It is good to be back in my own bed

My husband got off work early yesterday, so we came home. I hated to waste the money, since we'd already paid for the room for the night, but it wasn't that great of a room and we didn't have any plans in the area for this morning, so we left. And, even though we stopped and had dinner with the only one in his family he is still speaking to, we still got home before dark.

Not that I got much sleep. I forgot to take a pill. Somehow, part of me must realize that I forgot to take it, because I never seem to get enough sleep when that happens. But usually, it is not a big deal. I finally realize I forgot to take something, and I either go to the kitchen or the bathroom for a drink of water and take the pill and go back to bed. But tonight I realized I forgot to take something, and the medications were packed in a bag that I'd taken on the trip. And the bag did not turn up in the pile of stuff dumped in the living room, so I had to get dressed to go out and get the bag out of the car. So by the time I did all of that I was pretty much awake and not going back to sleep any time soon.

But it is still better to have insomnia in my own home. At least here I can play with the computer.

As some of you might have guessed, I have been away for the week, and I did not have Internet access. I did get to take my knitting machine, which is actually a lot like packing a big screen TV. When it is put together, the knitting machine is 39 inches long. Rather than risk damaging it, I do not take the thing apart. If I have to put it away or move it somewhere, the box I keep it in is 44 inches long, about 20 inches wide, and about 7 inches deep. To make room for it, I packed clothes in the smallest bag I could find and we took out the Coleman electric cooler. Since I didn't cook anything to take on the trip, and we hoped to have refrigerators at the motels, we didn't really need the cooler.

I hadn't really made arrangements to have my mail picked up and stuff like that, but my brother lives across the field, so I didn't think it would be a problem. I put four plants in the sink and hoped they would survive without me for a while. But I still left the house thinking something was wrong.

The first stop was the Dairy Palace for buffalo burgers. It was a bit expensive for hamburgers, but we liked the place, and I finally started to relax a bit.

The second stop was a Walmart. I had packed the knitting machine, but since I didn't think I'd be able to do that, I hadn't bought any yarn. And I totally lucked out at Walmart. They had five of the exact colors I needed for one scarf, and they had two other colors that were close enough that I switched and used them. They also had three out of four colors I needed for two other scarves, which left me lacking only the light grey for the Ravenclaw scarf, and I was pretty sure that I'd be able to get that Thursday morning at a Hobby Lobby. I couldn't go to Hobby Lobby that day, because they are closed on Sundays.

The first motel was right on the lake. There's all sorts of dumb stuff I have to say about the motel, but since tomorrow is Monday, I will save it. Still, a motel right on the lake is nice, and that sort of thing rarely happens. And we didn't even plan it that way. The motel just happened to be on the lake.

It did tend to rain a lot. But when it didn't rain, I was on this beautiful spot on the lake, and when it did rain, I had plenty of knitting to keep me busy.

So there was this seafood restaurant on the lake, and my husband thought that we should go. And it looked really cool with plants and palm trees and such. Inside were mounted fish and head of furry things with big horns. And luckily there was a line of people in front of us, or we might not have noticed the sign saying that their credit card machine wasn't working, or we might have spent the night washing dishes. But, we were out in the middle of nowhere, and the place closed at nine, so we ended up just going back to the motel and microwaving soup. We were just not up to looking for an ATM in the dark. We'd just go there some other time for lunch.

Only the place wasn't open at all on Monday or Tuesday, and they only opened from 4-9 on Wednesday, when my husband would be at work, and we'd be leaving the next day. So no Bryce's Seafood for us.

The next day we went to a different fish place in Louisiana. And they had fish mounted on the walls. And pictures of people posing with fish. And T-shirts with fish. And we ate catfish. And just the whole area was all about the fish.

On one of the times that it was not raining, I went for a walk and picked up some pine-cones and stuff like that. I found seed pods from water lilies. I don't know what the seed pods are called, but they look interesting. I found some more of those, but before I went back for them it started raining again. Maybe it is just as well. I pick up this stuff once in a while, saying that I will make wreaths or something with them, but there are no wreaths in my house, and I can't remember the last time I actually finished making a wreath.

Well, I did almost stay home from this trip. But the night before we left I did mention some rules, and he wasn't happy about it, but he didn't seem actually mad about it either. So that was awkward, but I was glad I got that over with before we left and thought that was the end of it. But, no, he still doesn't get it. We sort of had the discussion again. And one evening I thought it was going to get ugly, but it didn't. But he still doesn't get it. He so doesn't get it I don't even want to bother talking about it anymore. Can't we even just agree that we are not going to have serious discussions about our relationship while we are out of town? Even if there was a point to having one of these same discussions again, or even if there is something new to talk about, can't we talk about it at home? While we're out of town, can't we at least pretend things are okay?

So I mostly got through to him, and he said that everything was okay, and there was nothing to get upset about.

Wednesday night he got off of work early. He got off early enough that we went back to Bryce's seafood restaurant. The dinning area was not so interesting as I would have thought from the outside. And the light inside was really bright, and it was really dark outside, so we couldn't see the lake. They have these really huge windows, and they are right on the lake, but you can't see any of it. And I was really tired Wednesday night. The I'm going to fall asleep on my food kind of tired. So it was really nice of him to take me there, but it just wasn't as nice as we had imagined it would be Sunday night. And it wasn't that late either. We got back to the motel in time to watch LOST.

I was working on a Dr. Who scarf. I think it is season 17. Anyway, it is whatever season they took two of the old scarves and sewed them together. The panel was about 26 feet long when I had to stop because I ran out of green yarn. That took fourteen hours. It will take about another hour to finish knitting on the machine, I don't know how long to join the tube together, and another two hours for the fringe. It might end up being 30 hours or so.

Then it was Thursday morning, and we went to some other small Texas town. This one was between Dallas and Houston. On the way there we stopped at Hobby Lobby and got my grey yarn for the Ravenclaw scarf. I was not crazy about the motel. And maybe it was my imagination, but it seemed damp or humid or something. It made sense on the lake, but not here. I knitted and joined the Ravenclaw scarf, and the final Gryffindor scarf for the wife of my friend from up north. Now I just have to put fringe on both of those, which should take about four hours.

Friday we had lunch at someplace called the Moosehead Cafe. Without thinking, I ordered the special, which was catfish. I must have had catfish five or six times that trip. Not that it was bad, but I should have ordered just about anything except catfish. My husband also bought some fig preserves. We almost bought something called Blue Blazes, which was blueberry preserves with jalapenos, but they didn't have any samples of that out. Maybe some other time.

We somehow managed to eat out everyday for a week without eating either Chinese food or a pizza. I'm dying for a pizza. And just boring stuff that I usually only eat at home, like fried eggs, or spaghetti.

So far as I can tell, nothing terrible happened while I was away. The four plants left in the sink survived without me. My brother got sick and wasn't able to pick up my mail, and my mom forgot about it until Friday, but that's probably okay. There were no urgent messages on the answering machine, and no annoying notes taped to the door.

I cannot believe how tired I am. I didn't do anything but knit all week, and yesterday I didn't even do that. Luckily I don't have to go to school until Tuesday.