Wednesday 11/30, I worked with Lucia when I got home and may have walked the dogs too. I roped Eric into watching Crazy Stupid Love which he hated but I thought was fun. After that I think we migrated to bed.

Tuesday 11/29, Eric texted me a few times during the day to tell me how enamored he is of me and of our prior evening. I left work early to go have my annual, which was pretty painless. Afterward I went to Kristel’s and we talked while she was getting ready for our dinner with JP. We gave each other updates and told stories before it was time to go pick up Josh from the waterfront. We missed our turn and found some interesting detours before arriving at his hotel. We went to Brave Horse for dinner and while it was pretty busy there was a good energy and tons of guys. Kristel said they’re all from Amazon. We had a fun dinner and ate way too much food (including cheese curds!). Back to JP’s hotel to drop him off, then to Kristel’s place and chatted for a minute before I headed home. Eric had been cleaning all evening so the house smelled and looked good. I was so tired I climbed into bed and looked at my smut and updated this.

Monday 11/28, When I got home from work I took Lucia for a walk then Clancy and Nyx together. Everyone enjoyed it. I was on my computer for a while when I got back, talked to Mom briefly, talked to Dad briefly then ate some carrots and grapes before making a half grilled cheese and an apple for dinner. Into the living room to relax and talked to Alan about Eric’s race and the party invitations. Eric texted me that he was feeling amorous, so I showered and got all ready for our escapade. It was fun and we went to bed after 11.

Sunday 11/27, Eric was up and woke me up shortly after, which was about 6:45. We were on our way down to Seattle Center by 7. It was slow going once we got off at Mercer and inched up toward the drop off point. It was going to take a while so Eric ended up just hopping out of the car by the EMP. I then tried to navigate my way home. Every entrance I tried I couldn’t get on the freeway; I ended up going north to Eastlake but all those entrances were closed too and a cop was no help. Eventually I got on 5, went up to the U District and turned around up there. Finally made it home and did some chores. I also did some relaxing and watched the rest of Crazy, Stupid Love. A little after 11 Stefanie called to ask if I was going down so I offered to pick them up and was on the road by 11:30, made it to theirs and we were off to downtown via 1^st Ave. We found parking relatively easily and walked up toward the finish line. Chrystol and Schuyler had already been there for an hour or so. We waited and waited and finally at the 5 hour mark we knew something must be wrong or he was so sick his time was seriously affected. I got a call from a number I didn’t recognize and it was him saying he’d had to quit at mile 25 because he was going to fall over and that he was so cold he couldn’t feel his appendages. The medics were bringing him to the recovery center so we went up there as a group. He wasn’t in the medical area yet then we saw him walking up. Everyone hugged him then we made him sit down and Chrystol and Stef got him some soup and hot chocolate. He was still so cold they had wrapped him up in blankets but he was still freezing. His lips were blue. We talked for a little bit then Stef and I walked to the car to get his extra clothes. He changed, we sat for another minute then took off. The walk must have felt long for him but he didn’t say anything. We dropped Peter and Stef off at home then headed home ourselves. He sat down and I got him water, a blanket, the remote to watch the game and told him to rest. He wanted to talk so we sat for a little bit. The calls and texts started coming in so he took some of those and eventually I went and got a pizza. He started getting anxious about how he was feeling and I gave him a reality check. He finally ate and had some EmergenC and finally he started to feel better. It was about an hour before he warmed up. I got him whatever he needed for the rest of the afternoon and evening and he just stayed on the couch. I am so proud of him and can’t believe he made it as far as he did while not feeling good. I think we went to bed somewhat earlyish.

Saturday 11/26, Aubrie was up earlier than I was and when we went downstairs Kass told us that Grandma and Papa had left early without saying bye to anyone. Weird. I ate some cereal and got ready because we wanted to go to Lou’s. Kass was dallying but we waited for her anyway and soon took off. Lou’s has totally changed from last year and is now only in one building, wahh. They didn’t have hardly anything I was looking for which was a first. A little disappointing. We called Mom and Dad to tell them we were leaving and would meet them at the Wokery for lunch. It was good, as always. Back at home I packed and soon we were decorating the xmas tree. We put on Crazy Stupid Love and got about 45 minutes into it before we had to turn it off because it was time for me to leave. Mindy came over right before we left so I could meet Jack, her dog (who is a girl). We took off, made it to the airport, I got through security no problem and to my gate. The plane ride was uneventful and I read a good part of my book (Middlesex). I landed 30 minutes early. Eric picked me up and I think he was a little nervous about his race. He wasn’t feeling great and had contracted what I had the week before. At home we chatted and I think before too long we were in bed because it was late.

Friday 11/25, We were up so early to go to Mom’s Jazzercise class. We ended up being a couple minutes late. It was a 7 am class. Yikes. It was fine and went by relatively quickly. Alishia didn’t come until half way through. Afterward we all went home and I showered and got ready quickly and headed down to Courtney’s for brunch. Meghan and Erin were there with their respective others. Just sat and talked to Manny for a while and eventually Abby Lynne who is very cute but was not all that interested in me. Breakfast was served and I was starving. We talked and ate and eventually I managed to get Pat by himself outside to have a talk about toning it down and he was totally fine and said he was planning on it; yay! I left awhile later and sat up by Aubrie’s room until she woke up from her nap. We talked for a little bit in the hall then took off to go run errands. We went to Michael’s first so she could get some xmas stuff, then over to Target where I got some movies and tights then home. We started getting ready because people were going to arrive at 6. All our costumes were pretty good and I kept making fun of Christian because he looked like a gay pirate. Everyone arrived, we ate, got the game underway and got to chat with more ease this year since there weren’t as many people. Everyone liked it better. There were lots of booty and plundering jokes. Everyone was funny and at the end of the day Alishia did it, which I didn’t even consider. Everyone stuck around and chatted for a little bit and eventually people started peeling off. We stayed up and talked for a while then went to bed. We were too tired to watch our movie.

Thursday 11/24, I was up around 9 I think and went in the house. We had French toast for breakfast and when Christian and Aubrie came down I mentioned to Christian that he was over at the house early. He laughed. We got ready and dressed and just kind of hung out all day. Dad had left the video camera on the night before then we realized everything we were talking about might have been recorded and we were all like “OH SHIT”. Aubs and I went upstairs to investigate but the memory card ran out before it got to any of the good stuff we were talking about. Phew. Food was put out and I helped with the salad, despite my protests. I read for a while and when I was upstairs we almost got caught with the pilgrim girl that Kass was still mending. I think Mom saw it when she came in while I was napping but didn’t say anything. I finally got up and knew I needed to go for a walk or something so I said I was going to go and Dad said he’d go with me. We had a nice brisk walk around the neighborhood and walked up a street I’d never gone up and talked about kids, college reunions and Eric’s race. Dinner was running late and I called Eric to see where he was, then Mom and she was over at the house with the dogs sitting with them for a little bit and letting them out. Finally it was time for dinner and I ate a lot but I don’t think I overate, it was just late. Like 10:30. Dad was in a weird mood and Kass told Mom about the pilgrim and she seemed upset but apparently it was because she thought Dad was mad at her. We stayed up to go to the outlet to see Christian and Kass stayed up but then went to bed at the last minute instead of going with us. We went down and it was freezing out and parking was insane. We made our own parking spot and hoped for no ticket. We went to Vans and saw Christian and the place was swamped. Aubrie helped me pick out some little pink with sprinkles Vans for Abby Lynne. We waited in line for a bit and waited to get Christian to ring us up and he went and got us a box. He looked relieved that we were there and someone to talk to for a second. He was working from 11:30 to 8:00 am. Yuck. We said bye and headed home to go to bed. I slept with Aubrie that evening and read for a little bit then crashed, knowing we had to be up in 4 hours.

Wednesday 11/23, Aubrie’s 21^st birthday. Yikes. Time flies. I slept in because I was exhausted and was only awakened when Kassie called to ask me to open the front door. I got dressed and we decided to get breakfast at the Daily News Café so the three of us drove down the coast and enjoyed the sunny weather. We had a nice breakfast and talked about the wedding and family dynamics. We headed down the 101 to Cream of the Crop for food supplies and it’s always fun shopping with Kass because I just throw whatever in the cart. We backtracked to Spin and Sky got Aubrie a couple new cds for her birthday (new Blitzen Trapper and Beirut). We went home and waited for Aubrie to arrive. I read in the living room for a while and looked at stuff online then Aubrie showed up and had a major hangover, which mom and I laughed about. Us kids ended up in the living room listening to music, watching Kassie’s wedding video again and reading my blog entries from Aubrie’s birthdays in 2006 and 2007. They were funny. Alishia arrived around 3 and we went down to have the Santa pictures taken and I told Aubrie about hot tub Chris on the way to Santer’s house. The pictures went well. Sky and Alishia took off to get a puzzle and the three of us girls went to Barneys where I only got one pair of shorts; I just didn’t love any of the jeans. I talked myself out of a lot of stuff, assuming we’d be back. We weren’t. We also talked Kassie out of sting ray boots by some designer who’s her favorite. We took off for home and Grandma and Papa were there. We were all hungry for dinner but had to wait about 45 minutes before we could go down to Benihana for dinner. When we got down there we had to wait a little bit but finally we were seated and I sent Eric a picture. Dinner was fun, but our party was split up due to size. Our chef was really funny and right up my alley (blonde, tattoos, chef) and made a Hello Kitty out of the fried rice for Aubrie then a cock and balls per Kassie’s request out of the zucchini and onions going toward Hello Kitty’s face. He said he gets in trouble a lot with his fried rice artwork. We sang happy birthday then headed home for birthday pizza and presents. We had fun and A got a lot of presents. People started peeling off and eventually it was just us kids in the family room. Lish left, then Sky and pretty soon it was just me, Kass, Christian and Aubrie. We were talking about all sorts of things: wedding guests, old people sex, etc., then Kass left and we continued talking about drugs and things and Christian had a very surprising perspective. We eventually went to bed and I went out to the motorhome since Christian was staying over. I read my book for a little bit then to sleep.

Tuesday 11/22, I was awake by 8 and stayed in bed until almost 10 reading old blogs about RH Eric and that whole demise. It was a crazy few months, looking back. I finally got up, Eric made me breakfast, I showered, packed, ate some lunch, updated this then we took off for the airport. I was a little anxious, but not too bad. I said bye to Eric and went straight through security in about 5 minutes. Mom called and told me to think about what I wanted to do for dinner and that we’d be seeing each other soon. I went to my gate and waited then bought an Architectural Digest for the plane ride. The trip went by pretty quick and I read my book and listened to music. When I landed I went straight out to the curb and mom and dad showed up 5 minutes later. We headed back home but traffic was a nightmare and it took us almost an hour and a half. We were hungry when we got there but then found out Kass and Sky would be there too and decided to start dinner while waiting for them. Dad got the prime rib on the grill and Mom worked on the other dinner items while I watched WoF. K&S showed up and we started looking at wedding photos until Dad noticed the prime rib was on fire. The next few minutes were a little tense and Kass didn’t even want to turn around. Alishia called to say she was bringing over the guy she’s seeing, Mike. I talked to Eric briefly and he asked if his name was something, but I couldn’t hear and thought he said “Short Al” so then that became the joke. He was short though. We were almost ready for dinner and as Dad started cutting the meat it slid off the cutting board onto the floor. It was hilarious. We finally sat down to eat and Alishia walks through the door. Bad timing. We were all starving and more interested in our dinner than talking to the new guy. After dinner we sat on the couch and looked at more pictures and watched tv while Dad talked with the boys at the table. People started peeling off to bed, but K&S and I stayed up a little longer talking. Finally I needed to get some contact solution so I went to the store and when I got back they had gone to bed. I went up into Aubrie’s room, read for a little bit, texted Aubrie happy birthday (she was spending the night at school with her friends), then went to sleep.

Monday 11/21, Work went fine and I was glad to be done and not have to come in the next day. Eric was working late so when I got home I made the dogs’ dinner and answered emails and watched tv. I ate rice for dinner and relaxed. When Eric got home he told me he wasn’t feeling great, which I felt bad about because he had less than a week until his marathon. Worst time to get sick. I got into bed and watched tv for a long time while looking at stuff online then went to bed by midnight.

Sunday 11/20, I was a little more productive, also feeling a bit better. I got up and started some laundry, got dressed, etc. Eric worked early but was home by 2:30 or so. I wanted to stain the screen and gate but I wasn’t feeling that great. Eric and I stayed on opposite sides of the house. I watched a ton of episodes of that show “I Almost Got Away With It”. Eric made me some waffles for dinner. I called Aubs and talked to her and she’s sick too so I told her what to take. Alix called and told me that I should book my hotel and flight to Boston for her May graduation. Great. There’s $600 I could spend on something else. Dad confirmed we can stay with David or Jerry. I vacuumed a little and continued with laundry. I went to bed a little late and Eric slept in the back bedroom again, to avoid my germs.

Saturday 11/19, I stayed in bed pretty much all day, watching movies, drifting in and out of sleep and the like. Eric had to run 21 miles so he left not long after I woke up and didn’t get back until 2. He went to work at 4. I got up around 5, dressed, put minimal effort into looking decent and went to the store. I got a bunch of random stuff and at home ate potato chips and yogurt for dinner. I was on the couch for the rest of the night until Eric got home. We stayed away from each other since he didn’t want to get sick. I watched some of SNL since my bf was hosting (Jason Segel) but fell asleep about a half hour in.

Friday 11/18, At work did research for P’s trip to Paris and wine areas and Bob was there to switch my computer to the new one. I had a dry cough all day and wasn’t feeling too hot, but we told Sky and Chrystol they could still come over if they wanted. They did, so I hopped in the shower and was in there forever and finally got out and bundled up with multiple layers. Eric was making chicken noodle soup for dinner and I picked up some stuff after work, including cold meds and cookies. They arrived and we ate not long after they arrived. We watched Bridesmaids and all laughed quite a bit even though we’d all seen it except Eric. My throat started hurting pretty badly so I gargled some salt water and after they left I climbed into bed. Took some nighttime meds and crashed out.

Thursday 11/17, Still feeling like shit, except now my nose was just running non-stop. Throat was better but still felt like garbage. When I got home I relaxed and got into bed early again. Peggy sent home homemade meatballs and pasta for dinner so Eric went on his run and showered and all that then whipped up dinner. I couldn’t taste anything, unfortunately. Eric confirmed they tasted good. I watched all my shows and Eric stayed on the other end of the house. To bed early.

Wednesday 11/16, I felt so sick when I woke up and my lymph nodes were severely swollen and were sticking out. Eric had to be at work early so he was out the door shortly after I got up. Work was a bit of a struggle. At home Eric was making dinner and took everything out of my hands as I walked through the door. He had the bedroom all set up for me: heating blanket on high, pajamas laid out, computer and remote on the bed. I took a long hot shower then climbed into bed. He brought dinner in a while later: roast chicken and potatoes and veggies. I ate it all up, he went on his run and when he got home I read him some of Dooce’s blog about running the NY marathon. He got me some dessert then let all the other dogs in and took Lucia to be with him in the den. She loves him so much, she rolls on him and cries until he pets her. I updated this and did some other things online while half-watching tv.