A day from the warm place.

First words out of SemperFi's mouth this morning were, "Did you get any of my work done yesterday?" I gave him a frosty smile and one arched eyebrow and retorted, "Yes, but nothing that would show."

And then I went round and round with TheKid via email because we have two cases where the Plaintiff's names begin with the same letter of the alphabet. One case is closing; the other is not. So we had two email strings going, and all of a sudden he's giving me instructions for case A in the case B email. Brain freeze. I remonstrated. He said, basically, that two cases shouldn't be that hard to keep straight. I reminded him that I have half of his docket (and will have all of it tomorrow), plus SemperFi, plus the attorney I'm backing up. She was absolutely no trouble today.

Mid-afternoon I could not tell that I had taken a muscle relaxer last night. My neck, back, and shoulders were one angry Gordian knot, and I didn't trust myself with a sword. I was this [---] far from tears, and I wanted nothing more than to come home, curl up in a ball under my covers, and sleep until tomorrow.

But I reminded myself that after a day like this, I deserved to spend the evening with people I love, and thankfully Fourthborn was ready to be social. Middlest is still getting over an upper respiratory infection and was snoozing deeply when I left the house this morning.

On the road to pick up Fourthborn, I blasted my Scott Joplin station on Pandora, which helped. Picked up sandwiches from the newly remodeled Arby's, then my kid, and while I waited for her to come out of her apartment, I checked Facebook to discover that nobody was going to Knit Night, so I followed my "We're coming" post with "Since nobody else is coming, we're going to eat and head to Barnes and Noble."

I got four rounds of pattern done on Middlest's second mitt before losing patience. We left the bookstore and made a beeline for Braum's, opting for single scoops of peppermint chocolate chip. I took Fourthborn home, picked up a finished quilt block (mine) and one to sew (hers). I had originally planned to bring Firstborn's Christmas bag and Fourthborn's block (no, let's be honest, I probably would have forgotten that part), but didn't remember until I was halfway to work.

Texted Firstborn to say that I'd forgotten, so we wouldn't be swinging by before Knit Night, and that I was now officially out of the running for mother of the year.

Had a good visit with Fourthborn, if by visit you mean I knitted and she browsed books and the toy department before settling down with a game on her DS(?) We did talk, a little, like civilized human beings, but mostly it was parallel play.

On the way home I listened to my Eva Cassidy station, and luck of the draw meant that I got a lot of songs about missing someone who's gone away. The moon is full(ish), which always reminds me of Beloved, and Saturday is our fifth anniversary. It's extremely inconvenient that he is out of reach right now, because I need a good cry, and I want to be held while I cry.

Middlest, who had a fairly icky day because the antibiotics rile up my kid's innards, said when we hugged goodnight, "I hope you dream of Beloved tonight, and I hope he gets to spend part of that dream checking you for ticks." First and probably last belly laugh of the day.

Oh, one tender mercy: phone call from one of my new brothers (Beloved's brother). They are going on a cruise in a few weeks and will be overnighting in BigD and want to take me to dinner. They are truly lovely people, and I'm looking forward to that.

And now I'm going to brush my teeth and attempt to read my scriptures. I did it the other way around last night, and I think the cold water from my water flosser was just enough shock to keep me wakeful.