Let's Start at the Very Beginning...

...A very good place to start. Well, usually.

This morning, my beginning came at 3:30, when My Awesome Husband Greg collapsed into bed and said "Ella is still outside. I hope she's not dead, because I want to kill her."

Don't worry. He wouldn't harm a hair on her stubby little tail. He was just in a sleepy stupor, and worried. So of course, I was worried. And awake. And whenever I'm awake at 3:30 a.m., my brain thinks it's a good time to chat, and starts saying things like What the hell--technically, it's morning. You might as well just get up.

But my body was quite comfortable in my soft bed with its flannel sheets. I tried telling my brain to shut up and close her eyes, but she was already rocketing off in a dozen different directions...

You still have decorating to do--and shopping! Have you even made a list yet? You should probably write a few checks, too. And if you're not sending out Christmas cards--again--you at least owe a few people thank you notes...Dust much? Oh, and check out those bathrooms. Dis-gus-ting! By the way, who do you think is going to put away all that junk in the dining room? (Interestingly, I didn't hear one single word about that stupid wayward cat.)

Stubbornly, determined to win, I stayed in bed until five, listening and trying to pretend not to. I might have just managed to shut out the noise when my alarm went off. Sigh.

So now it's 8:00. I've had three cups of coffee and a bowl of cereal. I watched Jordyn get on the bus at 5:45 and caught two segments of my "Local on the 8's" on The Weather Channel. Then I switched to CNN for my morning briefing, because even though I'm, like, a smart guy, too, I like to start my day with the most current information available. I finished the chapter I was reading in my book--"Take this Man," by Brando Skyhorse--and caught up on Words With Friends. I checked my notifications and memories on facebook and I let that damned cat in and/or out several times.

Who, by the way, was sitting inside the kitchen door when I lurched toward the coffee pot at 5:00. Let that sink in. She wasn't even--and hadn't been--outside! We do have a system, but unfortunately, it's not foolproof. Door unlocked = cat out; door locked = cat in. But sometimes the person who lets her in or out is on the phone, or has something in his/her hand, and can't (remember to) change the lock. Or someone might be in the basement when she demands to be let out--or in--and doesn't notify the person upstairs to change the lock. And of course neither one of the people who live in this house is very good at remembering, when questioned later, whether the cat was last seen coming or going. Which is what led to the system that doesn't always work in the first place. Sometimes we just have to guess--which is what Awesome Greg was doing at 3:30 this morning.

This is probably going to be a long day in which not much gets accomplished. But I'm hoping yours is good and productive.