Dearest Rachel –
I’m sure that some of these letters look a bit like they were pre-written, rather than covering the events of the day – which probably make them look a little less heartfelt. It’s what happens sometimes when I’m trying to say something to you every day, when there’s not a whole lot to say that you haven’t heard before, or when there’s too much going on for me to carve out time to contact you.
Today is going to be one of the latter type of days, I’m afraid. For all that’s going on, I’ll have no time to spare to actually write you about it when it’s going on – and once it’s all over, all I’ll really want to do is to fall into bed and get some sleep (although, if you were still here, I’d be more than willing to stay up and tell you about it – and then some. But that ship has sailed). So I kind of have to get most of my story put together beforehand, so you know where I’m going to be, at least. It’ll certainly make my signoff that much more heartfelt, at any rate.
Even now, as I’m preparing this letter the day before, things are a little more hectic than usual. I’d gotten a text from Doc the other day about room blocks opening up on Friday at precisely noon; and while I’d vowed at the time that I wasn’t going to stay at AnimeCentral again this coming year, I couldn’t help myself. Besides, I was curious at to whether I could actually get a room this time around after last year’s debacle. And while nothing seemed to work as far as getting into the site for the Embassy (or the Doubletree, for that matter), I had no trouble booking a room in the Hyatt. To be sure, it’s one with a single king bed, but we’ll probably be able to manage it, regardless. One problem with this, though, is that it’s happening at the end of the week that I’d hoped to take you (along with the girls; the reason we haven’t done this any sooner is because it’s been that much of a struggle to align their schedules. If it was just up to Daniel and me, we’d have been there and gone by now, you know) out to your favorite place on earth, and let you swim one last time in the lake you claimed as your own before settling to the floor of Schoolhouse Bay. I did manage to speak to the owner of the cottage, and while he’s sort of penciled us in, nothing’s going to be cast in stone until the beginning of the year, when he has his wife’s vacation schedule. But at least we have plans made for that time in the future.
As for this weekend, well… it looks like I’ll be spending most of my waking hours at church, between either the men’s study or setting up for the family festival to be held this afternoon, followed by said festival, where I’m manning my usual booth (I’m trying to remember when I started doing this; I’ve gone through three or four displays over the past fifteen or so years, haven’t I?), and while I can probably take an hour to get the two of us some lunch and get Daniel home, I’ve got to be back to work the booth for the evening, as well as the entirety of tomorrow morning.
You can see why I need to get most of this together for you beforehand like this; there’s not going to be any time to write down my impressions of it all while it’s happening, and once it’s all over and done with, I’ll be worn out and just want to rest. Heck, I probably won’t have the time to put in my ten thousand steps, either, so it’s not as if you’re alone in getting shorted, compared to the things I try to get done every day.
At least I’ve had a little time to put something together the night before; while I volunteered to show up Friday night – and asked one of the leaders about whether that would be possible or necessary – to work on setting this or that up, I never heard back from him. As a result, I at least had the evening free to put this together – along with most of a makeshift costume I’ve previously worn (although for whatever reason, I can’t seem to find the green cap that went with the green pants and the jack o’lantern sweatshirt, but that’s a negligible thing in comparison to the rest of the ensemble). So, when I woke up this morning, I was pretty much ready to go right out of bed.
I still have to paint the bottom of several of the suckers so as to ensure that there’s something for the kids to pick to win their various prizes (and I’ve ditched the super-sized lollipops for full sized candy bars; item for item, they’re still cheaper even after all this inflation, and there’s more of them to distribute), but if I show up early enough, it shouldn’t be that much of a problem. It’s just that I won’t necessarily have the time to tell you about it all when I’m in the thick of it all.
And with that being said, honey, I should be heading off. Keep an eye on me, and wish me luck; I’m going to need it.
Letters to Rachel 