Drive-by...

Spent the entire morning in meetings so it was like 1:30pm, and I had gotten nothing done. I don't know why that stresses me out (Number of impending deadlines? None.), but it does. And it's probably not going to get any better when I get home because tonight's To Do List includes: stop at grocery, work out (I wish I were all cool with the 5-6 miles, but it'll be more like 3.5), cook dinner, clean house because it's positively filthy, do laundry, and hopefully collapse on the couch in time for Prison Break.

The stress-level is all kinds of amped up because Mom told me on Friday that the grandparents are coming for Christmas along with the 'rents. And they're all staying at my house. That's four extra people for five nights. Yikes. My house is decently set up for like two people, but not so much for five. For starters, I don't have nearly enough towels & washclothes. That problem got solved at lunch today with a trip to the new Kohl's, where towels were 50% off & I had a $10 off coupon. Wheee! Bargains! Of course, while there, I remember how much my mother bitched about the absence of bath mats last time they were here two years ago, and while I'm perfectly willing to let her have cold feet, the thought of my eighty year old grandmother freezing to death was too much to bear. So now I own 3 mats, and I don't wanna hear about cold feet ever again.

So the grandparents get my room, parents will be in the guest bedroom, and I'll be on an air mattress. I slept on the guest bed a couple of weeks ago when the dog in the next neighborhood would NOT STOP BARKING AT 3AM. My affinity for firm mattresses was apparently in overdrive when I bought that mattress, so now I've got some memory foam mattress pad thingee on order. And I was embarrassed by the only sheets I have for that bed--8 year old Martha Stewart Kmart sheets, which served their function, but are kind of icky looking. So new sheets are on the way.

I'm already in for like $135, and these people aren't even here yet. And I can't even talk about how much cleaning I have to do before they get there, because it is sure to cause a panic attack. The reason why the house must be perfectly clean? Because if it isn't, my eighty year old grandmother will start cleaning it, which would cause a level of humiliation possibly on par with when I hit an oncoming vehicle during my driver's license test back in 1991.

Sigh.