Welcome Home...not.

Ok, so I just got home from shopping for my husband's birthday and Christmas, plus dropping my mother-in-law off at her sister's house, plus subsequent shopping for last-minute Christmas stuff, and then, pooped and broke, I headed home. I now have two bitches that I would like to share.

First bitch: my husband's sense of security.

I arrived home just a few minutes ago, and obviously it's already full dark outside. My husband did not leave one single outside light on. But he did, however, set the alarm and lock the place up tighter than Fort Knox.

Now...I don't ever lock the back door to the house, because it's directly across from our detached garage and accessible only from the fenced in backyard. It's simpler to leave it unlocked so when I get home, I can just walk out the side door of the garage and into the back door of the house. No fuss, no muss.

Well...about that. I had three bags o' crap plus my purse, my keys were wadded up in one hand, the other is restricted by my wrist brace, and did I mention that it was full dark? When I got ready to open the back door to the house, I could hear the alarm going off. It has a two minute lead time - you have two minutes from opening any door to the house before it goes off.

So...the clock started when I opened the garage door as I pulled into the driveway. Full dark, hands full, back door locked, can't find the right key, can't jam/turn key in lock with wrist brace on. The full-fledged external alarm kicked in, and boy is THAT thing obnoxious. I'm thinking people can hear it for miles around.

Now, there's still a minute or so lead time after that before the police are called. So I finally got the key in the lock and got my way into my dark house. I go to bed every night before my husband gets home from work and I have not yet failed to leave a light on for him. Think there was a light on in the house for me?

Fumble, fumble for the light switch. DUMP bags on floor. Fling purse. Head for one of the alarm control panels. In trying to punch the code in with the brace-enclosed hand/wrist, I fucked up. Yeah, that's how frustrated I am. F-word time. So that panel froze, which is a security feature - you mess up, too bad.

Headed to another panel (we have three - one in the breakfast room, one at the side (driveway) entry, and one in our bedroom) and FINALLY got the code in right with only a few seconds to spare before the police are called. And by the way, in Fort Worth, every false alarm is like $50.

ARGH. Way frustrated. I understand that we have to be careful and that we have an alarm system for a reason. We have a bunch of guns in the house, not to mention many valuables that we wouldn't want stolen, and I'm alone a vast majority of the time when I'm home. Fine. Security. Great.

But leave a freaking light on, dammit.

Second bitch: my body.

Boy, I walked around two unnamed stores (in case Chris reads this - he doesn't need to know where his presents are from!) for a total of two hours today, which is an eternity in my world, since I hate shopping. In the first, my mother-in-law and I got him somewhat-related birthday presents. (I shared my idea with her since she wasn't sure what to get him.) I also got him part of his Christmas present there. In the second store, I got Christmas stuff for the house (we had no star for the top of our tree!) and stocking stuffers for Chris.

After being on my feet for just two hours, I now have pain *shooting* from my knees and hips. And I'm in sneakers, folks, not exactly uncomfortable shoes. Today, while I was working, I noticed that every time I bent forward from my hips while sitting, they actually creaked. Every single time. This is nuts. It's like the bones are rubbing together.

Now...my hands and wrists are hurting, too, but I can understand that - I've written like 30,000 words of content in the past three days. (NOT an exaggeration. Have I mentioned my SUPER HUGE project?) So hurting hands and wrists I get, especially since I have a history of carpal tunnel problems. Hence why I'm back in my wrist brace.

But hurting that much from just two hours on my feet? Pathetic. I've got to get a doctor to listen to me seriously about this...instead of shoving OTC pain pills down my throat (they don't do anything) or telling me that they can't put me on any prescription pain meds unless I go on birth control as well (BC kinda defeats the purpose of wanting to start a family, wouldn't you say?).

So...that's on the list. Check-up at the endo in January. Luckily, my chest pain has gone away since I've gone back on BP meds (related to thyroid issue) so I don't have to go to the cardiologist. But dammit, I'm going to get my PCP to recommend a rheumatologist to me if it's the last thing I do.

Ok, I'm done bitching for now. Going to go write for a bit and then wrap all of the Christmas/birthday presents for Chris as well as the ones we bought for his mom, dad and step-mom. Plus, something I got for Chris requires assembly (again, not saying, in case he reads this!) so that'll take me time tonight and tomorrow night.

Merry Christmas, ya'll.

Tiffany