Regrouping

For another day after The 24 Hours of Great Craziness, my life continued to exist on quicksand. Appointments cancelled and moved, things took longer than planned. I figured it was just the last waves playing out on the ocean of life after such a big storm. Thank heavens my business partners are so understanding because I completely blew a deadline.

Last night I sat on the couch, drank wine and ate carry-out, and channel surfed between some of the worst television imaginable. My evening was a collage of Maid in Manhattan (seriously, both Jennifer Lopez and Ralph Fiennes can really act, what were they thinking??), VH1's Top 100 Songs of the 1980s (oh, the nostalgia), and Shear Genius, a hairdressing competition reality show - I KID YOU NOT - which sucked me in with the "hair through the ages" competition that included an Elizabeth I grey-powdered get-up, a pink mohawk, and a Bridget Bardot kitten do. Had Pimp My Ride been on, my evening would've been truly complete.

But today, the last full day before Enrico returns, I am getting it back together. I think the blip in the universe has re-set itself, and I'm ready to knock off some work and get the house cleaned up too. And the yard - the front of the property is littered with water bottles and coffee cups from the firefighters, and I hear through the grapevine (our block now being the centerpiece stop on the House of Disasters Walking Tour) that the neighborhood arsonist favors houses with piles of flammable stuff readily available. I guess s/he is a lazy arsonist. So maybe I'll also clear the cardboard boxes and the old broken-down rocking chair off the front porch.

The dogs are really ready for things to return to normal. Dogs are creatures of habit, and the older they get the less tolerant they are of disrupted routines. So this has been a stressful week for them, but they're troopers. I've been telling them they're such brave and clever dogs, having raised the alarm about the fire (probably the only eye witnesses to the actual arsonist, too, thought that's no help to the police). Periodically they just come and nuzzle me, tails wagging, as if to say "Hey! We're still a team, so it's all good." Which it is. It's all very good.