Feb 4, 2014

Morning

I was woken up, very early this morning, by the sound of a door being closed from the bathroom.
I think it was around 1am.

I'm a light sleeper.
Have been ever since we brought Crash home.
It took me nearly an hour to fall back asleep as I had endless premonitions of my dogs running into the street and getting hit by a car. And then, consequently, trying to relax my heart beat and dry a couple tears on my pillow.

Just as I was finally drifting back off to sleep, Cat comes up into Bayou's bed and starts talking, like he always does, at 3am.
Talking talking talking.
I am talking back to him like is a human.
"Be quiet cat."
"It's too early."


He finally settles when Bayou wakes up and moves over to let him slide in beside him.

Just before my 5:20am alarm clock goes off, I hear the sound of a the cat yacking up a hair ball mere inches from my head.
Luckily he was closer to Bayou, who startled out of bed, grabbed the nearest t-shirt and caught the puke in the clothing before it hit the bed.
Off to the laundry he went.
I'm hoping he didn't just wad it into the laundry basket as a present to find later in the week.

My alarm goes off.
I hit snooze for 10 minutes and try to remember what the temperature is supposed to be for today.
I can't remember and hang half my body off the bed to scroll the internet on my phone.
Right. A high of 20. How can I forget.

I'm up.
Tiptoe-ing down the stairs to grab my kettlebells and ankle weights.
I silently work out in the sitting room, facing the entryway mirrored closet doors.
Hoping the dogs stay asleep a bit more.

Bayou is home this morning.
The weather has been trying and his work schedule has been backward most days.
But today he is here to help wrangle the animals into submission.

Both dogs are up and whining with the sounds of him coming down the stairs just before 6am.
I get their collars and coats on.
Flip the outside lights on to scare away any unwanted forest creatures that I fear my dogs will chase at some point while we live here.  They have already lost the summer battle with skunks.
Bayou is out of the shower and dressed and goes out with them.
Twice.
It's take them two times to figure out what needs to be done.

Food is laid out for them and for us.
I scurry back upstairs to reluctantly step in cat pee in the middle of the hallway.
A quick blot on the liquid and a sharp smell confirms it.

I'm late.
And Bayou is home with me.
I tell him what treasures lie upstairs for him and hop in the shower, but not before showing him which stain remover I typically use to clean up the mess one of the animals makes on a daily basis.
Paper towels are in the closet.

I get out, towel off, dress and spread de-frizz serum into my fraying hair.
A quick smear of foundation and the rest of my make-up goes into a bag to be applied on the train.

So very late.
Bayou leaves for work.
Burn is sitting in the ajoining room, chewing on a tennis ball.
I start to dry my hair.
Halfway through...I sense something is off.
Click off the hair drying and hear a tiny tear of fabric.

Shit.
Running into the sitting room, I find Burn has discovered one of my new sequin pillows for the newly upgraded sitting room and torn the edge off.
I survey the damage after loudly scolding him and swatting his rear end.
It may be fixable.
At least...after it's dried out and the drool is washed off.

I have to leave the house by 7:05am to catch my train at 7:15.
I wrap up by 7:10 and avoid falling on ice out the back door.
Time is on my side as the train is ten minutes late.

I have a few minutes to stop sweating before it arrives.

Tomorrow is a new day.
One day closer to Spring.
One more day to remember that I will only be able to have "these types of mornings" for so long and will miss them, regardless of how un-glamorous they are.