Your footsteps make me dizzy

2003-11-26 - 10:56 p.m. (Houston Time)

Today I'm feeling much, much better than I felt yesterday. I don't know what the deal was yesterday, but all my issues were gone when I woke up this morning. Today my sister-in-law still had to work, but my brother didn't. For breakfast we went down to a little shop and had beignets and afterwards we went to the store to pick up everything else we would need for Thanksgiving.

I convinced my family to go back today to 1/4 Price Books. We made sure to go after noon when the sign in the window said they would be open, but they still weren't open. They didn't have anything posted saying they would be closed for the day before Thanksgiving, so I don't know what was up with that. Instead, my brother took me to the other Half Price Books in town. And of course I bought more books. And some CD's too. I left them all upstairs so let's see if I can remember what I bought. Well, I bought an old Aaron Tippin CD just because it was fifty cents even though I didn't recognize any of the songs on it. I also bought an older Diamond Rio CD that had "Meet in the Middle" and "Norma Jean Riley" on it and the sound track to Bing Crosby's "White Christmas." As for books, I bought two older Anne McCaffrey books, Decision at Doona and Dinosaur Planet Survivors. I think I may already have the latter, but I'm not certain and it cost me less than a buck so I couldn't resist. I also bought War and Peace, which is a book which has been on my reading list forever and ever. The reason I bought this one, though, is because it came in two separate volumes for easier portability. Nice. Less than a buck for each volume--even nicer. And the last thing I bought was the third book in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, The Dragon Reborn, which was by far my most expensive purchase at over four bucks. So I spent $15 on five books and three CD's. Now all I have to do is figure out how to fit everything into my luggage.

I spent the rest of the day watching the extended DVD version of "The Fellowship of the Ring." I still think that movie is pretty boring, but it's better now that I know a bit more of the story from the second movie. And besides, the music and scenery are so wonderful in that movie, it's hard to complain too much. It makes me want to give the books another try. It makes me feel really stupid to not have been able to get through the books. In the extras on the DVD they interview people who have read it every year since they were sixteen or first read it when they were twelve and loved it and they interviewed the original publisher's son who read it when he was really young and wrote then that all kids between the ages of five and nine would enjoy it. If these people could appreciate it at such young ages, what's my problem? But I try to remind myself that I don't have to like it. Just because I thought the book was boring doesn't necessarily mean I'm stupid.

Anyway, this evening my sister-in-law's family flew in to Houston. My sister-in-law picked up her parents from one airport and my brother and I picked up her brother and her brother's girlfriend from another airport at the same time. I wish I wasn't so shy. I don't know why, but when I get around strangers I usually just clam right up. Quite suddenly I have nothing to talk about. I'm not usually very talkative, but as soon as people I don't know very well come in close proximity I could easily get through an entire evening without making a peep. Fortunately, this is not a trait that my brother shares with me. He had no issues yacking away with those two in the car on the way to his house from the airport. Of course he's been around them much more than I have. But anyway, we added four extra people to the house this evening which means that I got displaced from my pullout bed on the third floor. I am the only one without a partner (yeah, I'm the ninth wheel now) so it made no sense for me to sleep in a bed which could accomodate two. I am now on the couch on the first floor in the living room. Practically in the foyer. Not that this is bad, necessarily, it's a very comfy couch, but it's less than private. Not that I really need privacy, but as soon as anyone else wakes up in the morning, I have a feeling I'm going to know about it. The living room here opens up to the second floor so that anybody up there can look down onto this couch. It also opens up to the kitchen so as soon as anybody wants to go there, I'll know about it. Normally this wouldn't be an issue since I'm a fairly early riser, but right now I'm two time zones off from my normal. But really it's not so bad. I have my own fireplace and my own half bathroom. And the couch really is very comfortable, except it's a bit short. But I'm bendable. Ok, in light of the fact that I may have to arise earlier tomorrow than I would normally choose to do, I'd better get myself to bed so I can get plenty of sleep.