It was an intense weekend. It was like a marathon without any actual running. It was like swimming a 200 meter sprint where the only water was showering. It was like climbing Mount Everest without ever leaving the mall. It was like yet another stupid comparison that it was not like. Actually, we did a lot Saturday and Sunday and we had to be around a lot of people a lot of the time without the break that makes socializing OK. I suppose I should clarify that it was the time with people we didn’t know that made it so intense.

Saturday the holiday shopping had already started and so when we went out to do a few errands we were overwhelmed by the number of morons in the parking lots and the number of people in the shops. Twice I parked next to people who probably shouldn’t have parked at a 15 degree angle in the spaces aloted for 90 degree parkers only. And we were trying to leave the mall parking lot and two older people (I assume they were a couple) were just walking along right down the lane I was in. Slowly. But. Surely. “Oh, Herald, there’s a car behind us. With cars behind it. Should we get out of the road?” Apparently Helga was more alert than Herald. Eventually they moved and we were able to go wait our turn for the exit at the mall.

Sunday we enjoyed church (a brief note from the service) and then there was a potluck to celebrate the new-born Jenkins’ baby Lauryn Karis (which is Greek for Grace). That was fun but we came home and I was so tired I took a nap. The problem was that I had to wake up from the nap. I was so groggy that it took me a while to get awake enough to get ready for family pictures. Once I was ready I plugged in my clippers (I had a lot of hair to trim off of my face). They didn’t work. They would not respond to the ‘on/off’ switch. So I had to resort to a free razor that came in the mail. Wow! That thing worked. All four blades worked in harmonious action to raze the forest on my face. I may switch back to a wet shave if that razor does that wonderful. My electric razor hasn’t been functioning correctly lately anyway (battery memory).

Anyway, we arrived at the photo studio in time to wait for an hour behind the others who were also waiting behind those they were waiting behind. Abby was good natured about it and endured many bad stories I made up. She posed well when we had our turn and delivered wonderful pictures. If only I could get her to pose for me that way! We ate when we got home and then put Abby to bed. Then we put her to bed again. Then again two more times. She’s been doing that lately and I’m afraid sleep will be less around here for the parents.

Oh, well. I know next week will be an X-weekend, too. We’re driving down to Texas on Friday. We’ll be there for 9 days so it should be fun, busy and involve a reasonably large amount of turkey.