Last night was Girls Night Out. I was initially suspicious of this concept (not really having a history of socializing in a pack of females), but I bitched & complained so much on Hallowe'en about being left out of social occasions that I felt duty-bound to follow through. Man Jesus, did I miss the point.

It was awesome. I mean it. It was amazing.

I arrived to Girl's Night kind of sore & cranky - we'd spent the morning shopping for baby stuff and the afternoon fixing up our basement love nest at my parents', and my back was screaming at me. We stopped off at Mount Olympus for a quick shower & change out of painty clothes, and it turned into one of those really self-indulgent sessions where I had the water as hot as it would go for as long as possible. I got out of the bathroom steamed like a clam, wanting nothing more than to climb between my cool sheets and give up on the day. Instead I got the Boy to drive me to Girls' Night at Little Spider's (a.k.a. the Black Lodge), grimly convinced that I would be calling home for a ride within the hour.

I sailed through the door at 8:30, divested myself of coffee cake & frozen cheese hors d'ouevres, hugged Little Spider & Morgan, met a new face, and plopped down on the couch next to Coraline. Next thing I knew, it was two in the goddamned morning. We had blazed through almost every intimate topic known to woman, from anal sex to monogamy to drug-related bathroom experiences. I had met two new girls and most people in the room had felt Sprout wiggle around the decreasing space of my Belly. And we had eaten a truckload of food.

I belatedly realized that the poor Boy must be waiting for my call. He was groggy on the phone, and when he arrived he wiggled through the living room window rather than go around to the front door. The other girls, having heard nothing but good things about him all evening, greeted his arrival with tipsy cheers.

I arrived feeling determined, tired & lonely. I left feeling glowy - not with booze or false hopes, but with good food and better conversation. I was full of love, and I was merely reflecting the joy, anticipation, wonder and acceptance of every chick in the place. I had a good time, y'all.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Today I lounged around in bed, bought some cards & gifts on Queen Street, visited a very tired Little Spider to get my wallet back from the night before, got dinner at Bread & Roses, and took a long nap. It was a great day. In fact, it was the day I'd promised myself three weeks ago. If I can just get through this crap, I thought, if I can make it through three more weeks of leaving the house at 7 a.m. and arriving home at 9:30 p.m., if I can suffer through three more weeks of not having enough time to check my email, let alone respond to it and the urgent phone calls that have built up, if I can get to the end without losing my mind or my keys or my marriage, I will spend the entire day in bed.

So I did. I got up, obviously (Queen Street won't come to my bed, much as I would wish for that), but I didn't do a single thing today that I didn't want to do. I spent way too much money at both Valhalla and Arsenic & Iodine, but that's okay too - I can justify it pretty easily with my brand new pay raise! (I've finally jumped through all of the official hoops, so now I'll be paid at the level dictated by both my qualifications and my experience. And there's back pay! Yoop!) Last year the palm reader said that I would get paid more for doing the same job - but I'm in a union, so that was kind of a no-brainer.

I also spent a chunk of the evening writing a dozen thank-you cards. They're for staff and students, and since I need to go in tomorrow to finish my report cards, I thought it might be best to get it out of the way. Recipients:

• a former student, who completely out of the blue came by the office with a green sleeper
• the health committee, who asked me to drive them to an anti-smoking conference and cheered when I lost patience on the way home and flipped off a passing car. Two days later, they showed up with a blue fuzzy sleeper to thank me for taking them.
• a current student, who left a gift for me after school on Friday: a glass bowl that seems more wedding present than baby gift, but is all the more beautiful for its unexpectedness
• a staff member who left an elephant-themed present on my desk as I was teaching on Friday morning
• and eight staff members, who threw a shower for me after school on Thursday. The entire English department was there (save for Theresa) as well as the female members of the administration, my successor, and Samuel's wife & baby boy. We spent two hours eating food, touching fuzzy baby clothes to our cheeks, and cooing over the baby. It was really cool and overwhelmingly generous - I had expected a group gift of baby underwear and a 5-second mention at the staff meeting; instead I received eight individual presents and gobbled a truck-load of snacks. The Boy couldn't believe it either. I have nice friends.