Happy Birthday Reuben

I stayed up way too late last night trying to get a zillion things accomplished. This resulted in me sleeping through my alarm clock. When I finally woke, I thought I still had time to get ready and get on the road to arrive in time for my nephew's party. So I rushed through a shower and packing and headed to the grocery store to pick up a gift bag, tissue paper, and card. I purchased the gift last weekend, but haven't had time to wrap it. Then off to McDonald's drive-through to pick up breakfast. At this point, I realized I had left my cell phone at home. I went back home to get it and then received a call from Kyra's dad saying he needed for me to pick up Kyra earlier than we had originally planned. I did the math and realized that if I drove to Fitzgerald, I would only have about an hour there before I would have to turn around and drive back with a total of about 7-8 hours driving. Of course this assumed that there would be no traffic delays. I was already extremely stressed about all that's gone wrong and after driving 8 hours yesterday I decided to just cancel. I hope he had a great birthday party. We'll make plans to go visit some other time in the near future when we can stay longer than an hour and Kyra can join me.

So I spent most of the day ironing, doing laundry, cleaning, paying bills, calling air conditioner repair services, arranging for yard service, feeling guilty about missing the party, etc. My exhaustion finally hit me at 3:30 p.m., since I only got about 4 hours sleep last night. I had 45 minutes before I needed to leave to get Kyra, so I laid down on my sheetless bed (laundry) and took a mini-nap/rest. I know I didn't sleep the entire time because my mind was racing stressfully. But I attempted to force my mind to slow down and eventually relax. At a minimum, I wound down. By the time I got up, my stress had lessened.

I picked Kyra up and then we drove to Southern Cross Guest Ranch. We were assigned the Southern Belle room, which is located above the dining room. They had a small band playing in the dining room: 2 men playing guitar and singing. Kyra doesn't like crowds, and didn't want to sit in the crowded dining room to listen. Although I really wanted to be present to support the concept of entertainment at the ranch, I'm also not a fan of crowded areas, so I compromised with her. We hung out in our room, with the door open, so we could still hear the music. The room had a great view of the pool and pasture and an incredibly comfortable bed. I managed to totally relax this evening and put all my worries away for another day.