Holiday Craziness

Craziness. Absolute craziness. MrDrZeek's cousin is getting married this weekend (yes 6 days before Christmas, although from what I hear they got an awesome deal on the reception hall because of the date), which means we will be traveling out of town for a few days. The wedding is on a Friday, forcing us to drive in Thursday afternoon (only a 90 min drive) after he gets off of work and preferably before the 10-12 inches of snow gets dumped on us. Since MrDrZeek's sister has flown in from the state colder than ours, we plan on staying in town an extra day or two.

Sounds like fun, eh? (Did I mention there is an open bar at the wedding reception?) It will be, and I am looking forward to it, but there are a few drawbacks. For example, I usually leave Christmas shopping till the last minute. OK, not absolute last minute, but let's say that I do tend to "push" it a bit. I now have one less weekend to shop (and with 12 people, between MrDrZeek's family and min, to buy for, it can get hairy), but to make up for it, I took off this afternoon during my two hour incubation time and got 90% of the shopping done. In one hour. Wait, let me say that again. 10 gifts in 1 hr. Not bad.

So, after heading back to the lab, I sat down and wrote a list of what I need to do tonight/tom before I leave. (Another 1 hr incubation is the best time to make a list). I love lists. I make lists for everything. My monthly list of important things, weekly lists, daily lists, lists of my lists. Crossing them off gives me some sense of accomplishment, even if it is something as small as "Make 10 mL of buffer Y" or "Take simple measurement".

I digress. So, on tap for tonight/tom (mind you I have until 2:30 tom--this is when MrDrZeek will whisk me away in the van-yes, we own a mini-van and no we do not have any children-off to places unknown..well, OK known...never mind, I digress again). So here is the list for tonight, in no particular order:

• dishes and general tidying up the kitchen (we have a cat-sitter coming, cannot let her see the house in total disarray)
• clean the litter box
• clean bathroom
• wrap birthday present for MrDrZeek's sister
• cards for MrDrZeek's niece and nephew (since they will go back to state colder than ours with MrDrZeek's sister)
• wrap present for MrDrZeek's coworker (actually for his two kids-long story) since tomorrow will be the last day he will see him till after Christmas
• Pack clothes for 4 days
• make sure wedding outfit is packed along with necessary jewelery/shoes/hosiery, etc
• make sure MrDrZeek's new shirt fits
• and he likes it
• and it isn't wrinkled
• put on fake nails (yes, I am wearing some fake lee press on nails since I have bitten/tore up my nails so bad they look horrid)
• find camera
• find camera batteries
• find my sanity
• trim MrDrZeek's hair (didn't know I was multi-talented, did you?)
• haircut/color etc. tomorrow at noon (yes, I do the girlie thing every once and awhile)

Somewhere in there I need to also take some measurements, set-up an overnight experiment tonight, and get together the goodie box I have of things for my collaborator who is driving in tomorrow morning. Doesn't seem too bad, and it is a lot of piddly crap, but sometimes it jut seems a tad overwhelming.

The really cool thing, we come back Sunday night, work (both of us) on Monday and Tuesday, and then get to make the trek back to the same place for Christmas Eve/Christmas Day family stuff (we get together with four families in two days, its quite interesting). Did I mention I wanted to work on the manuscript too, since I have thrown down some awesome science (and some not so awesome since the system isn't behaving). I don't know how people do this with kids thrown into the mix. I have a hard enough time looking after MrDrZeek, myself, and the furball, let alone throwing another person into the mix.