It's been a busy day.

5:55 a.m.: I wake up in a panic thinking of all the stuff that has to get done today. We have to get the car's lights fixed and I have to go to the post office to pick up a present for Mom that came in the mail while I was gone (despite my saying "please don't require a signature for the package, just stick it in the complex mailbox," they did not), all before we go to the zoo, and that's only open between 10 and 1:30, and god knows we're running late these days.... Plus knowing that once again, I'll be losing net access (GAAAAAAAAAAH AM TIRED OF HAVING NO NET ACCESS WHENEVER I WANT TO HAVE IT, I JUST WANNA POST SOME STUFF FOR CHRISSAKE AND MY PHONE CAN'T DO LONG THINGS....)...well, I am wide awake and give up and get up and watch "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" while uploading pictures and entries and stuff.

8:10 a.m.: Mom wakes up and is all, "Why didn't you go back to sleep? What's wrong with you? Why didn't you wake me up if you were so concerned about leaving early?"

9:30 a.m.: Leave to go to car place. It takes an hour to get the lights changed, and a wingnut falls irretrievably into the engine, but it's fixed and we can drive in the dark again. Huzzah!

10:40 a.m.: Go to post office, which is oddly not as crazy as you would have figured, other than four people were picking up packages rather than one. This is actually quite fast.

11 a.m.: Start heading to zoo.

11:30 a.m.: Arrive at Sacramento Zoo, which is having a free day today. We figured between the date and the part where it's only open for a few hours, it would not be packed. We were wrong. It was quite busy. And also "Pajama Day," apparently. We went around looking at the animals. I just put that in an album here should you be interested in that. It's a good thing it's a small zoo, so we did cover it in 2 hours. We had fun. Especially memorable: the cute giraffes, lots of jumping monkeys.

1:30 p.m.: While leaving, I run into a girl I went to school with (apparently we went to the same college as well as middle and high school). She says that except for the haircut, I look exactly the same. Yup, I do.

2 p.m.: We head to the mall. Inside the mall it is not terribly nuts, just out in the parking lot. I am amazed at the number of BIG SHOT cars blasting their tunes as they drive by. One guy had a car with the front raised and giant testicles hanging off the back. Class-ay.

2:30 p.m.: Aunt Susie finally calls by the time we're seated in a restaurant. Oh hell. I hate it how the holidays force people to call each other and pretend like they care about you, and you can't just like, continue the silent treatment indefinitely.

It went...about as bad as it could have gone. Despite me taking Mom to therapy twice and having the shrink run through how to handle it.... Mom completely forgot that stuff in the moment and instead VENTED HER FEELINGS, BECAUSE SHE IS HURT, DAMMIT, AND THAT HURT MUST BE SHARED. Even if my aunt is not remotely emotionally equipped to handle, mitigate, or fix that hurt. Aunt Susie reacted typically, i.e. making up some bullcrap about why nobody wanted Mom in the kitchen (I am pretty sure all three girls have been taught to cook by now, ahem) and no, she didn't mean we had to leave by nine. Whatever. Mom didn't get the love she was crying for, Aunt Susie had to deal with mama drama. Mom was all, "maybe we should just only be there for dinner from now on," and Aunt Susie was all, "whatever you want to do." Oh yeah, and we're supposed to get together this weekend for the gift swap. I don't want to go to this and think I shall claim to be busy. I said we should just fucking mail gifts and leave it be. This will probably not happen.

Mom didn't burst into tears in the restaurant or anything, but she was quiet--for the longest period of time I've ever seen her be quiet without being in the movies or asleep. I am quietly growling and e-mail my shrink, who is unsurprised.

3:15: We browse around Urban Outfitters and Barnes and Noble. I buy a knitting pattern magazine and another copy of Holidays On Ice since I can't find my original. I have been rereading The Santaland Diaries to compare it to the play, and my favorite story about the Dunbar family and the murdered crack baby.

4:45: Leave the mall, go to Old Sacramento, get lost in various ways thanks to confusing phrasing of the GPS. Yelling ensues briefly on both sides, with me eventually pointing out that "go left" and "go right" is tricky to figure out in certain intersections, hence the confusion.

5:15: Arrive in Old Sac. There's not a whole lot of stores open, but we browse around a bit anyway while we wait for the Theatre of Lights show.

6:15: Theatre of Lights show starts. It's on K Street, and takes place on one end of the street. There's one balcony where a guy playing Samuel Clements gives speeches about the history of Old Sacramento while a light show is played out on the top second and third floors of the buildings on the street, and another balcony where they are acting out the "Twas the Night Before Christmas" poem, with Santa running around. They change the lighting of the nearby Christmas tree to go with the plot as well. It's very pretty.

6:33: Show ends. I figure everything is going to be closed and we might as well go home, but Mom doesn't want to. It's kind of sad how she'll look for any reason to not go home. We roam around looking for any stores still open to go into. She ends up buying some shirts in one, and gets two sequinned Santa hats for the two of us. Huzzah!

7 p.m.: Eventually leave Sacramento. Mom wants to go get some soup at some restaurant, and I point out that everything is shutting down at 6 p.m. tonight, for obvious reasons, and getting a treat of hot soup (she didn't like what I had at home) was not going to happen. We go home and eat 2 days worth of restaurant leftovers for dinner.

8 p.m.: We're rewatching The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel again. I'd review it, but I'm not sure what I'd say beyond "it's a cute, sweet movie and if you can take watching a movie about old Brits in India, watch it." I have watched it 3 times by now, so obviously I like it. I go back to uploading MORE photos. Which I am out of energy to finish or post here by the time we go to bed.

Happy Christmas Eve.

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