I cleaned a bit today. Both the cat and ferret litter was changed, and I folded all the socks and hung up the clean clothes. Then I did the dishes. Because of this, Eddie promised to take me out on Saturday, and he’s currently searching for things we can do since our original plan of going to King Richard’s Faire would cost us an arm and a leg in entry and gas to get there.

The apartment is getting very homey-feeling. We’ve got real end tables now instead of our fabulously ghetto Rubbermaid totes and cardboard boxes. Eddie hung up some more pictures around the house, and I really wish that we had more wall space. We’re hosting Thanksgiving dinner here this year since Uncle Larry and Aunt Laurie are going to Ohio, so we’re trying to keep things nice in here so that we’ll have a minimal amount of crap to pick up next month. Not that we intend on going without cleaning for a month and a half, but you know what I mean.

I inherited a whole mess of Nanny’s crafts. I’ve got 3 canvas tote bags filled with assorted half finished projects that are who knows how old. There’s a 75% finished knitted vest that is too small for anyone in our family to ever fit into. There’s a couple of blank needlepoint canvasses, and a cross-stitch project that never went further than opening the package. There’s 1 finished cross-stitch project that just needs to be mounted properly, and about 6 packets of different sizes of needles. During the cleaning we also found about 3 sewing kits, the smallest of which I took. There was a photo album that Nanny had made filled with pictures that my grandfather took while he was stationed in the Phillipines during WWII, a framed crocheted hankerchief that my great-great-grandmother made, and several very old books. I also got a beautiful diamond solitaire in a white gold setting, and we don’t know who it belonged to.

Yesterday was the most draining day of work I’ve ever experienced. Who would think that simply pushing my schedule up an hour would screw me up so much? I went in at 11am and left at 7pm, and was just exhausted the entire night. Thankfully I’m not doing all closing shifts anymore because L is back, otherwise I’d be even worse. Fortunately, Eddie rocks my socks and has dinner ready for me when I get home on late nights, and last night we had my completely favorite ghetto meal of ground beef, gravy, and rice. We ate it at the coffee table and watched Survivor and the rest of the Thursday night shows.

Every now and then I have a momentary lapse in reason when I completely forget that Nanny is gone. Eddie bought Knocked Up yesterday and said we were bringing it to Mom’s to watch this weekend, and my first thought was “I don’t think it’s a Nanny-friendly movie.” I still refer to her in present tense. Worse is the thought that I didn’t cry all that much, and I know that if it wasn’t for the Lexapro I’d be a fucking mess, and part of me feels guilty that I’m not.

Tomorrow we’re sleeping late. Then we might do laundry and play some WoW. Sunday we’re working and then going to Mom’s house as usual. It’s supposed to be comfortable weather, which makes me happy. I hate the nasty humidity and heat.

Chaucer’s getting big. He’s about 5 months old now and has created a bit of a schedule for himself. Starting at about 5:30am he wakes up, wakes up us by talking to us in the bed, and does kitten things for the day while we work. When we get home he becomes magically transformed into Lovey McSnugglepants and follows us everywhere we go in the house, whether we’re getting up to use the bathroom or just going to the kitchen. At around 10pm he turns into Bitey Psycho Kitty, and does crazy things like attack doorknobs and the coffee table or the couch until we go to bed. Even when we go to bed he’s still running around the house like crazy until he realizes that we’re not playing with him anymore, and then he comes into the bedroom and snuggles on the bed with us for a bit.

My mom got out of the hospial this morning. Eddie went to pick her up and drove her home, and she’ll be out of work for the rest of the week. We’re still waiting for results of a biopsy, but for now they’re saying she’s got colitis or diverticulitis. Either way, she’s looking at some diet changes in the future, probably needing to give up her ritual of buffalo hot wings on Sunday afternoons.

The store I work in is getting remodelled. It’s crazy, there’s people everywhere and we’ve got no idea where they’re moving anything to. Yesterday it was insane in there because it was Monday and A had to leave early for a doctor’s apointment with one of her kids. Tonight should be better, since it’s my short shift and tomorrow I’m fairly certain that I’m not working at all. I’m getting really, really, really tired of telling people how to work the signature pinpad, and I’m just as tired of nearly every single customer complaining about “this doesn’t look like my signature!” and “I hate these things.” You don’t like change. We get it. The only amusing thing at all is the old folks who call up and complain about how “the new girl on the phone doesn’t do things right”, meaning the automated system has changed and people are just too fucking impatient to actually listen to the options now. These are the people who just bang on the keypad until they get a live person, usually someone from the front store, which has caused us to be filled with dread whenever we hear “Pharmacy has a call on line 1″. We’ve started referring to that line as the moron-line, which isn’t entirely nice, but it’s oh so appropriate sometimes. Thankfully my schedule goes back to normal next week, and I’ll be able to watch all the season premiers for the shows that we watch.

I’ve been busy. I’ve been working like crazy these past two weeks between working extra hours last week covering A’s shifts and then working closing shifts all this week. Factor in the funeral things and Eddie’s parents’ visit and you’ve got one supremely exhausted chicky. Oh, and add in some fun best described as a “pocket of shit” with yet another family member who is now in the hospital until about Tuesday. Weeeee! We’re having fun now!

We went to Mystic Aquarium and played in the “Birds of Petco the Outback” cage they had, where I got to play with lots of little feathered birdies. We also saw a sea lion show and all the other typical aquarium things like jellyfish and sharks and lobsters. Then came the shopping, which I used willpower and didn’t buy anything.

I came home from work on Wednesday afternoon and hung pictures up on the walls. Eddie’s parents brought down some other pictures and a shadowbox, so those got hung up in the living room and in the hallway, mixing up the two families so that there weren’t any rooms that had all my things and all Eddie’s things. Today we went out and bought curtains for our two windows, and hung the ones up in the living room. We’re sitting around watching a House marathon on USA. Eventually I’ll get some good pictures of the place now that most everything has been unpacked and put away and it’s actually starting to look like people live here.

Chaucer and Pickle spend plenty of time chasing each other around. She chases him away from the food dish in the kitchen, and then he chases her off the couch. It’s a win-win situation for the two of them. Every now and then we catch the cat in the cage eating Pickle’s food, and the other day Eddie caught him in there sleeping. He does seem to be getting better with staying away from us while we eat, which is good because I’d hate to have guests over here and have a cat sitting in the center of the dinner table like a flowerpot.

I got thoroughly sunburnt during the ferry trip to scatter Nanny’s ashes. You’d think that under the circumstances I’d be more careful considering that she did die of cancer and all, but I had other things on my mind, such as, “this box of Nanny is much heavier than I expected,” and “I shouldn’t have stood downwind,” and “oh my god I think I just inhaled her!”

My family has started going through Nanny’s things. It’s sad and fantastic all at once, like opening a big, tragic treasure chest. I found a cookie tin filled with letters that my great-grandfather got from his family while he was in France and Germany during World War I, and my mother found a box of letters that my Uncle Rick wrote home during his boot camp on Parris Island. We found my grandmother’s baby book, first communion and confirmation certificates, pictures of relatives and people we don’t know, unsent greeting cards, and boxes upon boxes of general household records such as what bills were paid and who was getting Christmas cards that year. One of the books we found was The Farm and Household Cyclopaedia (ca. 1888) - with 249 illustrations - which is pretty fun to read and see what fun household hints they used back then. I’ll try to find some good passages to post later.