I went to visit Stacey over the weekend. It takes about 3.25 hours to get to her house so I took off Friday after Kmusic and lunch. I bought myself an audio book and the drive just flew by. In fact, by the time I got there, I was almost reluctant to go in because I was enjoying my book so much. (Side note: the book is 0ryx and Cr@ke by Margaret @twood and it is absolutely fantastic! She's a gifted, gifted writer.)

When I got there, Stacey did such a big dance and hugged me so tightly, you'd think it was months since we'd seen each other, not two weeks. Bayley hugged me tightly, too. I'm sure it was nice for them to see a really familiar face. I thought Bayley was going to start crying--her eyes got kind of misty.

It was a lovely visit--we went out to dinner Friday night with my sister and BIL and then talked until almost midnight. Saturday we went to all the very cool shops and businesses that we've been interested in visiting but always had other more pressing things to do instead. At one store, I thought I was going to pee my pants, I was in such heaven. The place had the kewlest furniture (*very* spendy) in the greatest colors--all the colors I love--and I bought a few things: a beaded pillow in warm burnt orange and burgundy Indian-inspired print and a pair of beaded tassles that I'm going to use in my window treatment in the living room. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them but I couldn't leave them behind. I may have to go get 2 more next time I'm out there. It was so fun to just tool around town in her flame-painted PT with no time frame and no one else to please but ourselves. We haven't done that in forever because they were so busy all summer and before that, we were almost estranged while we tried to get a handle on how our relationship was going to change. I just loved it.

Then we went back to her place and decided where to hang up all her pictures and decorations and tchotckes. That was great fun--I love doing that kind of thing. The whole day was just lovely. I had planned to leave around 5 or so but I didn't get up getting out of there until after 7:30 so I was driving in the dark all the way home through the mountains. But I had my trusty audiobook and the traffic was minimal so the drive was pleasant enough (except that there were no places to stop and use the restroom because everything was closed and I had to go for 2 hours with a bladder filled way beyond capacity--ouch!). I'm itching to do some more driving so I can finish my book. I don't do well listening to audiobook when I'm sitting at home--I get distracted too easily.

So as I was driving home, I was thinking "I can do this. This worked out fine." The drive was easy, Ed and Joey were fine without me for 48 hours and I didn't mind being stuck in the car for 7 hours. I won't like it so much during the winter when the pass is snowy--I won't be driving over by myself then--but in the spring, summer and fall, I can do it. And she can do it, too. We'll just trade audiobooks back and forth. It will be fine. I could tell that my visit was even more important for her than it was for me. I mean, I miss her and all, but most of the rest of my life is pretty much the way it was before she left. I still see all the same people and do all the same things. She is doing well but I know she's lonely because she hasn't made any new friends yet. She's going to try to bring Bayley over for Joey's birthday party in two weeks so that will be nice. It depends on how things are going with getting the pottery studio up and going. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

I found out this morning that a friend of mine is pregnant after 9 years of trying. She finally decided to go for more aggressive treatment and on the first cycle, she got pregnant. She has one adopted son who is 5. The sad thing is that she just moved to Denver so we who have championed her for years won't be able to share in the excitement of her pregnancy and birth. I'm very happy for her.

I'm starting to feel the creative urge again. I want to make stuff. All kind of stuff. Scrapbooks, window treatments, pillows, food, anything. Toward that end, I made a very tasty pumpkin pie last night. Mmmmm...very good. The only problem is that this year as my creativity bug hits, I have less time and less availability because of Kinder music and watching the nephew. Whereas last year, I could count on having every school day to myself, just about, now I teach 2 mornings a week and have Aidan 2 times a week. And on the days I don't have the baby, I want to play with Amy so I'm going to have to be better at managing my time, clearly. Taking mid-morning naps aren't going to help much either. I've resisted long enough--time to get myself back on the school year bedtime schedule and go to bed at 11, not 12:30 or 1am.

Ed booked our tickets to the East Coast for Thanksgiving. We'll fly into Baltimore and visit our friends in VA for a few days and then drive down to SC to visit his family for the holiday. We'll drive back to Baltimore and fly home on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. I'm not sure why it's so much less expensive to fly into Baltimore than Dulles but it's much cheaper so it's worth the hour drive to our friend's house. (It's a 40 min. drive to their house from Dulles so it's really only an extra 20 mins we have to drive.)

I'm looking forward to the first part of the trip but I find myself insanely bored and antsy when we're at his parent's house. His dad natters on and on and on about everything and anything and makes me crazy and his mom says hardly anything. She's Japanese and very quiet--not prone to conversation. I'm not really friends with my SIL so we don't talk much. Her daughter is 2 years older than Joey and on our last visit there 2 years ago, she was mean to Joey so I'm not looking forward to that. The only part of Ed's family that I really really enjoy is his older brother Bob and his wife but they live in FL and won't be there at Thanksgiving. I like his other brother, too, but he doesn't spend a lot of time at home and we run out of things to talk about after awhile. I'll just have to make sure to bring a few good books and maybe an audiobook or two so I can put on Joey's headphones and crawl into my own little world. At least we're not staying the whole week there, fortunately. Ed was thinking that we were going to fly directly there but even with renting a car, it was much less expensive to fly into Baltimore and that had the added bonus of shortening the amount of time we'd spend with his family.

I feel like a terrible wife but the simple fact is that we don't have much in common except our mutual love of Ed and that's just not enough to build a relationship on. Add to that the fact that we only see them once every two years and it makes it difficult to develop a friendship. ::sigh:: But it's just for 3.5 days so it won't kill me. (At least I hope not!)

Well, I have some other errands and computer tasks to accomplish so I'd better end this long ramble. Later...

--L