There is just something about trains.

I'll be one of the first to admit that trains are not in my lifeblood. I don't get excited about trains like, say, I do about horses. I prefer living, beautiful flesh to metal no matter how polished or powerful. (Note my complete indifference to cars. As long as it does what I need it to do, I'm cool. Even if I'm listing after a Mini. But that's another journal entry.)

But I've taken a lot of trains on short hops in my life--sometimes I took the train through the redwoods near the summer camp that I went to a few times as a kid. I've taken the train up to Vancouver a few times, and will again sometime this summer, possibly when I'm taking time off in July.

And then there's The Sounder.

I occasionally take the Sounder down to Kent in the afternoon to see Laura and Bryan; on Friday, I and Chris been invited down there to do scrapbooking and hang out, and Bryan wasn't going to be around. So I hauled my butt out of bed at approximate o'dark thirty in the morning, and drove down to Kent to catch the train up.

And in the afternoon, I and Chris took the train back down to Kent. I'd completely forgotten that he loves trains, and he was more excited than I had anticipated. Which was nice, because I was feeling tired and a bit cranky, and I was able to buoy myself on his energy for a while.

After an evening spent first shopping and then scrapbooking, Chris and I made our way home. I was bone-tired, the kind of exhausted that I rarely get these days. That exhaustion persisted through this morning, but I got up and spent an enjoyable couple of hours with the garden committee for my condo development, weeding and pruning and deadheading some large rhododendrons, which had all had their flowers wilt in the 95-degree heat of Thursday.

After that, Chris and I headed out to do some shopping, including hitting Costco in the middle of the day on Saturday. Crowd-surfing was somewhat fun, but I've sworn never to do it again. But I did pick up most of what I needed, including shaving gel so my legs can be all smooth in the summertime. And after buying my treat for this paycheck--some pieces of art and frames for them-- he and I headed back to Seattle.

I dropped him off home, and then headed home myself, taking the long way around since I was coming home as graduation at the UW was letting out. Disconcertingly, I didn't go east quite enough, and was confronted on 25th by some "Road Closed" signs and a couple of bored-looking policewomen directing traffic. (They make all of the major roads out of the area one-way-only for the duration of the exodus from major events like football games and graduation. This occasionally makes life difficult for those of us who actually live there.)

I did manage to make it home, though. And, all things considered, I knew about this when I moved here, and I chose to live here anyway. I have no call to complain.

So, home again, and I dropped onto the couch and read for a while. I intended to take a nap, but I just couldn't fall asleep, so after a while I got up and began rearranging my bookshelves. I have, total, about 100-odd linear feet of bookshelves in my house, and since I moved in they've been a total mess. So I set out to organize them. I sorted the linguistics books together, the psych books together, the paperback fiction in four separate places (I have some bookshelves that are perfect for paperbacks....but I have too many paperbacks to fit in them. Woe is me.), and the general reference books are now together. Cookbooks and household references go together, and sexuality definitely needs its own shelf. In fact, sexuality references get one whole shelf to themselves, and then part of another shelf for smut. I definitely need more paperback smut, as what I have doesn't even begin to fill up the shelf. I should haunt the used bookstores for a while and see what I can find.

I kept carrying books up and down the stairs. The cats followed me, certain that i'd lost my mind. A few books made the trip up and down the stairs several times as I decided where to put everything. But this chore that's needed doing for two years is done, the new bookshelf has books on it, and I'm just really pleased with everything.

And tomorrow I'm spending by myself. The house needs some TLC, and i would feel much better about the uneasy space between me and the rest of the world if I could just get it to back off for a little while. A long sleep to get rid of the tendrils of this exhaustion that has wrapped me up, and then making my house a better place for me to live. Followed, hopefully, by some ice cream and a long walk and perhaps even a midafternoon nap.

Ah, bliss!

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