Straight No Chaser

Gifts

cramps. marcus already called once from the car; he'll call again before he goes to sleep, and want to finish talking about racial undertones in king kong, and no thanks. any other night, but not this night, not when i feel thirty pounds heavier, and like someone's shooting off firecrackers inside me. i'm glad he's conversationally flexible. we'll write down our insights, save them for tomorrow night, and maybe tonight he'll indulge me, just a little, and narrate a massage. something. he has a natural talent for talking down a womb. it works best when his hands are involved, warm palms generally get the job done fastest. but we do what we can.

i got to talk to his dad, yesterday. i called him from sam goody to ask a quick question, make sure i wasn't wasting my money on a particular purchase; you'd have thought i'd called to offer him a billion dollars and early retirement. sooooooo effusive. then, at the end, "oh shannon, i'm so glad you called. we love you! we love you!" the we referring to him and his wife, who do love me, but it seemed awkward to say "i love you too" with my mom sitting right next to me, so i failed, miserably. i giggled and said "thanks again," i was polite but non-reciprocating (even though i do love them, see earlier entry called "too much tired" or something). just, whatever, i'll have another chance, and they're getting a christmas card, though it will be late.

my point is, i don't know. the hour and this thrum are working jointly to keep me from having a point. i bought krystle a ring. sterling silver stack ring, five little stones, blue topaz and amethyst, circles and squares to decorate the finger recently vacated by her now-defunct promise ring. i want to keep it, which hopefully means it's a good gift. i also want to keep meg's gift, and chad's. i am the most neurotic elf in the workshop.

aaron slept with pam. which is quite obviously none of my business, except that it is, somehow, mostly because he wrote about it for me. so then it is, which would explain why i've dreamed about it twice now, and why i woke up this morning with a story idea that actually came to partial fruition, in the car. not having my car has been otherworldly, to say the least. neither i nor my parents remembered exactly how much it sucks for them to have to drive me places. but it does make for guilt-free writing time, and i have a new character now, a new scene, a new idea, something to finally do with all this free time. so, thanks pam. and thanks aaron; you called me "fair muse" in an email/im/correspondence once, and it felt weighty and undeserved, but i liked it, i like it, and now you're mine, too. the male version thereof.

shannon frog's christmas gift is in the mail.