Journal Entry: February 17, 2009

Last Thursday night, T-- and I went out for a Valentine's date. She was at the zoo when I first got home from work, which gave me time to wrap my gift to her (season 6 of Law and Order) and scribble down a quick card by way of iambic meter. Then T-- got home from the zoo, and shortly after D-- showed up to babysit AB.

T-- and I went up to the Old Chicago in Edmond, and had some fantastic pizza. Then on the drive toward the theater we looked up showtimes for Bride Wars, and learned that our options were either ten minutes in the past, or two hours later. So we decided to go shopping instead.

We found AB's birthday present at Toys R Us, then picked up some gellato and headed home. We spent most of the rest of the evening on the couch, watching Thursday night comedy.

Friday I woke up feeling sicker than ever, but I'd used up my RDO on Monday, so I came in to work anyway. Late in the morning, I started getting calls about K-- and N-- being at the hospital, with the baby apparently ready to come out (two weeks early). I cooled my heels until a little after noon, then finally decided to call it quits for the day. I figured chances were good I'd be spending the afternoon in the waiting room at the hospital, but if not I wouldn't mind taking the afternoon off to convalesce a little bit.

K-- and N-- ended up going home a couple hours later, but they were back that night and by 11:00 it was clear that it was really happening this time. I took K-- some dinner around midnight, and hung around until a nurse said they should probably get some sleep, and plan on having the baby in the morning.

N--'s mom came to crash our place, just to be close to the hospital, so the two of us got to the house between 1:00 and 2:00 Saturday morning, and it was a while before I fell asleep. When I finally did, I slept until about 11:00.

I got up and got dressed in time to take some lunch up to the hospital for K--. Things hadn't benn progressing very quickly at that point, so we spent about an hour waiting out in the waiting room, having lunch and talking with K-- and N--'s family as they arrived, and then finally gave up and headed home so an increasingly fussy AB could get a nap.

D-- called and asked if I could pick him up from Best Buy, where he was getting a new stereo installed in his car, but halfway there he called and told me they couldn't do it, so I took care of a couple errands and headed back home. Right about then AB was waking up from her nap and K-- called to say things were starting to happen, so we headed back up to the hospital.

We got to see N-- briefly, then went out to wait in the sitting room with the family, and E-- (joined shortly by B--), and eventually even D-- showed up. We had a real party going on in the waiting room.

Of course, as you'll know by now, the baby was born at 6:14. We waited another forty minutes to get in and see him, congratulate K-- and N--, and then we headed home, leaving them to be with their visiting family.

I dropped T-- and AB off, and ran up to Edmond to grab some barbecue from Steve's Rib. When I got back to the house D-- was there, and we ate and watched some TV for a while, then T-- headed to bed early and I threw The Big Lebowski in while D-- and I played WoW.

Around 11:00 again, K-- called and asked if I could bring him some dinner. D-- came with, and we took some food up and got to visit with them for a while before they decided they were ready to get some sleep. I remember what it's like those days in the hospital -- you're desperate for some diversion, like a good conversation with visitors, but even more so for sleep. We cleared out, and got back to the house around 1:00.

Just before we left I'd gotten caught up in a project on the computer, organizing my fileserver, and instead of going to bed I picked up where I'd left off, so I was up until nearly 3:00 working on that. Then I woke up Sunday morning on time to get to church, but I still wasn't over my sinus infection, and my stomach rebelled something fierce. So I stayed home, waited it out, and then didn't go along when T-- headed to the hospital for a quick visit after church.

We spent the afternoon on the couch, T-- watching Law and Order and me working on the fileserver. Later in the afternoon Toby called to say he and Gwyn wanted to visit K-- and N-- at the hospital, and asking for the room number. They suggested we could get together for dinner afterward, and we were all for it.

We ended up going to Texas Roadhouse, and spent a couple fun hours with the Nances. It's always good to see them. Afterward we headed home, and spent the rest of the night the way we'd spent the afternoon.

Monday was President's Day, so I was off work. I slept in again, but woke up in time to pick D-- up from an automotive shop that was going to install his new stereo. That was up in Edmond, and I took him straight from there to the hospital, where T-- was already waiting for us.

We spent a while in the waiting room, chasing AB around and chatting with the family, then got to see K-- and N-- and little baby Jason all in a crowd. We packed the room, and everybody who was healthy (read, "not me") got to hold the baby, and we had a grand old time. We also learned they would be going home that evening, which was good news to all, I'm sure.

We left after a bit, sometime early afternoon, and I dropped D-- off at his place then went home to play some WoW. A few hours later, 5-ish, he called to tell me that the automotive place had been unable to install his stereo (but had waited six hours to tell him that), and he needed a ride to go pick up the car. Ugh.

We got back from that errand a few minutes before our babysitter arrived to watch AB. Then we (D-- and T-- and I) headed up to the mall for a quick meal in the food court, and then an eight o'clock showing of Coraline.

The movie was great. Nightmarish, but in a good way. It's billed as a scary fairy tale, and it does the job. T-- and D-- liked the artistic style a lot. I wasn't really a fan, but I did enjoy what they did with the story. It was captivating.

We got back home after ten, so that was pretty much it for the day. Bed, sleep, and now it's Tuesday and I'm back to work.

Other than that, it's just things and stuff.