December 10, 1999

I am sick. Haven't felt well all day. I may upload this later but for now I
am just sending it to all of you wonderful people.

I've been baking all week and on Wednesday my sister called me franticly. A
close relative her husbands had died and that she needed me to help her with
something. Last January was his aunt and uncle's 50th wedding anniversary. My
sister wrote a poem for them, passed out disposable cameras and told them
that they were going to make them a scrapbook of the occasion. Well, the
uncle died Wednesday morning and eleven months have passed since the party
and my sister had not even begun on the scrapbook. Of course another relative
suggested that they bring the scrapbook to the funeral, so the family could
be reminded of happier times.
Well, I told her I would help her finish up the scrapbook and to come by
around 8:30. I was tired and feeling run down and my to do list for the rest
of the week was long. I waited. And waited. I called looking for her. And
then after 11 she shows up with all her scrapbooking supplies. I thought we
would dedicate two or three hours at the most to it but then each time I
looked at the clock another hour had passed and I was feeling achy. It was
after three when I asked her when she normally got up. She replied
"five-thirty." At four I was about to pass out so I told her I really needed
to go to bed. She stayed until seven forty-five the next day.
So all day yesterday I stumbled around the house trying to finish my to do
list without much luck. I made it to the grocery store and was able to get
the bathrooms clean. I cleaned out Elizabeth's toys and closet and
reorganized the linen closets. By ten I was exhausted. I stumbled into bed.
Laying their butt naked with the cool sheets around me and the fan blowing. I
would sleep at last.

Or so I thought.

I was woken up several times. Once to pee. Once by the guys security lights
that lives behind us. Then at four I woke up because my throat was irritated.
It was burning and scratchy feeling so I got some water. I was hot so Jeff
got up and turned on the air conditioning. Then I kept hearing a cat meowing
in the distance.

"Jeff, I think I hear Callie." I whispered to him in the dark. This was one
of the cats that ran away and was being held hostage by someone in the
neighborhood.

"You have fever honey. You better check it, you know you hallucinate when you
get high fevers."

So I got up and went to the kitchen and took some Tylenol, and then I drank
down some Robitussin right from the bottle. " I need to get some sleep." I
told Jeff.

"Then shut up and go to sleep then." and then he asked "how much of that
stuff did you drink?"

Before I could answer I was already starting to dose off. I was dreaming. And
in this dream I saw Callie. She was calling out for us. She had been held
hostage by these people who had lots of boys who were pretending she was
Pokemon. I kept calling her name. Then the alarm went off.

Half asleep I heard the meowing again. I thought I had drank too much
Robitussin but then I heard scratching at the back door and sure enough it
was Callie. I called out to Jeff "Callie is home." She had been gone eight
days. He replied "Go back to bed Kim." I let her into the house and she went
racing into the kitchen where Jeff was having his morning coffee.

last entry     next entry     notify list      email me