

Ahem. Anyway.

Daisy and I have no real plans while she's here, which I mentioned before. The weather's nice, at least. Not too cold, but not in the 60s like it was last weekend. The house is comfortable. We'll do our shopping and probably relax -- and sleep. I know she needs sleep. There aren't any movies playing right now that are at all interesting to me; about the only one playing I'd be remotely interested in is Frozen, and she already went to see it over New Year's with her nephew. January is a terrible month for movies, apparently. I did, however, ask her if she wants to go see the Robocop remake when she's here over Valentine's Day, as that will be the next time she comes down. She hasn't given me an answer on that yet, by the way. She's never seen the original (and hadn't even heard of it, which tells you the kind of media she consumes) but I sent her a link to the trailer for the new one a few nights ago to see if she'd be interested.

When I went to the gas station earlier to get my cigarettes, I had to... sigh... I had to put product in my hair. Product. Mousse, specifically. My hair is getting to the point where it'll have days it looks fabulous, and then it'll have days when I get up looking like a gnarly hobo meth addict. The only thing that'll solve that problem is a shower, and as I wasn't going to shower before making a ten-minute trip to the gas station, mousse it was.

I sigh because I'm not a "hair product" person. In fact, I hate the term product in reference to hair, and I hate anything being in my hair. It's a last-resort scenario. 

You may be asking why I even care what my hair looks like for a ten-minute trip outdoors to the gas station for cigarettes, a gas station that I've gone to while wearing pajama pants and slippers before. It's because I do, despite all appearances to the contrary at times, have a modicum of class and self-worth.

A few weeks ago, I told Daisy I have some class. Her response? "Psh, yeah, and I have a skinny ass."

Said in jest, of course. Daisy would never seriously insult anybody, least of all me. Daisy is the kindest, most positive person I've ever met. And she's marrying an evil, spiteful, insults-are-funny man. Opposites, apparently, do attract.

As for the "ritual cleansing," most of that is done. I vacuumed the upstairs quickly, including my room, and did a once-over of the downstairs that I now have to do again as the cats decided to tear more stuffing out of the box springs on the bed last night (which they do all the time). And I'm sure, if I scavenge enough around the house, I can find something to make to eat so that I won't be staaaaaarving when Daisy arrives. 

So that's been my day, folks. I'll update you on any and all happenings later.