Unexpected pleasures

Nala was curled up in my lap, trying to distract me from my goal of editing pictures for a new recipe. I had wrapped up in my green fuzzy blanket--the night before it had dropped into the thirties, and even though we'd kicked the heater on when we got up, it was still cold in the house. After some coaxing (or, more accurately, picking her up and setting her on the floor) Nala was finally out of my lap, and I reached for the mouse to resume my work.

The phone rang.

Wondering if the fates were planning on driving me crazy that day, I fished out my phone and answered, "Hello?"

"Hey Hols, do you have plans this afternoon?" came the voice of Walking Hyperbole.

My eyes flitted from unfinished chore to unfinished chore which I had ignored in my eagerness to get up an 'interesting article' for my father. "No... not really. Why, what's up?" I asked.

"I need to run to the city to pick up [Adorable Nurse's] birthday present, and I really hate making that drive by myself. Would you like to come with?" Walking Hyperbole asked.

For about 0.02 seconds I thought about the recipe I was working on and all the chores awaiting my attention. Screw it. "Sure! What time do you want to go?" After all, I could probably get a few things done.

Walking Hyperbole said, "I'll be there in five minutes."

"Oh, okay," I said, blinking a little in surprise. "Well, I'll see you--" Click. "--soon then."

I stared at the phone for a count of five, and then oh-my-I'm-leaving-in-a-few-minutes-and-am-only-half-dressed panic kicked in.

Flying about the house like a chipmunk on speed, I quickly finished getting dressed, pulling my hair up, putting my jewelry on, making the bed, picking up clutter, throwing dishes into the sink, and saving all of my photos. As I hit enter on the last file, Walking Hyperbole was knocking on the door.

"You ready to go?" He asked.

I nonchalantly picked up my purse and double checked I had my keys.

"Ready when you are."

The afternoon was just like when we were kids at the local university. We talked the entire drive up, while shopping, through lunch, the entire drive back to town, and then well into the afternoon. Mostly it was about D&D, but also about classes and friends and local politics and things we'd seen and heard on TV/radio.

It truly made my day.