PTSD averted

Once again this morning I was grateful I had dogs instead of kids. I mean beyond the standard “my dogs will never deal drugs, watch anime porn or deplete the greater Wichita metropolitan area of it’s itinerant worker population using a crude but effective shiv he formed himself using an empty Schlitz can”.
No, this morning it was a much cruder sentiment. First, let me set up. On the weekends I keep my alarm clock on for the same time it goes off during the week. I don’t necessarily get up with it, but I find that if I wake up once in the morning then it prevents me from sleeping til 3 in the afternoon and wasting my day.
Anyway, the alarm goes off this morning at 7am the way it always does. I lay there for a bit trying to figure out what the fuck is going on and why the hell am I dreaming about delayed shuttle launches. Slowly it seeps in that the alarm is going off, it’s not monday, if I turn it off I can go back to sleep! Huzzah for the shopkeep!
I own a king sized bed, a big bed, I can’t just reach the alarm from where I sleep (sprawled out across the middle) I must roll to it. As luck would have it, Ghengis is quite often between me and the alarm if David isn’t there. I rolled my doughy fatitude over him, hit the alarm and went back to sleep. Ghengis reacted by making his mudgeon noise, stretching and cuddling into my back.
Ghengis won’t remember it at all.
Now, if I had a child who somehow managed to get in my bed and I was naked (which I wouldn’t be if my kid was in my bed, but let’s just go with the model as it stands), if ghengis were a child (a human child) I suspect that they would react in the same way initially and then…
then 20 years later you would find the full grown version of that child lying fetal on the kitchen floor and weeping, a can of Pilsbury biscuit dough exploded on the counter. This sudden trigger of memory will cost me thousands in therapy bills.
Dogs are better than kids!

Auntie Sue

I adore my Aunt Sue. I really do.
My mom is the oldest of 6 siblings and her sister Sue is the youngest. There is a 17 year difference between them and a mere 4 year difference between Sue and I. As such, being so close in age I feel more like peers…more like friends.
But the reality is that my aunt Sue is light years ahead of me in the maturity department. 5 kids, a husband, college, working. All those grown up responsible things that I never managed to master completely. If I could work even 1/10 as hard as she does I might actually be able accomplish something with my life!
We talked this morning and it always cheers me to talk to her. She’s smart and funny, she has an incredible perspective on the world. An insight that i could do well to learn. When I say “It confuses me that this person would do this. It seems so out of character.” She counters with an insight I’d not previously considered. She gives me distance and clarity on the world and I appreciate that.
Sue and I used to party when we were college aged, she taught me how to make colorado bulldogs (jesus, how did I survive drinking those???) and I hoisted my kitchen experiments on her (which she ate without complaint). I’m sad she lives so far away now, my cooking has improved considerably and we don’t drink to excess anymore. We’d have great fun.
Anyway, not much else going on. Spending my weekend cleaning, doing laundry and eating to excess.