You know you're exhausted when...

...you can fall asleep sitting straight up in your desk chair while playing Everquest.

...you can fall asleep on the sofa watching Comedy Central when your allergies are so bad your lungs feel like they are full of wet cotton.

...you can fall asleep in the desk chair at work even though the back of the chair only just covers the lumbar region of your back.

...you can sleep soundly in a double bed with two greyhounds pinning you to the mattress (and a third voicing objection to the new digs by sleeping alone in the guest room).

...you grab everything you could possibly need to shower and get dressed back at the old house EXCEPT for your hairdryer.

...you can't figure out the lock on the sliding glass door to let the dogs out.


I am still living between two houses and I'm so tired I barely know my name, but I think it's coming along well. I was making progress on setting up things (with Scott's help to get my blinds up and slats cut for my bed) yesterday until I had to leave to go to Katy's for a dinner party. Now, before that, I had to feed the dogs and since I don't have a fridge yet I had to run to the store to get something for just that one meal.

My new house is just off of a fairly busy road in Greenville that has EVERYTHING...except a grocery store. I rode for at least fifteen minutes before I remembered a grocery store on Roper Mtn Road, so I headed for that...via Greenville Hospital Patewood Campus and 385. I chalked it up to being in a new town and scampered into the grocery store to get my long suffering puppies some dinner. Easy, right?

Since when do butchers NOT package chicken leg quarters in quantities of less than a zillion? Luckily I found one tray that only had 5 quarters so I grabbed that. The problem was that I have 3 dogs so I'd have to do something with the other two quarters. Cooking them up was not an option as the stove is still hanging out with the fridge, so I got creative. In addition to the leg quarters, I bought a new litter box for the cats and a bag of ice. After I fed three of the leg quarters to the dogs, I wrapped the other two (which were still a bit frozen) in 2 walmart bags, put them in the litter box, and then put the bag of ice on top. (No, there isn't cat litter in the box yet.) That stayed in my sink while I went to Katy's and had a marvelous time with some good friends and even better chili!! I got home around 9:30 and sat down to play some Everquest and revel in the fact that it only took me FIFTEEN minutes to get home from Katy and Kurt's house. The leg quarters which were still cold went out onto the porch, still in the litter box and still covered with the bag of ice.

At around 10pm, I had a weird allergy attack and took some benadryl. As sure as clockwork, when the four hours that the medicine keeps me in a sleepy stupor and free of allergy symptoms were up, so was I, wide awake on the couch and gasping for each breath. (Those who don't have respiratory allergies can't fully appreciate the literally choking fear of feeling like each breath you take fills your lungs with damp cotton rather than air. Relaxing enough to fall asleep during an attack is just impossible.) Two more benadryl, check the clock and sigh loudly when I realize it's 2:30am, turn on the computer and play City of Heroes until I AGAIN fall asleep in my desk chair...get up, stumble to the bedroom and fall onto my now HUGE bed (thanks to my beautiful sister Sooz for the most gooshy-comfy mattress on the planet!) but this time I managed to sleep past the four hour mark and didn't wake up until 8:30am!!

Did I mention I was supposed to be in Anderson at 9am?

Did I mention that I forgot to take my alarm clock to Greenville?

Thank goodness my co-worker had agreed to cover for me in Anderson until I could get myself together and into work. She is a blessing.

Somehow I convinced the dogs that it wasn't time to be HUNGRY and we would EAT when we got HOME but first we had to GO for a RIDEINTHECAR. Herding cats isn't as hard as re-arranging three sleepy and hungry greyhounds. It took a good five minutes to coax Jeany out from under the covers in the guest room bed!

I realized I didn't have my hairdryer just as I got off the interstate in Anderson...too late to turn back now. The dogs had a fast breakfast of...GULP...Pedigree canned food (hey, I don't have to sit in that house and smell the after-effects today!), the cats got fed, and I got clean and dressed and headed out with my wet hair plastered to my head.

Right now if I took it out of the ponytail I would most likely look like one of those Troll Dolls, circa 1975, that someone shook violently until its hair stood on end. Hell hath no fury like naturally almost-curly hair devoid of PRODUCT.

So the first night in the house wasn't too bad. I think the allergy attack was brought on by a sweatshirt I found in a box and put on...that I haven't worn in a LONG time and might have been stored in the basement in Anderson. Once I took it off I slept like a baby...well, a baby with allergies, lots of drugs, and a bedspread made of sleeping greyhounds.

I don't know where I'll be sleeping tonight, but you can bet I'm going to the store to look for a longer acting benadryl today.