Heaven was Wednesday night. My mom asked if Kirstin could sleep over, so Forest and I were faced with an unexpected night of adult-only time. Over pita sandwiches at lunchtime, I twisted Forest's arm, and cajoled him into a night out. I reserved us a room at the Sheraton, which is the only hotel in town with 24-hour pool and hot tub hours. We ran home right after work, packed our things, saw Dogma (an excellent movie which I highly recommend) and hit the hotel. We were the only people using the pool area, and it was lovely. The water was just the right temperature, and both the pool and hot tub had obviously been freshly cleaned. We spent hours down there, paddling around, playing, and alternating between the steamy hot bubbling water and the cool, smooth pool. All of the tension of the past week and all the dread for the upcoming weekend slipped away, and we just lived in the moments as they came, completely happy. We ordered a late night pizza for dinner, and tumbled into our monstrous king size bed.
In the morning we got up so that we could play in the pool again. Neither one of us wanted to leave the pool room when the time rolled around. It made us late for my mom's Thanksgiving gathering, but we weren't the latest arrivals, and didn't feel the least bit guilty. We had needed every minute of relaxation we could get.
At my mom's we had a huge dinner, and settled down to play Disney Trivia with Laura. We had a really good time, and since we were still utterly relaxed from our evening in another world, we stayed later than we probably should have before heading to Forest's grandma's house. There we had more food, and Kirstin managed to watch 20 minutes of Top Gun on TV before I caught her and changed it over to something a bit less adult. After much conversation, it was decided that the entire family would pile into cars and head for the movies. Kirstin, Darci, and Miranda went to see Toy Story 2 and Forest, his dad, Paul and I saw End of Days, the new Schwarzenegger movie. Everyone had fun, and I understand Toy Story was good, but not as good as the original.
As for End Of Days I must admit that it was a lot of fun. It was basically Arnold vs. the Devil, saving the world. The special effects are cool, and the movie's imagery was really visually striking. Particularly the crucifixions. You have to see it, I can't describe it. Forest and I are both reeling a little bit, however, having seen two apocalypse movies in the span of two days. I think it's time for a little romantic comedy or something.
Friday night Forest took Kirstin Christmas shopping. The two of them had a very good time, and managed to catch a slow few hours at the mall. They picked out presents for me, Kirstin's friends, and others that I don't even know about. The two of them also had dinner together, and they have both reported that they had a lot of fun.
Saturday morning we picked out our tree. An old friend of mine is a retired forester, and he runs a Christmas tree farm just a few minutes from our house. We wandered around his beautifully wooded property for nearly an hour before settling on just the right tree. It promised to be challenging, because of the distinct bend in the trunk, but it was so lovely that we couldn't resist it. I'm glad to have bought it from Bill Botti, because nothing makes him happier than to cut one down and start a few more saplings. It's his life. He can never seem to get up the nerve to cut the ones he doesn't sell, though, so you will see several 20 and 30-foot pines here and there on his acres of trees.
We brought the tree home, and put it in its stand, conquering the curve in the trunk by duct-taping a gallon of paint and a five-pound box of nails to the other side to act as counterweights. Then Darci came over, and a few other friends, and we played D&D until the wee hours.
Sunday evening we decorated the tree, which proved to be another adventure. Forest, Kirstin and I got in our pajamas, drank hot cocoa, and tackled the task as a team. Our tree is about 7.5 feet tall in its stand, so in order to get lights on it and decorate the top part we actually had to use a ladder. It took us a couple of hours, and I must admit, it looks absolutely gorgeous. Then, just as I had put the angel on the top and climbed down to survey our efforts, the tree started to fall! It creaked, and slowly tipped toward us. Forest and I both dove in and rescued it, but we realized that our counterweight system was not enough to defy gravity and keep the tree upright. So much of its weight was resting against one particular side of the tree stand that the trunk on that side was splitting and giving way.
That's when I got a little carried away. I asked Forest to hold the tree steady, and unscrewed all the supports from it. Then I raided the spare parts bin from my many home improvement activities, and located two galvanized steel plates, a metal electrical junction box, and and old door hinge. Then I got out an unused 3-mil drop cloth, some duct tape, and went to work. When I was done, our tree stand was augmented with:
A roll of drop cloth, folded tightly, with an old hinge taped to one side of it
One galvanized steel plate on each side of the trunk, preventing the trunk from splitting under pressure
A bookshelf, wedged under one side of the stand
One electrical junction box, crammed in on one side of the tree stand to provide leverage
5 pounds of nails and 1 gallon of paint, duct-taped on as counterweights.
I'm happy to report that while it took about as much engineering as the Mackinac Bridge, our Christmas tree is now standing proudly upright in the corner of the ninja room (assuming Leeloo hasn't knocked it down yet.) The best part of the whole weekend was that Kirstin, Forest and I got to spend lots of holiday time together, and discovered that it suited us all very nicely. Everything was new, and different, but the three of us stuck together, and I don't think anyone felt the least bit awkward about anything.
Those were the heavenly parts of the weekend.
On the hellish end, I probably have an equal amount to report, but since I'm in a lighthearted mood, I'll keep it brief.
You remember when I thought I was being eaten alive by bugs at night? Well I was wrong. It got a lot worse, and I finally went to the doctor, and I have some rare virus like the measels. It doesn't kill people, but it is making me break out in thumb-sized welts that itch, then swell, then turn raw (whether you scratch them or not) bruise, and bleed. It is truly miserable; my skin itches and burns all the time, and the bruised parts hurt whenever anything touches them. A hot shower makes them feel better for a few minutes, but then they burn for an hour later. A cold one is extremely painful, but then when I get out I have a few minutes of relief. It's accompanied by a nice little fever, and I can't sleep at night, so it's making me pretty grumpy because I'm tired and itchy all the time.
I also worked in the mall for 20 hours this weekend, during which I dealt with incompetent management, crowds of thousands of people, record sales, and extremely sore feet, itching like mad all the while. It was utter hell, and made me want to quit my mall job over and over again. I still may, actually. This dumb virus takes 6-8 weeks to run its course, and the sweaty hours of manual labor at the mall only serve to aggravate it.
