Sleepless in Salinas

It is 11:30 p.m. and we have just arrived at the Best Western in Salinas, the home of the John Steinbeck Museum (which we saw a couple of years ago).  As we dragged ourselves through the lobby doors, I expected to be welcomed by a Christmas display, but apparently this motel's only acknowledgement of the holiday season is a lonely little poinsettia plant on the front desk.

But the woman at the front desk (it is her first night working) was very pleasant and in no time at all we had arrived at our 2nd floor room and were fighting over who got to use the bathroom first (I won because (a) Walt is a gentleman and (b) I was more desperate).

When I got inside, I remembered this place.  This is the hotel with the small bathroom where when you sit on the toilet, you look at yourself in the mirror directly opposite.

This bathroom was obviously designed by a man who doesn't have to check himself out when he stands to pee. There is nothing less appealing than the sight of yourself, in all your glory, flab hanging off the sides of the toilet while you're doing your business.  Definitely not a pretty sight.

We are here because tomorrow is the big day.  Brianna is appearing in not one, but two plays, one in her class at 1 p.m. and the other, The Music Man, at 7 p.m.  Don't know where that is, and since this is the grammar school version of the play, I can't wait to see how they adapt it.

I think I have heard that Harold Hill is played by a girl, which should be interesting.  Oh how I wish Paul were here to see this!

In a perfect world, we would have left this morning and been in Santa Barbara in time for dinner, but it is not a perfect world and Walt had a meeting he could not miss at 5:30.  So rather than try to drive all night and arrive, if we were lucky, at Alice Nan's house at 2 a.m., he decided we would drive to Salinas, about 3 hours away (we actually made it in 2 hours and 55 minutes), and we would spend the night here, leave at the crack of dawn and get to Santa Barbara in time for the classroom play.

We listened to David Baldacci's "The Target" on the way down, but I fell asleep and missed about 4 chapters of it.  When I woke up, totally different people were the focus of the story than the ones I had been listening to!

It was a very busy day.  I insisted on making two more batches of cookies, which I needed like a hole in the head, but 4 types of cookies just didn't make an interesting enough looking plate. (Actually one of the 2 new batches was a second batch of chocolate chip cookies, since we had gone through the first batch, what with eating them and giving them away).

I got all the rest of the Christmas packages wrapped and into boxes for transporting to Santa Barbara.

I also had to get my mother's meds over to her, so she would not run out while we were gone.  Ed and his sister-in-law were there visiting.  I had a nice visit with them, though my mother seemed kind of vague, but I didn't take time to worry about it because I had to get home.

While I was going to Atria, the plumber (our friend Scott) was attacking the bathroom sink.  Walt figures that my earring from the girls. which fell down the sink when I was trying to put it on, is now worth about $100.  I will never take it off again.

I certainly did not leave the house a show place, but I did at least get up our "Christmas tree" so things wouldn't look so stark for Ashley and David.

(This table was piled high with stuff this morning, so I feel very good about this!)

But now that we are actually on the road, there is nothing more I can do.  If I forgot it, it didn't get done and the world won't end.  I can finally take a long cleansing breath, which my new therapist recommends for calming myself down.  I haven't had time for short panting breaths, much less long cleansing breaths this week, so maybe now I do.

And tomorrow we watch Bri on stage.  I know it is going to be the cutest thing ever.  Maybe cuter than T-ball.

Walt pointed out that there were fast food joints near here that were still opened (since we had no time for dinner) and asked if I wanted a hamburger. I chose to sit here and write this instead, so I could get to sleep sooner, which I will now do!