Last night I was very tired and went to bed while Amanda was brushing her teeth.  She asked if I was going to brush my teeth, to which I responded that I was too tired, but if I got up during the night I’d brush my teeth then.  Bruce was barking around 12:30, so after I let him out (where he continued to bark, presumably at some people leaving some house down the road) I brushed my teeth.

I woke up this morning at 6:15.  Normally when I wake up, whatever time it is, if I’m getting up for a purpose I just get up and am ready to go.  This morning I had that dizzy sort of grogginess, which is no fun.  I mean, I went to bed early last night and got plenty of sleep.  Maybe I was making up for staying up to an absurd hour the night before playing Rome.  But I powered through, put Bruce out, fed him and Mr. Cobblepott and got my shower.

I was directing at church today.  Port City Community Church, where we go, had a video production team for two purposes.  One is that the video feeds into what’s called the Video Cafe, which is an overflow area (it’s a very popular church and the 10:30 service is always overcrowded, all that and it’s held in a Roland-Grise Middle School while the church building is being constructed) and the other is so DVDs can be made for people who want to have the service for themselves, send to other people or catch up on a service they missed.

Anyway, I usually do it once a month on a rotating shift, direct that is, but with everything going in the last while it’s been some time since I’ve directed.  The switcher and monitors have since been moved to a small room behind a wing of the stage from the very back of the auditorium.  It’s nice back there; quiet and dark, and I don’t have to worry about how loud I’m speaking while giving directions.  I got quite a few compliments on the directing, but I couldn’t have done it without some pretty good camera guys; Joey and a guy who I guess is new (or new to me anyway), named Parish.  I’d like to see a copy of this week’s work, because I think a bit of it really was pretty good.

Amanda went to the 8:30 service, as we usually do.  She had breakfast with Ben and Jessica Lambeth (who also go to the 8:30) then, after going home to wait for places to open, went out and bought her dad a birthday present and Mother’s Day presents for her mom and grandma.  I called my own mom in between services.  She said everyone else had already called her (by which I mean Erin, Adam and Andra) and she had two sets of friends coming out to ride horses with her today so she can ride two of her horses with different personality types.

I called Andra, my baby sister, to wish her a happy Mother’s Day while I was driving home.  She’s doing well with her new Bank of America job.  Between the classes she’s taking this summer and next semester, she’ll be graduating next year.  All that while having had a kid.  I told her I was proud of her.

Amanda and I left for Beulaville shortly after I got back and I called Baba, my paternal grandmother, on the way there.  Neither she nor Pap are muc for long phone conversations, which I always find a little funny.  They both sound well.  In fact, when Pap answered the phone I hardly recognized his voice and thought it might have been one of my uncles or something.  They’re getting old, of course (he’s 80, she will be this July Fourth), but they’re still getting around.

Karen, Amanda’s mom, was already at the Lemons household when Amanda and I got there, but Phil showed up shortly after and the Frazelles weren’t too long in getting there.  I was half napping in the recliner when they came in and Hannah greeted me with a wet willie.  I retaliated with a wedgie in the dinner line.

It turns out that a guy Anna had dated in between going out with Barry had died in a car accident yesterday afternoon.  He’s the one who went on a beach trip and was told by a young Jon Green that Anna wasn’t going to marry him; she was going to marry Barry.  Peggy found a class ring the guy had given Anna, so we all picked on Anna about that.  I think the decision was made that Peggy was going to give it back to his family, as it might be awkward for Anna to do it.
We had spaghetti, bread, salad and corn on the cob for dinner, along with these apple turnover/fritter things that Peggy made last time we were all together.  With some vanilla ice cream on top they’re really good.

We all sat around a bit after dinner and got sucked into a show about how likely a tsunami hitting the Pacific Northwest is and what would happen if it did.  All this right after Erin has talked about moving to Portland.  Anyway, everyone left Peggy and Earl’s after that, which was 8:00.  Amanda and I were right behind the Frazelles until we got to I-40.  We were going 80 and they were going just a little faster, so eventually they lost us.

It may be noticed that no mention was made of my brither-in-law, Michael.  His girlfriend, Sarah Denning, graduated from Carolina today, so congratulations to her.  Amanda said they were having dinner for her at the Mad Boar, which is just off the exit you take from Interstate 40 to get to Beulaville, at 5:00.  I think most of us thought he’d make an appearance after his dinner, but I guess that was not the case.
Amanda and I watched last week’s Saturday Night Live (with Tom Hanks and the Red Hot Chili Peppers).  She went to bed and I watched the last episode of Justice League Unlimited.  I’ve got to say, it’s a great animated show and I’m sad to see it go.  Personally, I think it ended a little too abruptly and it’s had better action scenes.  I mean, there were some good ones, but there’ve been better.

Oh, and my father-in-law turned 56 today, so happy birthday to Phil Mercer!