Not Quite the Post You’ve All Been Waiting For

I’ve been home since Tuesday evening and I’ve been going fairly non-stop since then. Two days ago I was threatened with bodily harm, by my bloggy friend, if I didn’t post an update about my trip in 24 hours.  I have already missed that deadline and I’m watching my back, looking over my shoulder and shaking with fear when I start my car.

Since I’m not able to put up the vacation highlights post (it’ll probably be a few installments) I figured I should at least post an explanation of the delay.

My plane landed at San Francisco International Airport at 6:30 PM, on Tuesday and then sat on a cross over between the two parallel runways while we waited for another plane to push back from our gate.  By the time my plane pulled into the gate, we off-loaded, I got to baggage claim, found my suit case and I got to the curb outside where Michelle was waiting for me it was after 7:00 so we decided to stop for dinner on the way home.  We ate at Red Lobster in San Bruno where we were served by a nice-looking, lean, tall, soft-spoken Asian waiter and where I had my first alcoholic beverage in three weeks.  After all that time, the fact that it didn’t even taste all that good was inconsequential.

We left there around 9:00 for our trip across the bay and made our way to Oakland where I darkened my own door for the first time in 21 days. As much as I missed being in my own home, sleeping in my own bed and cuddling with my own cat, it felt really strange to be here after so much time away. I stayed up with Mischa while I watched a little television and drank a glass of wine.  I went to bed around 11:00 after an 18 hour day, 9 of which were spent traveling.

Wednesday, I got up around 10:00 in the morning and worked my way toward getting myself out of the house.  I had places to be and things to do, and so I had to fight fatigue and the draw of the many hours of television I have built up in my DVR to get out of the house.  After a shower and dressing I headed out to the AT&T store to buy my new iPhone 3G S.  It was a bit of a rocky experience as their wait list system needs some work, but within an hour I was walking out the door with my new phone, with which I saw an instantaneous improvement over my first gen iPhone.

From there, I violated my own personal philosophy and went to the IKEA to buy a dresser.  My first trip to IKEA was shortly after it opened (the first one in the bay area) and the store was packed.  IKEA being set up as a maze, as it is, I felt like I might be lost forever, I couldn’t get out fast enough and when I did get out, I swore I’d never go back.  For quite some time, I’ve been wanting to buy a dresser. I’ve looked at Target and Wal-Mart but didn’t find quite what I needed. Some time ago, on a whim, I looked on the IKEA website and found JUST THE THING.  But fucking IKEA doesn’t offer mail order, you can’t call and have it ready and waiting for you and run in to buy it and run out again, you have to make your way through the maze and you have to pick up your items yourself and bring it to the register.  It was 3:30 on a Wednesday afternoon and I walked in the store and saw hardly anyone there.  I was able to walk around the store, look at stuff and make my selection thoughtfully without feeling any pressure or frustration.

It was necessary for me to purchase my dresser this day because my neighbors and I were having a “large item” trash pickup on Thursday and I needed the dresser in order to get rid of a separate piece of furniture.  Suddenly it was urgent, so I bit the bullet and went for it.

I extended the invitation to Michelle to take advantage of the situation to get rid of some things, but in the 21 days that I was away and she was Mischa sitting she never brought her items over.  Since I was out and about anyway I went to her apartment to get the items she wished to dispose of. I returned home around 6:00, off-loaded my purchases and Michelle’s refuse, heated my leftovers from the night before for dinner and set about building my new dresser.  I finished the body of the dresser Wednesday evening and swapped it with the furniture I wanted to get rid of.  After completing my labors for the evening I took a second shower and settled in to watch a little TV while I cuddled the cat.  (He missed me quite a bit.) Thursday, I got up, fixed my breakfast and a pot of coffee, sat down to watch some television and build the eight drawers for my new dresser.  I spent the rest of the day watching TV.

Friday, I had a therapy session at 10:00 in the morning, went to buy the Cadillac cat food Mischa is getting these days and then went to Michelle’s house to do three weeks worth of laundry.

Today (Saturday) I put away my laundry and reorganized my clothes based on my new set of drawers.  After that I showered, dressed and headed out to Target and Albertson’s (I refuse to refer to that store by its real name *cough* Lucky *cough*).  And so here I sit now.  When I arrived home Tuesday, I had only 5% of the space remaining on my DVR, now I have 33% remaining.  I had 356 unread posts on my Google blog reader, I now have only 282.  I arrived here 18 hours behind on Twitter; I’m now up to date.

Yes, I’ve been on vacation for three weeks already, but nonetheless I need rest and I had much to get done before I could think about anything new.  So you see, I Eat Snowman Poop, I have really been very busy and it seems clear that I may not have time to get around to writing my very lengthy post or posts about my travels until I get to work on Monday where, as we all know, I have nothing to do.  Please don’t hurt me!  I’m too delicate to bleed!  I promise you’ll get your updates soon!