Last Week in Longview

Yeah, I get nap attacks just thinking about packing. Don't even remind me of unpacking at the other end in that 10x12 foot room in a likely 99 degree outside temp with no central air to keep it a nice 78 degrees inside. Ugh.

But there are the pluses to offset the ughs. Seeing my husband. Hearing from my niece all about her drama class trip to Scotland to perform and watch performances. Mugging some hugs, purrs and face licks from Merlin. Meeting my FIL new dog Bruiser, who joined the family while I was gone. More face licks? I heard Merlin thought his nose was a scratching post. But I'm also told Bruiser, a beagle, is a lover and so is Merlin so I'm sure they'll work it out.

And there is getting back to creative writing in my fiction and poetry files. The urge has been building in the last month and it was missing since the end of NaNo last November.

Then there is reactivating my queues for books and DVD at my library and sending for those I was in the middle of when I left in July. And reactivating my research projects. But of course that also means saying goodbye to the books I've had out of the Longview and Vancouver libraries while here which I can't get at my library. Besides packing and attempting to stuff as much family visiting and fun stuff into this week (a trip to the beach on Wednesday? bargain shopping? walk on the lake?) I'm going to be frantically trying to cram as many paragraphs as I can from those library books before Sunday morning. I find myself sorely tempted almost beyond resisting to use my scanner which I brought for the family photo scan project to, well, you know...shhhh. (Get thee behind me. Sigh.)

But the packing! Oy! I'm going back with more than I left with. As always. So I'll probably be the recipient of a chorus of sighs and weeks worth of teasing. So gotta work on thickening my skin I guess since the thought of leaving any of the extra stuff behind causes more anxiety than the thought of the other's judgments on my traveling eccentricities. The best solution is to purge our room of unused/unusable stuff when I get home.

But that 90+ degrees!!!!

Ugh.

Nap time.