Doo-bee-doo...

So, my 10 Day Long Sulk over, I have finally started doing useful stuff again. The house desperately needs a hoover but we haven't found time yet - what with getting food, going to yoga, doing the laundry and cooking said food (sausages, roast sweet potatoes, brocolli & gravy - yum!) I didn't really stop til ten last night. And tonight we're going to Debenhams for Sue's wedding present (I love the Debenhams sales - I love shopping at night, it's weird!) and then I have aqua natal so it'll be half 8 til I start cooking - another late one methinks. Must try on my Monsoon dress to see if it still fits, otherwise I'll need a new outfit for the wedding.

Got The Rage in hospital yesterday when a 5 minute long Diabetes Clinic check-up ended up taking over and hour and a half of my time (not including traveling time) because of the same bleedin' receptionist getting my appointment time wrong and then forgetting to do my wee & BP test (in the end I had to walk out without getting it done since I was meeting hubs at 1 - I know the early warning signs of pre-eclampsia well enough, I can watch out for it myself). NHS Cutbacks - gotta love 'em!

Also, UPS is supposed to be delivering our carseat to me at work today (why is it that a delivery company can only deliver during office hours, again?) but so far, nothing. I bet the second I go for a wee they'll ring the doorbell.

Seen yesterday - 1st house with Chrimbo decs up - it's a council 'maisonette' on the way to Sainsburys - always teeming with Chavs so no surprise there, really. And it's not just a tree and lights, they've got the whole Tinsel From The Ceiling thang going on. We'll prob put our little tree up 1st weekend of Dec, as is our tradition now. I love our cheap little tree. We got all our Chrimbo decs back in 2001, the first year we were living together. I'd won a £10 Woollies gift voucher from some sales incentive thing at the paper and I think the tree was about £8 so I got that and the fairy lights. I had insisted on a colour theme but hubs was being uppity since he'd wanted all the colours in the world and chose a really tough one - purple and gold (tough because at the time all the purple baubles were lilac, to go with silver, and to go with gold you need violet) I managed it, though, and nowadays violet and gold is a rather trendy colour scheme. Go me! I like our angel the best - she's from the Oxfam Fair Trade shop, made of raffia, a bit like a corn dollie. Husband likes the Polar Bear that he bought in defiance because it doesn't go with anything and sits atop the telly.

Squeenie thought of this...

...and it seemed a nice idea so I decided to steal it. Here are the Fandoms with which I am particularly well acquainted:

Dungeons & Dragons Cartoon, Press Gang, Firefly/Serenity, Red Dwarf, Blackadder, Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Lost, Quantum Leap (EDIT: that's Red Dwarf up to season 6, Lost up to the end of S2 and QL up to midway through S4! Sorry!)
EXTRA EDIT: I forgot Futurama - how could I? Also I want to explore people I don't usually explore, so I'm vetoing my usual two Boys - no Eric or Colin I'm afraid!

Choose a character from any of these and I'll write a short short about them for you. Unlike La Squeen I can't really do them today, but I'll do 'em over the weekend.

The first short story

For The Katie - Al & Beth Calavicci

8th May 1976:

The girl looked up at Al as he paced.
'So, whaddaya do? For a living, I mean?'
Al scatched at his ear. 'Stuff. Just... generic stuff. Used to be in the Navy.'
'Used to be...?' echoed the girl.
'Yeah,' sighed Al. 'After I finally got out of that damn POW Camp in 'Nam they kept offering me promotion after promotion.' He took a suck of his cigar. 'Told those jerks they could stick them where the sun didn't shine, I wasn't ever gonna leave my wife like that again. Got outta the forces faster than you can say Jack Robinson. I got enough crazy stories to last me a lifetime, now I want to concentrate on making sure I got kids to tell 'em to.'
'You were MIA?' asked the girl.
'For years and years. Bastards told Beth I was dead. She nearly remarried.' He took another puff. 'Coulda lost her for good.'
'But you didn't,'replied the girl.
'No.' Al smiled strangely. 'Do you believe in Angels, Miss?'
The girl shrugged. 'Not sure. I believe in God, though. I believe he works for good every day, in even the smallest of ways.'
'Atta girl,' grinned Al. 'It's real, I tell ya. It's all real. There are Angels, all around, watching over us. Take it from a reformed cynic. It was an Angel whispered in my Beth's ear that I was still alive, see.' He cocked an eyebrow at the girl's strange smile. 'You think I'm nuts, don'tcha?'
'You really shouldn't smoke in a hospital,' replied the girl.
Al gave the girl a Look. She was a pretty little thing, Peurto Rican, around 20. If he wasn't happily married he could have quite cheerfully made a play for a girl like that. Besides that, there was something about her that made him instantly warm to her. And she was the best driver he'd ever seen, of course.
'It's traditional,' he told her. 'Besides, I'm a little nervous.'
'Hey. I didn't drive forty miles Hell-For-Leather for you to blow smoke in the kid's face.'
Al looked into her stern eyes and crumbled. 'Fine.' He ground the cigar out.

'Mr Calavicci?'
Al span round at the sound of his name. The doctor was at the door. He looked calm, but then Doctors always did.
'Your wife is fine,' said the doctor, 'and you have a healthy baby daughter.'
Al audibly exhaled in relief. Strangely enough, so did the girl waiting with him.
'You're lucky this young lady got you all to the hospital as fast as she did, though,' continued the Doctor, 'there were some complications. If your wife had been much later getting medical attention we could have lost them both.'
Al and the doctor both looked at the girl. She shrugged modestly. 'I'm... uh... I'm a nursing student,' she explained. 'I was passing by, I could see you'd blown a tyre and I could tell your wife was going into labor. From the way she was holding herself it looked like she was in trouble, so I broke a couple of speed limits.'
'Miss,' gasped Al, 'you have no idea how grateful I am to you...'
The girl smiled strangely once more. 'Don't thank me. Thank your Angel.'

And then he saw it. He'd seen it before, and never thought he'd ever see it again. It was over in a blink, and it didn't seem that anybody else had noticed it. That heavenly light, as if the girl's soul was being extended, stretched out of her body, and when it was gone her eyes were different. She was a stranger again.
'Oh,' breathed Al. 'Oh God, thankyou.'
'What?' said the girl.
'Do you want to see your daughter, Mr Calavicci?' asked the doctor.
Al nodded, dumbstruck. The tears had started to slide down his cheeks.
'Your wife said that if it was a girl you wanted to call her Trudy, but...'
A thought was planted in Al's head, as bright and sudden as lightning. 'Sam,' he croaked. 'I wanna call her Sam. Samantha, I guess. Don't ask me why, I just...'
'That's strange,' said the doctor, 'that's what I was about to say. Your wife has already stated that she wants the baby to be called Samantha, only she doesn't know why.'
The girl got up, shakily, as though she didn't know what she was doing there.
'I'm gonna... where's my car?'
'It happened again,' breathed Al, 'thank you. Whoever you are, thank you so much.' He gave the cross pendant he always wore around his neck a quick kiss and went in to see his family.