This is not my beautiful day off

[katallison]

Haul self out of bed by seven, get caffeinated and breakfasted. Check.

Reply to lovely story comments. Check.

Grocery shopping. Check.

Bike over to hospital, visit stepmother in ICU where she's recuperating from having part of a lung removed. Check.

Get lengthy medical update from stepsister about bronchoscopy, collapsing lung, ventilator, hassles with nurses, etc. etc. Check.

Bike to office, spend three hours updating database and sorting files in preparation for start of semester tomorrow. Check.

Bike home, get car, drive over to P.'s, mow his overgrown lawn and do extensive weeding/hedge-trimming which he's still not recuperated enough to handle. Check.

Spend a few minutes sitting on front porch with P., muscles quivering, drinking beer, dripping sweat, enjoying heart-rendingly beautiful September day. Check.

Drive home, shower, eat a few spoonfuls of cottage cheese, drive to drugstore for birthday card for dad. Check.

Drive out to nursing home, discover dad asleep, leave card with note like the chickenshit I am rather than waking him and having yet another completely incoherent half-asleep conversation. Check.

Stop at Kohl's, spend some time vainly seeking pants that (a) fit and (b) are not hideous, as current stock of non-hideous pants that fit are beginning to wear out and develop holes. Check.

Plunk down at computer, swill beer, contemplate another trip to ICU to check in on stepmother, contemplate untouched heaps of dirty laundry, feel utterly unable to deal with concept of cooking something for dinner, mourn the end of summer. Check.

And so here I am, achey and beat down and distinctly non-vacationed. As laurashapiro notes, they call it Labor Day for a reason.

Comments

Some repeat feedback for a not-so-good day

[zebra363.livejournal.com]

Thought you might like to know that "One For The Road" was thoroughly enthused over at a local (that's Perth, Western Australia) slashers' gathering last Sunday.

K (me) to S: I was talking to mutual friend C recently about Kat Allison's "One For The Road", and she said you'd recommended it to her before.

S: I love that story! Reading about Methos discarding his old life helped me make some big changes in my life a few years ago.

K: I love the description of Methos picking up and leaving. I know the feeling well. C didn't think that enough happened in the story to keep her interest, but the thoughts she gave Methos were so insightful. They've all taken root in my head as canon. The medical research! His plans for eventually leaving the planet!

S: Him still having a taste for violence!

K: Zooming up the hill from a quarter-inch movement of his foot!

S: The music trial! That's what I had to do when I made changes in my life - discard everything I didn't need.

K: That particular music that he'd loved, but realised he didn't need right now!

That led to a further discussion about how many of our favourite stories aren't really slash per se - we love them for the insights into the characters and the resonance with our own lives, not the sex.

I'd last read "One For The Road" in July, when I was trying to push it to C. I don't know how much time had gone by since S had last read it, but as you can see, we both found it memorable - to say the least.

I talked about it with C here in case you want to read basically the same feedback repeated for the 3rd time (probably not!). (Note that C is a lost cause where the story is concerned)

Have a better day tomorrow. The caregiving sounds hard. Treat yourself. And thanks again for sharing your writing.