author: Nicole J. LeBoeuf

Dear March: Please enjoy your very own Fictionette Freebie! "Please To Confirm Your Appointment With BRIGHT SMILES!" is now downloadable as a PDF from Patreon by one and all. You can also read it in its entirety on Wattpad.

Thank you, March, for going out like a lamb given that you came in like a lion. Although I think we have this lion-and-lamb thing mixed up. I mean, a mild snow-flurry on an otherwise pleasant day, versus a raging bright sun blasting down like a blow torch so that a fifteen-minute walk down 30th Street gives me an evening-killing sunburn from hell--which one would you describe as lion-like? Seriously.

At least there was no ice to make footing treacherous. Aside from the aforementioned blow torch from on high, my walk to the Big O Tires was fairly pleasant. Also the good techs at Big O managed to correctly diagnose and fix our arrhythmic and unreliable turn signals. I had forgotten what a healthy turn signal sounded like! "Augh! What's that clicking noise?! ...Oh." This helped make the rest of my errands slightly more bearable.

Today was a day of running errands. Even when I was at home, I was running errands. On the phone. A lot. Because it's April and we're moving in two weeks and there is so much to do. Thus:

• Brought car to Big O for check-up and aforementioned turn signal arrhythmia.
• Attempted to get in touch with the movers we briefly did business with last fall. Failed. Left messages in hope.
• Reserved a UHaul truck for Great Big Moving Day.
• Scheduled an ARC Thrift pick-up for the furniture items we no longer want.
• Made appointment with The Cleaning Fairies for Day Before Vacating Day.
• Got back-up referral from a friend for other movers. Made appointment with other movers for Great Big Moving Day.
• Canceled UHaul reservation because Boulder Moving LLC brings their own truck.
• Called back other numbers for movers as a courtesy. Felt awkward. "Just calling to say we're not doing business with you after all! Yes, the movers we went with ARE licensed and insured, thanks! Sorry." Call back quicker next time?
• Rescheduled ARC Thrift pick-up for the following week at the new address because the movers don't start work until 9 so there was no way we'd get the furniture downstairs by 8 AM.
• Put in address transfer order with Xcel Energy.
• Go get car at Big O. Get aforementioned sunburn.
• Go to Comcast/Xfinity office to put in address transfer order. Their in-person customer service is infinitely preferable to their 24/7 help hotline.
• Go to McGuckins for all the things.
• Go to the grocery for the rest of the things.
• Arrive home. Thank husband profusely for holding down the fort during the buyer's agent's day-before-closing walk-through. Drink a LaCroix, eat an entire baglet of Brussel Bites, collapse in bed.
• Until 8:30 PM.

Did that seem like a very long list? It was a very long list. It sadly failed to contain a preliminary trip to storage--we want to get whatever items out of the house that we can now--but perhaps that was aiming a little high.

Anyway. Fictionettes and blogging. About as much as I'm up for. You're welcome!

Tomorrow: Closing Day number 1. So excited.

Please welcome the latest Friday Fictionette to the family, "Please To Confirm Your Appointment With BRIGHT SMILES!," an excerpt of which you may read here. It was a lot of fun to write. I should warn you, though, it ends on a cliff-hanger. I have several ideas for what happens next, any of which could supply the material for a full-length short story. Deciding between them, now, that's the trick.

Conlorado weekend continues; the whole gang's in town now and they're over at a friend's house playing games. I'm at home because after trips to the airport and the liquor store I was kind of tired, and I'm also rather enjoying the empty house. For a little while, the whole gang was over here in our tiny living room/dining room area, and I was hiding in the bedroom with a book. I like to hear a house full of happy people, but I get overwhelmed by the bustle and crowd very easily. Most of the afternoon they were playing a game of Paperback, which looks like a lot of fun--it even has a writer theme to it!--but I couldn't see my way to squeezing into the group who were already sitting shoulder-to-shoulder around the table. So I just listened in and enjoyed things vicariously.

Yes, in fact, I proudly and cheerfully accept the label "introvert." I suggest printing it in bold-face capitals, possibly ones constructed from bright flashing neon tubes. But not where I can see them, because argh, blinking lights.

We had some delightful surprises at the liquor store. Hazel's is a great place for delightful surprises, because they have everything. They had Abita's Grapefruit Harvest IPA, which I didn't know ever made it out of Louisiana. It's one of the few IPAs I will willingly drink. They also had in their soft drink section four different handmade flavors from the Rocky Mountain Soda Company. We brought home the "Evergreen Elderberry" and the "Breckenridge Blackberry."

"We brought you local sodas!" John crowed to our friend who'd asked for interesting caffeine-free soft drinks. "It's the Boulder Way!"

And now I had better hurry up and do my PT before I go to bed--

About that. Alas, the therapist did not clear me to skate yesterday. I came in complaining of cripplingly tight calf-muscles and stabbing pains in the quads of the affected leg. ("I have this terrible pain in the diodes down my left side...") He determined these were normal reactions from the muscles surrounding an injured ligament as regular work is once more required from them and they're grumpy about it. So I have another week of strengthening things up, plus daily foam roller sessions on quads, calves, and IT bands to work the kinks out.

Thus, Foam Roller Hell, here I come!