less than this

bleh.

(more...)

...because what I really wanted to do at midnight was clean water and shattered glass off my bedroom floor for most of an hour, when I should already have been asleep.

My night's not the worst, though: due to delays at Denver International, Mandy's flight didn't leave until ~11:30PM, putting her in Denver after 1AM. I'm not sure her friends will be taking the (apparently) 3+ hour drive to Laramie tonight, or if the roads are still open, or what. By the time I got home from the airport, there were so many other cancelled DIA flights that we were pretty sure I was headed back to the airport tonight. Hopefully I'll hear from her soon.

And then I can sleep. Not sure about her night, but after the little broken glass incident, I'm sleeping. Blech.

This morning, a longtime friend of mine (Art / Penny) was sentenced and sent to prison after ... what, three years or so since this all started? And I haven't been as 'there' for her as I should have been, and I really wanted to go to the sentencing, if only to say goodbye in person. So I woke up this morning, barely in time, double-checked the message she'd sent with directions, and drove the 31 miles across town to the court in Mesa where it was taking place. I even managed to be 20 minutes early, despite the traffic and the rain. And I didn't see her, or anyone I knew, and I tried calling but there was no answer, and the courtroom she gave was locked until 8:30 (the official start time), and she wasn't in there... but three of her friends were there, too, and we all went in together and waited ... and proceedings started around 9, but ... she still wasn't there, and we didn't know what else to do. Around 9:30 I went out into the hall to try all the numbers I had again, but no go, and there wasn't any signal in the courtroom, so that was my first chance to get on the internet and try to look up the court schedule online... maybe it was in a different room? And I got the information I needed. It was one room over. 203, not 204. I ran in, literally seconds too late. She had been sentenced and taken away, and everyone who'd been in the right room was crying, and ... what? What? What was I supposed to do?

And I went to the other courtroom and got her other friends out of there, and we all talked in the hallway for a while, gave her father our contact info... And she got the low end of sentences, and with good behaviour could get out early, and may even have the possibility of being transfered to a prison that would be less dangerous to her chances of survival... And I tried. And I know they say it's the thought that counts and at least you tried, but ... I wasn't there to say goodbye. I missed that. I said goodbye on the phone the other day, but ...

We've been friends for about 15 years, she deserves better than that.

I'm going to try to visit her in prison. The lawyer said that she might be able to have visitors in a couple of weeks. I feel awful about missing this. Hopefully we can get the communication about location a little more accurate for that. Hopefully I won't be a complete fuck-up next time.

(more...)

You know how December goes. Now add a wedding, a honeymoon, massive housecleaning, (to make room for) a move across town, (Mandy moving in here)... Two work Christmas parties with the requisite introductions - at one party I'm not Teel, I'm "Mandy's husband", at the other she's "Teel's wife" - and one big family Christmas party to go... Well, not counting the immediate family's inevitable gathering on Christmas. And I have a crunch at work, Mandy is a teacher, so it's finals and term papers for her, and we have somewhat non-overlapping time off for the holidays, so she's also going to WY after Christmas without me, to... In case December didn't feel full enough, yet.

Figuring out the money, paperwork for name changes, apartment changes, bank changes, figuring out closet space, bookshelves, duplicate DVDs, what to do when suddenly we're being bad Americans and producing twice as much recycle as garbage (and if dad weren't here, it would have been something like 10x recycle v. garbage this month). It's challenging, but luckily I'm not actually overwhelmed. I had a little anxiety attack last month (sorry, that was a friends-only post), but almost everything has gone smoothly, or at least not debilitatingly.

Oh, plus spending time being the geeks we are, and doing things like watching I Am Legend Thursday at midnight in IMAX, and then seeing Blade Runner Final Cut at the Valley Art Friday night... Plus playing Super Mario Galaxy together. Because being geeky is important, but it's a time-sink sometimes, too. BTW, the first six minutes of the new Batman movie (attached exclusively to I Am Legend in IMAX), bode very well for the rest of the movie. Awesome.

Okay, I have to go do more laundry, but wanted to make a post. So here you go: a post.