Un día de eventos desafortunados: A Day of Unfortunate Events

     I am somewhat resigning myself to being a gypsy the rest of my life.  My friend Laurie told me today that she thinks I'm destined to become a professional house-sitter, since I never stay long enough in my own house to count.  When my brother and his family moved in with me nine months ago, it was nice to not have to come home to an empty home full of broken dreams.  But by the end of summer, and beginning of another school year, I needed some more space and different sleep schedule to function for my job, so I moved in with a coworker in Frenchtown for almost four months.  And then, the plan was to move back into my own place...but that plan vanished like plans A-P always do in Honduras.  Another friend needed someone to housesit and care for her dogs and horse for her over break, and then perhaps until her house sells after the first of the year.  So, I moved out and in yesterday.  Today, I got up leisurely around 8:30 or so, later than I had planned, but feeling as though I still had ample time for all my plans.
     Laugh.  Chortle.  Weep.  Plans.  I meant to be up by 7, walk the dogs, unpack a bit more, eat breakfast, wrap Christmas presents, go to town for groceries, return, meet up with my friends who were coming to eat lunch with me and take a look at the little plowing/mowing contraption to get it working, plow the driveway, make a cake, finish picking up the remaining belongings from my most recent residence, carpool up the mountain to a Christmas dinner with my friends, come back, finish evening chores, and perhaps relax and read or practice some instrument, and go to sleep.  Breathe.  After blinking several times to rest from that terribly long, horribly constructed sentence, continue to see how my day actually turned out.
     Slept in past my wake-up time.  Walked the dogs, got the mail.  Started unpacking.  Left for town later than planned.  Got groceries, but realized that my friends would be showing up at the house before I did, so I texted to inform them.  Thought we would arrive about the same time, 'til I reached my car and realized one of my purchased vitamin items was actually already opened and missing half the contents, so I had to take it back in to exchange for an untampered-with item.  So, they already had fixed the issue by the time I got back.  No big deal.  Ate lunch, made the cake.  Friends left to go back home, and I made a mental note to go upstairs, check my email, and take care of an online purchase for a present, and then go out, finish afternoon chores, and leave for the friends' house.  Right.  So, I was supposed to be at the house to carpool up by 3:30.  I woke up, not having remembered falling asleep, as it was never my intention to do so, sometime around 4:00 p.m.  My phone had been charging downstairs, so I missed the many calls and texts and reminders and alarms to make it on time.  So, my friends being amazing like they are told me to hop in my car and make it to the base of the mountain ASAP, which I did as quickly as possible in the nasty road conditions on balding tires.  Made it to the base, parked my car at an angle so I could actually make it out of the snowy pull-out later on, and we were off.  Made it up without much incident.  Had a most lovely dinner and met a new family who recently moved up to that area from Pennsylvania.  All well and good.
     Very few spots can a person actually have cell service in that area, and even fewer on the way down.  We had almost reached the bottom of the mountain this evening post-dinner, when we received a call from our hostess, informing me that I had forgotten my purse in their house...with my car and house, and work, and all pertinent keys to life.  And it's an hour's drive in a 4x4 up the mountain to turn around and go back.  However, as we were passing by my lonely Flynn (my car's name), it was decided she would just bring me the purse when she comes down for work in the morning.
     Which means I will get up as any other work day a little before 6:00 a.m., carpool with my friend back up to the base of the mountain, meet up with my other friend with my purse, then unlock my car and bring it back down in time to do morning chores and feed and let the dogs exercise.  So, after switching vehicles at my friend's house in Frenchtown, she drove me all the way out to my new abode to feed the dogs then came back to Frenchtown for the night.
     And after lining out our plan to undo all my emptiheadedness today, I came down to my now empty bedroom and looked at my phone to set my alarm and realized with yet another lump of dismay that the battery is almost caput...so I went back up to ask for a wake-up call.  And of course, both of my chargers are up the mountains, one in my purse, and the other in my locked car.  Oi vey!  I think my brain took the term "vacation" too literally.  I need to figure out where it went and reattach it somehow!

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