And Nary A Place To Lay My Weary Head

Oh, Interweblings!

I have suffered a Great Loss!

You know how it is when you take your daughter out of town to a volleyball tournament? And when you go to said tournament you stay in a mhotel that believes in mining granite from the local quarry to use for the things they supposedly call mattresses on the beds?

Yeah, me too.

So to alleviate the pain somewhat, I usually bring my own pillow from home. I once heard tell that if you bring your own pillow you can sleep anywhere.

I'm here to tell you that whoever said that lied through whatever teeth they may or may not have had. Not that I would ever cast aspersions or anything.

So, I took my Beautyrest Queen, encased in my favorite pillowcase with me to our very last tournament this past weekend. And I did NOT sleep the sleep of angels, my friends. Not at all. As a matter of fact, even after taking a full sleeping pill and going to the bathroom 3 or 30 times, I still could not fall asleep. I finally drifted off into fitful slumber in the wee hours of the morning, which, consequently, was when we had to get up and leave for the tournament.

I was not a happy camper.

Add to that the fact that the person who cleaned the room we stayed in at the mhotel apparently thought we'd like to have our coffee made in advance...by the previous occupant. So he or she left the previous occupant's coffee in the pot.

Now, I'm all for recycling and saving the earth and hugging trees and all that, but drinking someone else's leftover coffee is where I draw the line. Add to that the fact that we were going to have to leave before the "free" continental breakfast, and we got TROUBLE! RIGHT HERE IN RIVER CITY!

Because if Mama ain't happy, ain't NOBODY happy.

We all got up late and hurriedly packed up all of our stuff. We loaded it in the car, then left to get some breakfast at the golden arches and went on to the tournament. I was driving through bleary eyes as The Girl and Pseudo-Daughter slept the twenty minutes it took to get to the gym.

The dirty dogs.

Not that I would ever begrudge anyone a little extra shut-eye.

Ahem.

They played long and hard. Along about 3 p.m. I was about to fall over, so I went out to the car to rest. The next thing I knew, the girls were opening the doors telling me it was time to go home. It was 5:30 p.m. and I'd slept through the end of the tournament.

I do believe I even slept through them awarding me the Mother of the Year trophy. Because, after all, only the Mother of the Year would sleep through the last two-and-a-half hours of the last tournament of the year, right?

So we headed home. And just as we entered the city limits and I was minutes away from my nice, warm, comfortable, soft bed, I realized something.

My pillow was missing.

So we turned around and drove the 80 miles back to get it.

Not really.

For the past few nights I've been using what could pass for a rectangular pancake that my son found somewhere in his room and called a pillow. It may, if you blew it up hard enough, be two inches tall.

It's like laying on one side of an A-Cup padded bra and calling that a pillow.

Tonight I decided I'd suffered enough. I went to Wally World and purchased an Extra-Firm pillow. From what the packaging says, it's the best kind to have for side-sleepers like me. I'll let you know after I test it tonight.

But I'm still taking the sleeping pill just in case.

P.S. This weekend? I got lost...again.