Journal Entry: August 24, 2009

Friday
Friday afternoon I got home in a bad mood from work, walked into the kitchen to pour myself a Coke and after a quick, "Welcome home!" T-- told me a little about her day, and then said, "Oh, and I've got all my stuff ready."

And the words, "Ready for what?" died on my lips. She had a crop Friday night. I'd known about it for a month. I was not in any mood to watch AB, though.

I had about half an hour to change that. Luckily, AB woke up and ran to me with a big, "Daddddy!" that did a lot to make the transition easier. Then right after T-- headed to the church, D-- called and asked if I wanted a snowcone, so that (and his company for the evening) helped a lot, too.

Actually, it ended up being a pretty fun night. We went up to McDonalds so AB could play in the play area, then came back home and I set her up watching videos on T--'s laptop while D-- and I broke out the Rock Band. She'd periodically throw off the headphones to come dance to our music. That was fun.

Then around bedtime I played with her a bit, put her to sleep, and then got back to rocking with D-- until T-- got home. At that point I seriously considered going out and wrecking another weekend with poor decision-making, but somehow overwhelmed that impulse. I watched an episode of Lie to Me with T--, and then went to bed elevenish.

Saturday
Saturday morning I woke up late and mowed the lawn, and suddenly it was 1:00. I had some leftover barbecue and it was as good as new, then poked around on the computer for a few minutes, and then it was time to go.

"Time to go" because we had our second monthly Britton Road writer's group on Saturday. I threw in a bunch of modifiers there, because this was a sequel to our writer's group last month, not to the social writing at the coffee shop last Tuesday. The follow-up to that event takes place tonight, at Full Circle Bookstore, and will likely feature many of the same people who were at the thing on Saturday. I know it's confusing. I'll try to come up with clear distinctions of the two things (or convince both groups to merge them into a seamless whole), but for now, you'll have to wade through explanatory paragraphs like this one.

But, yeah, "time to go" because we had our second monthly Britton Road writer's group on Saturday. Courtney hosted again, and I showed up a few minutes after J. T., and Shawn showed up a few minutes later. We had German Iced Tea, and gave feedback on each others' submitted works. J. T. submitted a couple short-form poems, Courtney submitted a truly chilling short story, and Shawn submitted a one-act play that clocked in right around seven pages. Oh, and I submitted all 200-plus pages of Gods Tomorrow. Don't judge me. That's just who I am.

We had some great discussion, though. We talked about structured writing, and longhand drafts, and early efforts, and then spent about half our time on psychological disorders. We had an expert among us (of the "trained professional" variety, not simply "longtime sufferer"), and we ended up with some really great information.

We were done with that by 4:30, but T-- had taken AB over to my little sister's place, so I had some free time in the afternoon. I spent it playing Magic on the XBox, and pretty much stuck with that until T-- put AB down for bed. Then we watched a little TV, and she went to bed, and I stayed up to play a bunch more Magic on the XBox.

Sunday
Sunday morning T-- took AB to a special event (along with my little sister and her girls). Unwilling to face the adversity that is Christian fellowship without the protective barrier of my perfect little family, I decided to skip church. Around 11:30 I called D-- up, and we headed to Edmond to meet the girls at Jason's Deli for lunch. It was delicious.

Then D-- took me home, and I spent much of the afternoon playing Magic on the XBox. I finally had to put it away when T-- invited my sister's family over for dinner (she grilled hotdogs). While we were waiting for them to show up, I set up the Rock Band stuff, and after a quick dinner we sent the little ones to AB's room to play, and then we spent a couple hours rocking out. That was pretty fun.

After the guests left, T-- and I watched an episode of Psych, and discussed watching something else serious, but we weren't in the mood for serious. It was late, anyway, so we gave up and went to bed.

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