Busy Buzzy Bee

Fiorella es fabulosa! Yesterday she picked up bread at the Panera drive-thru and ordered more for the next day, bought a ledger at Office Depot for herself and adhesive patches at Hobby Lobby for Husband's leathert recliner, stopped by the vacuum cleaner place for more bags and filters, grabbed a potted flower at H-E-B to present to her favorite Mazda guy when she asked him to let her retrieve her car before it was healed because Husband needed the Mercedes (hereafter referred to as The Blimp or The Queen Mary) for his multiple medical appointments this week, drove over to Mazda with said flower pot in hand and learned the car was ready but needed washing,  went back to H-E-B to fill the grocery list, headed home to put up the groceries and recruit Husband to take her back to Mazda to pick up her car, stopped at Walgreens on the way to pick up a prescription, then stopped in the driveway at home to pick up the mail and move the empty trash can back into the woods.

After a brief recovery period, Husband drove Fio back to Mazda and she was thrilled to have her baby car back bright and shiny. But when she got home, she had to call her Mazda guy back and leave a message--the key was still stuck in the ignition. Yes, Fiorella fabulosa, the nutcracker doll is still broken.

Progress on the Christmas Prep Front

Fiorella is, as she predicted almost through with decorating. Last night she packed away all the left-overs except the new tinsel she bought to take the place of the garlands along the road that the storm had beaten to a pulp. She'll make those repairs and replacements today, add more decorations to the outside tree, and to pick up some butterflies at Hobby Lobby to finish off an inside wreath. Definitely, she'll be through by tomorrow evening, and that's the best time she's ever made. And if you're wondering, everything stays up for a couple of months to make up for all the intensive labor.

Precious LittleTime

Shock--Fio forget to post today, which is understandable with the schedule she's trying to keep. She raced out of the house this morning to meet with a friend at Starbucks--the same friend she stood up the day before because Fio was waiting at the wrong Starbucks--only to wait again because this time she was 24 hours too early. What else to do but drive off to the post office to buy Christmas stamps. The machine didn't carry them so she had to join the tail end of a l-o-n-g line. Bored to tears after finishing off all her physical therapy exercises as she waited (neck, shoulders, plies), she started talking to the people standing behind her.

The line refused to move, but Fiorella overheard a post office lady (who was moving up and down the line with a whip to keep the lions in check) tell someone that H-E-B sold Christmas stamps so Fio said good-bye to her new friends and sped on up to H-E-B, only to stand in a new line, this time at a register. Fio asked for nativity stamps, but the clerk said she only had Santa stamps, but that every register had a different stamp. Now your Fio was not about to spend her precious time standing in line at twenty registers to find out which one of them carried a stamp appropriate to her Christmas card so she walked over to the service desk and--voila!--the clerk had an acceptable batch of stamps on hand. Fio bought 100, which should put the national treasury back in good shape, then zoomed down to Hobby Lobby to buy more red ribbon for decking the halls, then drove home via Walgreens, where she picked up pildoras (pills) and a few Christmas treats.

The whole journey, Fio smiled a lot, talked to everyone, and even exchanged cards with a few other artist types. Yes, Fiorella on the roll is a sight to behold--and perhaps beware of. She is not the person her mother wanted her to be, but  Mother is long dead, and although  Fio feels her maternal love more and more every day, her strictures have faded away. Fio is Fio, and she will continue to devote every minute of her time to saving the world.

After Effects

Adrenaline does amazing things.  Monday morning, despite a good night's sleep, Fiorella spent another two hours on the couch after she woke up.  She was totally innervated--not an ounce of get-up-and-go in her body and her brain had an out-of-order sign draped on it.  She couldn't even think of what to do, much less get up the energy it do it.

That afternoon came the phone call from the Divine Liza.  Within five minutes, zing!  Fio's world went from dull to sparkling!  As soon as she was off the phone with Liza, she called friends, emailed her RWA chaptermates, notified friends and relatives.  Not only that, but she picked up her morning list and went down it, ticking off most of the things she had meant to do earlier.  And she got Husband to drive her over to Hobby Lobby to buy the art desk (40% off) she plans to put in the guest room.

And now she's still on her laptop at 9:18 PM when she usually packs it away at 8:00.  Oops--hope that doesn't mean she'll get up exhausted tomorrow and have to seek her adrenaline in chocolate.