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A peek into our baby bunnies' nest and a geranium nearby in the garden

I should be grading exams right now. Or preparing L's homeschool work for the week. Or cleaning my house for my in-laws visit tomorrow. Instead, I am interrupting my slack-jawed staring aimlessly into the distance with blogging. Once I went through the rigor of opening the laptop, logging in, and reading some ridiculously funny reviews on Amazon, I just couldn't quite find the energy to be productive. I will pay dearly for this lazy procrastination later.

Last night and this morning was a clusterfuck of events and phone calls that has turned me into a staring, slack-jawed simpleton. I had about two hours of very interrupted sleep and am just too damn old to function that way, despite consuming enough caffeine to kill a horse.

The night started off well enough. I had a friend over for some girl time. The night somehow flew by. I was completely shocked to find that it was nearly 1:30, when I was sure it was maybe midnight at the latest. She left right around that time, and I was still wide awake and energized from having girl time with a like-minded mama. With Mark back to either being at work or asleep all the time, I really appreciate having that adult time!

Dej had asked me if I would be up when she got home from work at 2:30, and I told her I probably would. Since I was still so wide awake, I decided to just hang out downstairs and wait for her. I killed time on the Internet, and noticed that it was 2:45 and she wasn't there yet. She often hits the Taco Bell drive thru on the way home from work, so I figured she got held up there. I started to get really nervous by 3:00. I started texting her. And waiting. And getting no response. Trying not to panic, I decided to wait 15 minutes or so and call her one more time before calling everyone and sounding the alarm. On my last try, she answered. She felt horrible and apologized, but it was one of her friends' birthdays, so she and Joe took him out to eat. She forgot about me waiting. That sucked a lot. It took me a good hour and a half to get my adrenaline back to normal levels, after thinking my child was lying dead or injured on a country road in the middle of the night.

Then phone then started ringing at 7:15. Allegrea had an orphaned baby squirrel that she had gotten the night before, and she was bringing her to me on her way to work. By then Luciana was up and around, making noise, talking to me, running up and down--UGH! More Allegrea calls, telemarketer calls, checking on squirrel, prohibited any more sleep. I took as much caffeine as possible and started off with L & the baby to take her to Fellow Mortals. She was in pretty good shape. She's a six-week old orphan whose mommy was killed last night. She was scared and dehydrated, but will be fine now. She has excellent care and is with other squirrels, so at least there's a happy ending for that one. Good god, baby squirrels are cute!

While I was at FM chatting with Yvonne (I haven't seen her for ages!), a man walked in. He couldn't have come five minutes later, nope, because they all find me somehow. My stomach dropped when I heard what he was saying. He had become homeless and was sleeping in his car with his 14 year old cat. The shelter wouldn't take her (him?) because of her age. They would only offer to euthanize. There are resources to help the guy, but none to help a 14 year old cat. At this point, I'm exhausted, with a headache, trying to blend in the wall and forget what I was hearing. Not only could I NOT ignore it, but then Yvonne says, "Well Amy would be the one who may be able to help." I gave her the deer in headlights look. I'm barely coherent and can't even get a thought to process. She then thought of someone in Delavan who is an animal lover with money and may be able to help him and gave him the number. I've got the animal lover part down pat, but without the money, that isn't worth much. So I walked out with L, feeling a little sick, wishing I hadn't been there at that time, and knowing I'm going to feel even more like shit if I just leave. As we walked to my car, which was parked right next to his car, little kitty popped up to look out the window. I could never be so rude as to walk by without acknowledging her, and then she reached her little paw up to 'touch' my finger through the window. I felt like crying. So I sat in my car trying to decide what I should do. I ended up writing a note stating that if the contact Yvonne gave him couldn't help out with kitty, that he should call me, and I left my cell number. Don't know if I'll hear from him or not, but I'm ultimately glad that I did the right thing or I would be completely dysfunctional (more than usual) from the guilt. I'm not sure what I will do if he does call. It's not like I have a plethora of homes waiting for 14 year old cats! I'll figure something out though, if I need to.

When I walked out of the rehab building, I had to pee pretty badly. I was in such a hurry to avoid the situation, though, that I just decided I would hold my breath and try to make it the 40 minute drive home. By the time I sat in my car and decided what to do, and wrote the note, I had to go much worse but was too lazy to walk all the way back up to the building and use their bathroom. I only made it about five minutes from there when I decided I would be lucky if I could make the walk from the car to a gas station restroom without having...an incident. Caffeine does bad things like that. So I stopped and made it in without...an incident.

We made it back to town just in time for the birthday party we were due to attend at noon today. We made it there--only two or three minutes late. It was a Chuck E Cheese. The headache was worse, the music was loud, and I somehow made it through the two hour party without any mood-related incidents. It was hard. It required even more quantities of caffeine. And Mellow Yellow (with caffeine). I sat near the bathroom.

We got home, and I realized that my plans for taking a short nap were not going to happen because: a) Hunter was not returning from his grandma's until 5:00, which left L bored and needing to continue the stream of chat she had kept going the entire day (except for the two hours she was at Chuck E Cheese); and b) The previously mentioned caffeine has ensured that, despite being beyond tired with swollen black eyes, I may not sleep for several days. I'm tired, overwhelmed and want to cry for some reason.

M just got home from his plant sale, so I have to go be productive--work on homeschool stuff, make dinner, and try to make myself look like a living human. An old college friend is performing tonight at the Comedy Club in Madison, and we have reservations for the 8:00 show. I haven't seen him since a few years after we finished our undergrad. It's been probably 15 years. I'm not crazy about seeing someone the first time in that long with an extra 18 pounds and looking like death. I'm hoping for dim lighting.