On the way home from my mom’s today, I got caught in the most horrific thunderstorm ever.

Traffic was stopped. Everyone could only sit there with their hazards on and wait it out. Hail POUNDED the SUV. It was so loud I had to cover my ears. The lightening was terrific. Debris was flying all over the place. Visibility was minimal. The sky was pitch black.

It was simply incredible.

I had to marvel, because years ago, I would have had a hysterical fit. I would have had to pull over, scream, curl into a ball, something. Today, the most I did was grip the seat and cringe at the sound of the hail, and at the sight of the trees blowing like mad. Hoping and praying everyone on the road would make it home safely.

It was quite an experience.

I’m proud to say I didn’t have a panic attack. Actually, I can’t remember the last time I had a panic attack. Over anything. I think it’s been years. YAY.

I wanted to take pictures, but my camera was in my suitcase.

Hours before that, I’m ashamed to say I threw a temper tantrum. Well, not an actual *on the floor kicking and screaming* tantrum, but I sulked a lot. I just really HATE going to Heinen’s, and I especially hate it now because they don’t sell the damned chocolate Rice Krispies Split Stix.

I had fun, though, helping my mom pick out a new car. Well, it’s used, but still new. A 2002 Ford Taurus. Red. So much better than the 2002 Dodge Intrepid she was considering. I really don’t like that car. But she fell in love with the Taurus, is getting a great deal on it–but she wants to wait ’til my step-dad is with her to actually commit to it. She’ll hopefully be driving it home tomorrow or Tuesday.

And I had the most yummy dinner today. BBQ chicken and baked beans, and a slice of bread. Mmmmmm.

The agenda for tomorrow includes:

– Library;
– Meijer;
– Lunch with itskels;
– Kicking the boys out of the house to watch fireworks and stealing some ME time. >:)

You know what I realized? As lazy as I can be, I have a hard time relaxing. I always feel like I should be doing something. So, even though I could be stealing a nap, (say, the boys are out of the house or something) I always feel a twinge of guilt–because there is laundry to do. Website work to complete. Novels to revise and edit and work on. Library books to finish reading before tomorrow (yeah, about that…), friends and family to call. I often have to physically WORK to keep from grinding my teeth because I start to think and concentrate so much that I don’t even realize I’m doing it!

I neglected to mention I spent all day yesterday at Andy’s. He’s so cool. He cooked a lot of good food that make my tummy very happy. Spaghetti and grilled chicken. Mmmm. He grilled the chicken on a CHARCOAL grill, too. Oh wow, yum. Then he made chocolate chip cookies–mostly to keep me from eating all the raw cookie dough, I think. We watched movies all day. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (with that great Moaning Myrtle scene, plus anything involving Diggory), Pirates of the Caribbean, and …. oh shoot. Why can’t I remember the other movie we watched? Oh man. What the heck?

And seriously, bacon cooked in the oven is a piece of Heaven on Earth. Firstly, it SMELLS heavenly. Thirty minutes of … BACON. Mmm. And it tastes better than bacon cooked any other way. Although, Foremanized bacon isn’t bad either. But OVEN-COOKED BACON cannot be beat. Ever.

Had a weird dream. I was in Chicago, but a strange part of town with strange random girls. Shopping in strange, random stores. I wanted a box of earrings, but in silver. They only had gold. I remember waiting a long time to see if they could put in a special order for silver. But in the dream, I knew that I was broke, so I was trying to figure out how I was going to pay for the earrings. Turned out they couldn’t order them, so I was off the hook. I also remember getting Aidan from where a bunch of “guys” were hanging out (Chris included), and trying to get him in the stroller. Aidan was too big for the stroller and there weren’t wheels on it. I said the F word a lot.

What a weird dream.

Anyway, Aidan woke me up at 8:35 this morning, and I got a ten minute catnap early this afternoon. So I’m tired. G’night.

ETA: BATMAN BEGINS! That was the other movie!!! 😀
I also got my desktop computer back, all nicely rebuilt by Andy. Once my Windows XP disk comes (yay for OEM software!), I’ll install it and YAY, I’ll have a desktop up and running again WOOHOO!