When Stuff Breaks Down

Guys. I promise the next post will be full of light and love and the kind of whipped creamy goodness you've come to expect from this here blog. (All 9 of you who stuck with me of the 230 people who used to read my blog when I was on social media. Hi, Mom! Howdy, Christy! Hey, Jana! Hola, other half-dozen people! I'm sure I love you!)

So.

I've had a bit of a week, if I may. Also, I know what I'm about to tell you is SO MINOR compared to actual, real, damaging, devastating situations other people face. This will let you know how good I guess my life is, that these events can bring me down. But, man, they did.

First, cool thing: I've been planning a family vacation for over a year. We're closing in on our travel dates, which I won't tell you and we have a house-sitter, so don't think you can come steal the big screen TV we don't have, or the expensive electronics that we also don't have because we're taking our inexpensive electronics with us on our trip. But please, feel free to abscond with a cat or two. Just get your own Modkat litter box. Trust me. You do NOT want to transport a used one in your vehicle.

So last week, I noticed Mal had the cavity, about which you have read in two posts, and I'll spare you the repeated deets (which was the cool kid way to shorten "details" about 6 years ago).

Just before THAT, the "check engine" light had come on in my SUV. I'd gone by AutoZone and they'd told me that the codes indicated an O2 sensor was the problem. I came home and filled out an appointment request for the garage. They called me and confirmed the appointment for August 24, but I'd heard August 21, because that was my preference and he didn't say which weekday. So I showed up at 10 AM (early commitment for us because I never know when Mal will be up and moving) only to find that I was 3 days early.

Meanwhile, James's "change oil" notification showed up on his car. So, really neither car was fit to drive, but... well, we had to.

THEN, as you'll remember, I went in to the dentist's on the 24th and she was out, so Mal got really anxious for nothing, and I got him up early (9 this time!) for nothing, then we dropped the SUV off at the garage and took a Lyft home.

Mal's review: "I'm having a beautiful ride!"

By about 4:30, we hadn't heard anything so I called the garage. The guy gave me some rigmarole about how some of the codes were weird, but I got the distinct feeling that they hadn't done more in the previous 8 hours than exactly what I had done at AutoZone. Said they would probably not have an answer until Monday.

Friday night, Mal wanted to go to Target, but... James's car. I called the only place still opened and asked if they could change the oil that night, but because James's car is a Fiat 500, some places don't have his filter in stock. They said they'd order it and I could come in the next day. She set an appointment for 10 AM, and I promised Mal we'd go to Target after that.

Turns out, I lied to him, but not on purpose.

When we got there the next morning, the lady asked me if I was dropping the car off. I told her that would be impossible. She said she wasn't sure how they would have gotten my filter by then since I wasn't "even in the system." So I left. She had offered to order the part and call me, but by then, I was pretty peeved.

I drove to Walmart, then remembered that they can't change the oil in a Fiat 500. So I called a Firestone down the way, and they said I'd have to drop it off because Friday, Saturday, and Sundays were just the busiest days. He offered to make an appointment for during the week, and I cried.

Here's a picture showing how ridiculous I look in reading glasses, just to break the monotony.
#thebettertoseeyouwith

I got home and made an online appointment with a different Firestone for around dinner time. It is in the same shopping area as a McDonald's and Taco Bell, so we made a family night of it. I did call before the appointment to ask if they were going to be able to do it, and they affirmed that they could. They did ask James if we were leaving it overnight, though. Sigh.

One down.

Yesterday morning, I again pulled Mal out of bed and put him straight into the car seat. James works from home on Mondays and Fridays, so I was able to use his vehicle. As soon as we pulled out of the driveway, there was an error message that a front tire was down to 24.6 PSI. Big sigh. Filed away for later.

We got to the office, and the hygienist called us back. She was a kind older lady, but she kept calling Mal "she," so I finally mentioned he was a boy. She said, "Oh, I couldn't tell because of the long hair." Not in a friendly way.

She was plenty patient while Mal balked at sitting in the chair, and eventually resigned herself to just brushing Mal's teeth with a Lightning McQueen brush because he said, "I don't want a motor!" Even then, I had to hold him in the chair, kneeling beside him, and talk gently to him the whole time.

When the dentist came in, she asked the hygienist a few things, and when she got to the x-rays, the lady said, "We didn't get them because of his behavior."

Well, that's factual. His behavior, specifically, was communicating "I am terrified." And at some point, she just looked at me and said, "There's no way we can get x-rays today."

But it sounded like he refused or was being a brat or something. Or maybe I'm overly-sensitive, but I've never had a kid with cavities before, and I was feeling very anxious, as you know.

She had managed to get the vitamins on Mal's teeth, too, but he gagged several times. The dentist got him back in the chair and did the exam, pointing out one cavity I hadn't noticed (which I still can't see, but I'm not the expert, so I'll take her word for it), for a total of four cavities over five teeth.

The first recommendation she had was general anesthesia. For a 3-year-old. With tooth decay, or dental caries, that have not penetrated the enamel. So, no. I made a mental note that we were going to find a different dentist.

Her second recommendation was something I'd read about: silver diamine fluoride. It turns the decay black, but gives it a "complicated disease" that kills it and arrests the decay. It doesn't repair the teeth, but prevents damage, most effectively when reapplied within six months.

So we made an appointment to do that, and I knew as soon as it was over, we'd be the hell out of that office.

On the way out to the car, I saw that the garage had called, they had figured out the problem (IT WAS AN OXYGEN SENSOR... WHAT?!), and they gave me an estimate, which I approved.

The Firestone where we had the tires balanced at the same time we had the oil changed is also in the same shopping center as the dentist's office, McD's, Taco Bell, et. al. So we drove over, the guy checked the tires, and they were ALL low. So someone just didn't inflate them properly. They fixed it immediately.

Last night at 5, we got our SUV back.

I almost blogged last night about how relieved I was that we were almost finished with all outstanding issues, because I can barely go to bed with the dishwasher running as I know it means I'll have to empty dishes one of the first things in the morning. I cannot stand having unresolved things.

But I didn't blog. My body gave out at 9:30, and I went to sleep before Mal. Mostly. He woke me up to go to sleep, but I'd been asleep (and, maybe, snoring) for a while.

Then, at 4:00 AM, I woke up in a cold sweat. I was so panicky. I couldn't put my finger on it, but the thought of going into that office was so dark and foreboding. I tried to go to sleep for an hour and a half, but ended up waking James up, crying, because I was so stressed and sad. I told him I'd decided to have them do the back 2 teeth only, and we'd monitor the front ones. First, I thought this was all Mal would be able to tolerate. Second, it had occurred to me that I have a silver allergy. That's why we have silicone wedding bands now. Mal might not be allergic, but what if he is?

By 7, I was shaking. I'd read that patients reported a "metallic taste" and had been reading about how silver diamine fluoride stains EVERYTHING it comes into contact with. Allegedly, only the decay on teeth stays stained; anything else will clear up in 2-14 days. But I had this mental picture of Mal tasting the metal, gagging, and somehow upsetting the mouth guard (which I don't think he'd love, anyway) and not taking the full minute for it to dry because of his freaking out, and how worried he was that the "paint" was going to be "sour" like the mint toothpaste, and how scared he was at the exam, and... I was literally physically ill.

I cancelled the appointment.

I'm going to find a more holistic/alternative/gentle dentist. I got a couple of referrals from another unschooling mom. But in the meantime, I'm implementing a plan.

First, I have to admit, I haven't been militant with Mal's brushing up until now. I had false confidence because D's teeth were never a problem, so skipping a day of brushing if he fell asleep before we got to it... meh. No more of that.

Second, we'd never given him fluoride toothpaste because he's never spit. He always eats the toothpaste. We got him some this weekend, and it turns out he is fine with spitting it out because he doesn't like the way it tastes like he does the training toothpaste.

Third, we're brushing with the fluoride twice a day, and then periodically with just the brush after he has sticky stuff like fruit snacks.

Fourth, I commandeered some of D's Wisps to keep in my purse, as well as Xylitol bubble gum for after snacking out and about.

I know that dental decay takes 4-8 years to pierce the enamel. Mal hasn't had most of his teeth for 4 years. And the worst decay is on the molar that came in a year and a half ago. So I feel reasonably confident that we can wait a couple of months before getting a second opinion, given my more aggressive cleaning regimen.

I don't usually freak out about stuff like I did this, so I'm going to chalk it up to intuition. I was really hoping to have everything stamped "HANDLED" by today, but it looks like I'm going to have to be patient. I'm not super great at that.

Follow-Up (Or How It All Ended... Almost)

This is a story all about how my life got flipped, turned upside down...

Not really. Just a continuation of the previous post about home and car repairs and whatnot and so forth.

The house: The water damage guy came back on Monday (President's Day) to find that D's room was mostly dry. All of the areas where we saw water leaching and leaking from the ceiling were fine. At the wall shared with our bathroom, though, it was still damp. He moved some stuff around, took one fan, put the dehumidifier in our bathroom, and left everything another day. By Tuesday, it was all dry, so D finally got to return to the isolation chamber.

Joking aside, that kid handled the stress of having basically zero privacy for four days amazingly. It made me very proud, and hopeful for the future, since the anxiety management was so effective.

The SUV, however, is another matter: I picked it up from the shop on Thursday morning, about a week ago, to find that the gas gauge didn't work anymore. It had worked before, and we'd already had the "the battery keeps dying" drama, and I wasn't ready to handle finding a ride home and keeping the vehicle there, so I put it off for a bit. I did call them and told them what had happened, and they said to let them know when I could bring it back in.

THEN the water thing happened, and there was no way I could handle the auto repairs while we were dealing with all of that.

Also, we'd agreed to donate our Cobalt to KUT, holding off about two weeks after our SUV purchase to make sure it would run okay, and we were getting close to that pick-up with no definite resolution on the new (to us) vehicle.

In the midst of this, Mal and I drove up to see my parents and spend a night just to get some people out of our house, which was down one bedroom and one bath. The Torrent drove beautifully, and was SO much more comfortable than the car. It gets pretty good mileage, too: 24 mpg for the first couple hundred miles we drove it.

Unfortunately, the "check engine" light was still on, so it wouldn't pass inspection, and we couldn't register it. The clock is ticking on that particular item, too, as half of the 30 days have now elapsed.

So yesterday, we took the SUV back to Klingemann. After we'd been there almost an hour, they said it would take at least another hour just to get the fuel tank out, and then they'd have to evaluate what was wrong. They kindly gave us a shuttle home; I'd intended to take a Lyft, which was $11, but after 11:30, the "busy lunch" rate kicked in and it was almost $30!

Last night, they called us and said they'd put a whole new (not after-market) fuel pump in and had had the same problem. He told me he'd call me back on Saturday.

I got two calls this morning.

The first call was from a lady whose brother bought the 1/3 acre lot right behind our back lot about a week ago. I had heard them looking at it last Friday, and James had met them on Saturday when Mal and I were in Temple.

The lady is interested in purchasing our "extra" lot so she can retire here. We spoke for a bit this morning, and I learned that Jonestown apparently adopted some building guidelines that would make it impossible for our house to be built today: Namely, that homes have to be at least 1000 square feet (check) and have to have a 2-car garage (nope). Anyway, we chatted for a bit and she made it clear that she wasn't interested in haggling, so for us to tell her what we'd take for it and get back to her.

Then Klingemann called. And they made me cry. This probably would have happened, regardless of the prognosis, but he said basically this: We put in a third fuel pump and had the exact same problem, so we put it in fluid and realized that the sender is bad. I have one on order from Houston. Had we caught it last week, and we should have, we could have told you that it would cost extra. Since we didn't, we're going to eat it. We'll have the part Monday and get your car back to you then.

So. Whew.

After this, James, Mal, and I went out to the back 40 to see exactly what we'd be selling off. Long story short, we had such a good time (well, all of us but Mal, who was scared and wanted to go to our "real" back yard) that we decided we couldn't part with the land until Mal has had a chance to get out there and explore and have adventures in a few years. Maybe when we get another dog.

This tree is LCRA property, but all of the stuff on the back of the grotto, in the background, is on our back lot.

Besides, 5 years from now, that property just might be worth double what it is now (the tax assessment went up 125% after we bought the property), and that's a lot better a return than we'd get if we sold it and put the proceeds into some investment.

I have high hopes now that I might be able to get the car titled and registered next week. The only possible hold-up will be that it's an out-of-state title and the seller has zero desire to go with me to the tax office (which they recommend), but I'm pretty charming and look legit, right?

One more kind of cool thing from today: We got out for a bit and when I came home and checked the mail, I was surprised to find two prepaid cards I knew *should* be coming, but one never knows...

A couple of months ago, I'd seen an offer for this credit card where you could get what is tantamount to a couple hundred dollars after you'd spent $500 during the first three months. Please! Our car repair and a couple of household bills, and we hit it on mine AND James's. And within a week, they sent us the cards! It was just a nice, encouraging way to approach the end of this whole set of circumstances.

AND, speaking of surprisingly quick action: I filed my taxes on February 11. They estimated that I'd have the refund by March 6, which wasn't in time to make our next mortgage payment and meant we'd have to pull MORE out of our dwindling savings. However, when I logged into my bank account on February 17, IT WAS THERE. So we paid EVERYTHING off that I'd been holding out on until the regular salary payments started back up, AND we have enough to make the mortgage payment with no further withdrawals.

Whoo! Getting back on track feels good.

And lest you think it's all fun and games, I realized this morning that we're 2 weeks out from Daylight Saving Time and if we keep our current schedule, Mal will be going to bed at 12:30 AM and sleeping until 11. Ugh. Let us all hope this story has a twist and as happy an ending as all of this other stuff.

Freedom Trail: Last Entry (Probably)

Thanks to everyone who pitied rather than panned my previous post. We really were having a good time, but, dang, those 3.5 hours were intense. And that was on top of traveling with a high-needs little, and just the logistics of trying to balance what a teen needs and wants with what a toddler needs and wants, and trying to have fun with both, and also the older one has a lot of social anxiety and blah blah blah... so travel is a little more complicated than when it was just me and my adventurous little girl. Still good. Just different.

So, that night I DID sleep reallllly hard... until Mal fell off of the bed, wedging himself head-down between the bed and the wall. *sigh* He woke frequently after that and I don't think I slept much at all because every time he rolled over, I flinched and felt for the edge of the bed. We solved that the next night by sleeping sideways, which we'd done in the king bed at the hotel the night before. James and I liked that so much, we're considering trying it at home.

Sunday morning, we had breakfast at the Super 8 which, although it was a lot scrawnier than at the Hampton Inn in OKC, was still not too bad. I walked over to the Walgreen's to get Daphne some bottled water and to get me a soda. They weren't open at 8:30, so even though it was raining, I walked a bit further to a neat newish gas station and got a fountain drink. By the time I walked back, it wasn't raining anymore, but when I got to the hotel, it really started pouring.

Mal played with the door open all morning, enjoying the deluge and his trucks. A bit before our friend Michael met us, I went in to wake Daphne up and she was sick. She typically gets ill on every trip we take, but usually it's the day we leave or the next. This time, she was disease-free for three whole days, so it's an improvement. She elected to stay home for the day to recoup.

Mike came over after church, then we drove over to the mall in Fort Smith to meet my "oldest" friend, Pam, and her family for lunch. Yeah, the food court at the mall might not be the classiest place, but it's that whole thing about teen needs and toddler needs. Playground for Mal, the mall for Pam's girls.

It was great catching up with Pam, sort of. Not sort of great. Sort of catching up. Between Michael catching her up with his life (they meet in the community here and there as he's a police officer and she's a nurse, so lots of the same circles), Mal running around, and acquiring and eating food, a lot of it was just the joy of hanging out for a couple of hours.

During all of this, James took Mal on an electric zebra ride, and I'm super bummed that I didn't get pictures! Mal played a lot on the playground, and then he found a mop bucket to push around. Unfortunately, it was one of a half dozen buckets placed strategically to collect drips from the leaky ceiling, so to distract him when we put it back, I had to take him on an electric monkey ride, and I had to keep myself from giggling and yelling, "Woo hoo!" while we rode around the mall.


When I was a kid and then a teenager walking around Central Mall, I am pretty sure I never envisioned a day when I'd be riding a motorized animal through there. I'm still pretty bummed that they took out the fountains, too.

After we said goodbye to Pam and her family, we drove around a bit. We drove by our house in Fort Smith ("You lived in the ghetto," Michael helpfully informed me. We did. I didn't know it at the time.), and then my old elementary school. The last time I was in town, five years ago or so, it looked just like it did when I was in school. They have since added tornado shelters at all of the elementary schools, and given them security updates to facilitate more security. I loved the old look of Morrison Elementary, but time marches on.

Then we drove out to where James used to live when we were in high school. I went there quite often but have no memory of where it was, even now that we've revisited it.

Mal started getting grumpy at that point, so I managed to nurse him to sleep in the car. Mike and James dropped me off and were going to head out to Michael's house, but Mal woke up as soon as I laid him down. I went ahead and hung out with him for a while at the hotel. I ordered D Chinese food delivery since she hadn't eaten yet, but she didn't feel well enough to eat more than an eggroll.

An hour or so later, Mal and I went out to Michael's. Mal loved jumping on the trampoline, and it was so good to get to see Mike's parents again.

We came back home, and Mal wanted to walk. We walked over to Geno's Pizza (I'd eaten at the one at the mall for lunch and thought it'd be AWESOME to do pizza-by-the-slice twice in one day!) but they were closed. I got James and me dinner at Taco Bell, then we walked back. Mal went to sleep around 9:30 or 10 and slept restlessly but at least he didn't fall out of bed that time.

Monday morning, I waited until after 9 and Mal and I walked to Walgreen's to get D some iron pills. Mal was playing with the big bouncy balls while I looked for the supplements. I walked around the corner and when I came back, couldn't see him. I called for him as I walked toward the balls, and when I got there realized... he'd climbed into the big ball holder and was just sitting there enjoying himself.

I got him a battery-operated bubble machine, checked the instructions, and saw that I needed to buy batteries, too. We got our stuff and walked back to the hotel.

Mal was excitedly saying, "Bee-buh!" while I opened the box... only to realize that we needed a tiny screwdriver to put the batteries in. James walked over to Walgreens to get an eyeglass repair kit for me to keep in my purse. He finally got the battery pack open... only to realize that we needed AA batteries, not the AAA that I'd bought. SO I WALKED BACK TO WALGREENS TO EXCHANGE THE BATTERIES. And, it turns out, Mal was scared of the machine, anyway. AND, it further turns out, I accidentally left it sitting on top of the TV in the hotel when we left, anyway. So.

I really hope a housekeeper took it home to her kid.

Yesterday at 11, we headed toward Gore to see James' dad's family. We hung out for a few hours and had a nice time visiting with everyone. Mal loved the daytime firecrackers! He liked the black cats and the smoke bombs and the snapping smoke bombs. He'd cover his own ears, but when the noise would stop, he'd clap and then sign "more." I'm glad he wasn't afraid. I know some kids are pathologically terrified.

Around 4:30, we started back toward OKC. We got into town before 7 and people were already gathering at Bricktown; we could tell there would be fireworks.

We dropped D and the bags off at the hotel, then James, Mal, and I drove the car back to Enterprise and dropped it off. We weren't the first people to do that. The parking lot was full, people had double-parked, and we took the third to the last (double-parked) spot.

I'd brought the carrier, so strapped Mal on to walk to the Memorial. I thought he might prefer to walk, having been in the car for two hours (he slept the whole way, praise the Lord), but he was ECSTATIC about my holding him. He kept putting his head on my chest and making happy noises.

It was hot, but the sun was setting and we had some good shade. We saw some beautiful churches and got to stretch our legs from the drive. The Memorial is lovely and haunting and sobering and peaceful and I'm so glad we got to experience it.

James is the one who first noticed the smaller chairs. So senseless. There have been so many terrorist attacks abroad this week. It's just evil and such a waste of life. I pray that there will be some peace in the hearts of those who plan destruction, that they would find it unnecessary and give up.

James was pretty parched, so we walked back to the hotel and he hydrated, Mal watched videos, and I went to get some dinner. Daphne seemed like she was ready to eat, so that was a good sign.

Mal was ready to go to sleep just as the fireworks were starting directly behind us. James watched them out the window, but I was nursing Mal and only got to hear the half-hour show. He was so tired, it didn't bother him one bit.

Although Mal woke up as usual over the night, he slept better than he has the rest of the trip. Today, we've just stayed at the hotel, resting. He's waking from a nap now, and we'll probably head outside to do something. Then again, maybe not. It's been awesome to have a day "off" before heading home tomorrow.

Freedom Trail, Part Deux

You know what I miss? The days when I could travel and not have a major emotional breakdown at least once during the trip. Seriously, what the heck?? I think it started with Haiti and has become my "thing" now. I don't like it!

So... after Mal's nap yesterday, we walked over to Bass Pro Shops. He was still so tired and didn't want to walk. so even though James is using his cane right now, we took turns carrying Mal because he just wouldn't budge... or he'd wrap himself around one of our legs so that no one could walk.

Ooh, look at the beautiful nature!

We had a neat time window-shopping at Bass Pro (I'd upload pictures, but the connection here stinks, so will wait until we're back in OKC). Then we went across the street to get Mal some "deedah" and French fries. After that, we serendipitously wandered into Triple Play Trailer Days or something sponsored by the Dodgers in the parking lot next to the Thunder baseball stadium. It was a bunch of food trucks, live music, and bounce houses. Mal danced around a lot, saw dogs, and had a good time. James got "Chicago-style" tacos which involve some kind of red meat and thin corn tortillas, and then we shared a slice of Southern Bourbon Buttermilk Pie. 

When we got back, Mal watched some videos before bedtime. Then he ignored bedtime and stayed awake pretty much all night, waking and crying soon after nodding off each time, so we all kind of slept like garbage.

This morning, we got up, had breakfast, tried to get Mal to swim, but he was just exhausted and unwilling, so I went to get our car while James packed up the room. We reserved and paid for a sedan, but ended up with a super sweet Chevy Tahoe! It has third-row seating, rear-view camera, and a ton of features James could tell you about because he read the entire owner's manual online on our way from OKC to Van Buren.

Okay, so here's what happened with me and my stupid hormones and stress and stuff. Last night, I got a really bad feeling about the hotel I'd booked five months ago for our Arkansas stay. Like really really "don't stay there" bad. So I canceled and booked a suite across the river.

First, stupid Priceline... they told me I'd have to cancel through their booking partner and, no you can't do it online, you have to call, and while I was on hold with the booking partner, I found the website and searched and found a place to cancel online, and told the chat help she was wrong, and she totally ignored that. I've always had good luck with Priceline, but this was just dumb.

But anyway, so today we got our car and headed out early. D was awesome, getting up and being ready to go super quickly. Her hours are so different from ours, but she's a trooper on trips and has said that even though she doesn't participate in everything we do, she thinks getting out of the house and having a change of pace is nice for her.

We got into town at 12:30, and stopped by the hotel to see if we could check in early. They said no, they'd been sold out last night and were sold out again tonight and just couldn't swing it. No worries, we'd be back at 2. I went to the restroom where Mal hung out with me. I wanted to freshen up, so I put on some powder and eyeliner. Mal started freaking out about the fan in the bathroom, so I gathered up my makeup and we went out to the car. I could tell that the eyeliner had smeared because of my having to carry Mal around (looking up and stuff, which I can't do until it dries) so when we got out to the car, I wiped my whole face with a baby wipe and decided to start over after I was cool enough not to be sweating. I had thrown my make-up into the passenger seat of the car, then shoved it over to sit down while James went into the restroom and we decided where to eat.

D had kind of fallen asleep, so we were waking her up and I was putting my makeup back into my purse when I realized I'd been sitting a bit on some bb cream I have that is in a pump, and a lot of it had squeezed out onto the (fortunately leather) seat and all over the left leg of my pants. We were supposed to see James' family later, I only have one outfit for each day, and I might have uttered the F word repeatedly as I jumped out of the car to assess the damage.

I chalked this up to having not had much sleep for the past two nights. I was just done, emotionally. We walked across the street (down the road and across the street, and it was 100 degrees and NASTY) to Braum's for lunch. That place was filthy and the people working there were either slow or inept or both. After we ate, we killed time in the grocery, then James and I decided to get ice cream. The guy had never made what James ordered, and kept looking at the menu to see what was supposed to be on it, and it took so long James just told him to forget it. This was after he dumped one of my scoops into the floor because he wasn't paying attention to how he was holding the cone.

My point is: we were all hot and tired and ready to relax in our hotel. We walked back at two and apparently our sheets weren't dry yet. We were told it'd be another 20 minutes (it was more than half an hour). We hung out on the stairs. D played a game on my phone, and Mal just played. It's all the same to him. But he was so up-and-down and we were ready to be comfy.

I finally asked if we could just move our bags from our car into the room, and when we started doing that, James asked me where I was going to put Daphne. I said, "In the bed in the room, and we can sleep on the pull-out couch." He said, "Which room? There's only one room. Come look." 

Well, the picture on the website shows the bed in a separate room, but apparently that's only the king suite with the hot tub. I told the lady we needed two rooms. They were sold out. I called another hotel in the area and they had rooms available tonight but not tomorrow night. I was exhausted and hopeless, and we were just going to get our bags, get back in the car, and figure out what to do.

The lady at the front desk, when told we were going to leave, said she'd show me one more room they had. It's a suite with two beds but they're just separated by a wall. We need a door. D has weird hours and she's a teenager who isn't related to James by blood. She needs her own space. I told the lady we'd rent another room, they didn't have to be connected. She said that she could have rented me the suite and its adjoining room, but they'd just sold it. But somehow, after being very concerned about how much I was crying, she managed to make it work and we were in our rooms by 4 PM, cranking down the functioning a/c. The suite where we were supposed to stay didn't seem to have a very effective unit, as it was set to 64 and pretty warm. D's room is set to 64 and it feels like a refrigerator case.

Finally, Mal got to watch his videos and I took a shower. Then the three of us headed out to see James' aunt and uncle. D stayed at the hotel to unwind. We actually tried to stop at Kopper Kettle Candies, but they're closed this weekend for the holiday.

Mal fell asleep in the car right before we got to James' family's house. He woke up when we got him out, but was just sort of whiny and "off" and nursing every five minutes for literally 6 seconds at a time, and asking for stuff we didn't understand, etc. He was sweet and cute and tried to be friendly and charming. He loved the dog, and was very interested in the bird. But he was spent. 

I ended up following him outside, and he walked down to the pond. We spent some time gathering duck or goose feathers before it was time to go out to dinner. On our way back into town, Mal fell asleep again. We decided to drop James off at the restaurant, and I brought Mal back to the hotel so he could sleep.

Turns out I only had the key to D's room, but she let us hang out with her for an hour. I think it helped that Mal was asleep. James got home, let us out of the meat closet, and Mal's been asleep ever since. I'm hoping he sleeps better tonight, and I definitely need to get to bed NOW to monopolize on his exhaustion.