home again

I get up in time to be ready early. After I shower and use both of the insubtantial towels to dry off, I instinctively go on and get dressed before drying my hair. Sure enough, as I pull my pants on, there is a knock. I'm muttering "it's not a quarter to eight, it's thiry minutes until a quarter to eight!" Dad only offers a styro of bad coffee he got from the lobby, but I'm irritated. He goes back to watch TV in his room while I get ready. I'm ready early and we check out and go to the aunt's apartment. We drive both cars to the IHOP because my dad is ready to hit the road.

I find a small baby or doll's black patent Mary Jane in the parking lot. It's not near a car...someone has driven off without it.

We have breakfast. Something I don't usually do and shouldn't do. I feel full and sleepy when we hug the aunt and uncle and drive off. Dad drives. It's foggy again. He drives to West. We stop for bathroom and coffee (eighty cents to fill two commuter mugs), but no food is necessary.

At home, Dad and I part and he goes home. He seems glad to be back. I asked him on the trip if he liked Austin and he says he loves it.

I unpack and go to the gym. Afternoons are quieter than mornings. Maybe I'll start doing afternoons where possible. I do my forty-five minutes on the bike and my lower body exercises.

I go to the grocery store. FFP says we are getting low on 'basic food.' I buy canned tuna, bagged spinach and salad mix, some salad dressing, bananas, clementines, green onions, eggs, a block of aged cheddar. I get a frozen egglplant parmesan free with a coupon FFP has given me. I'm finally feeling hungry after the breakfast and I have a clementine, then another and some cheese and hot sauce and chips.

Friends are coming over with take out. So I shower up but don't dry my hair. They are late and arrive separately (he from work, she from picking up food). We have Chez Zee chicken caesar salads and share two serviings of the corn shrimp soup. We eat some of the aged cheddar. We drink a bottle of the inexpensive party wine from the cellar. We talk about old times, new times, jobs. They rush off just after eating...to cover plants for a freeze warning and for him to pack for a business trip.

I read and sip wine, idly watching Law and Order or something. FFP goes out to drip faucets. I don't think it will actually freeze tonight. He tries to use e-mail and it's down. He wants me to get up and go check it. I want to wait it out and see if it's 'better in the morning.' But finally I check, it's down, I enter a WEB support request. It will turn out to be a 'regularly scheduled' maintenance that they failed to tell us about and failed to post on their site.

Finally, it's time for sleep. I feel very tired for some reason. Perhaps I had too much bad chain food and too much nostalgia.