The Day After

Getting ready to hit the road. I have a load that has to deliver in Valdosta, Georgia by midnight. But it's to a distribution center, so no one really cares when I get it there. Still, there's no point in dragging my feet here.

Christmas went pretty well. It felt really odd to just be me and Mama. Christmas with Mama was always about her and Loretta, and I sort of floated happily on the perimeter. So I didn't know what to expect from this. But it went well.

Thanks to my aunt, Sherry, I was able to “pull one over” on Mama. She'd wanted a natural-light lamp to help with her cross-stitching, and in typical Mama fashion, was determined she was going to get one. So Sherry ordered it for me, but we told Mama that we couldn't get it, that they were back-ordered. Then when it came in Sherry wrapped it up and put it under her tree so Mama wouldn't be nosing around. Mama had no idea, and was thrilled on Christmas Day. That was fun. One of her presents didn't come in, which disappointed me, but most of them did, so it wasn't a compelete loss. And she's still like a kid with her new flat-panel monitor.

As for me, Mama went above-and-beyond, as she always does. She bought me a digital camera, among other things. I was blown away by the camera, because I didn't think Mama had that kind of money. She's been wanting me to have another camera since the last one went missing after Mara left. I have to admit that cellphone pictures suck, for the most part. It'll be nice to take real pictures again.

If anyone's hungry, there's a boat-load of food at Mama's apartment. As ever, she went a little over-board. I told her while she was cooking to keep in mind that it was just me and her. But after both of us gorging ourselves for days, there's still a chocolate pie, a pecan pie, most of a chocolate cake, a good bit ham and turkey, and some potato salad. Mama said “You better get to eating.” Hehe. Geez. I'm leaving in a few hours.

Well, there's not much else to report. I'm a little melancholic (is that a word?) today. I'm not so much dreading going back out as I am just feeling lost. But that's usual. Hopefully now that Christmas is over I can move on without feeling so afrift. I'm really hopeful about the coming year. But as ever, we'll see.

I should be here next weekend, so I guess I'll actually get to observe New Year's Eve. A part of me wishes I could just stay on the road and ignore yet another occasion, but what the hell?