Such a Looooong Weekend!

'Ohhh, my god! I'm so tiiiired...' Neffydd thought as she lay down and surfed the aether web for something interesting to watch. She started up a serial she liked and settled back into the soft pillows.

Her body was numb, her brain had pulled on a thought resistant covering and her eyes felt like there was sand in them. She sighed and rubbed her eyes again as the show stuttered to a halt mid stream. She gave up on the halted video and threw her arm over her brow, hiding in the crook of her arm.

This entire weekend was a grand comedy of errors that had resulted in a wakeful period of forty three horrible hours. Talk about a long weekend!

What had started as a normal day at the beginning of the weekend had Neffydd waking up to the pitter-patter of hyper elephants running through the hallways of their suite. She lay there for a few moments, then noted that the clock was showing three hours past median, so she threw back the light sheet covering her body and swung her legs down to the floor.

The shower felt good beating steamy delightfulness down on her shoulders and wings so she just stood in it's whispering glory until she noted a slight decrease in temperature. The shower knob squealed it's dismay as she twisted it off and the internal workings clunked as they released the rest of the water through the lower faucet.

She quickly rubbed her body dry then doubled over so her hair was dangling in front of her knees and wrapped the over-sized towel around her head. She flipped her towel-wrapped hair up and wrapped her bathrobe about her before returning to her chambers to dress completely.

The boys were returning from training and the girls were chasing each other, there was music playing from somewhere and a video showing on the projector, Aine was talking loudly at someone and Tomoe was clicking away, writing another story... Neffydd just stood there a moment and absorbed the cacophonous display of harmony.

"OH! Hi, Mom!" One of the Minions yelled and the others acknowledged her presence with varying volumes but equal enthusiasm.

Warder Sullens came over to her and fileld her in on the day's happenings then wandered off to start dinner as Neffydd sat down to check her various communications.

The evening went by with startling speed and soon Neffydd was dressed, painted, shod and supplied for her night at The Pit.

At The Pit she chatted away, amiably with Heartly, an aging nymph with an awesome personality. They were excitedly sharing ideas about something-or-other when alarms started ringing throughout the small room.

An emergency! Heartly pulled up the aethernet logging as Neffydd first confirmed the event, then opened a channel in the over head paging system.

"Emergency, floor three... Emergency, floor three..." She announced until they were contacted again and told that the required personnel were all accounted for.

When Heartly left at the end of her short shift Neffydd was left in the quiet solitude of early-mornings in The Pit's communications closet. She pulled up a story to read and settled into the silence.

Traveling home was uneventful but, when she tried to get some rest, one thing after another would jar her awake before she had fully slipped into unconsciousness. First Mini wanted to cuddle, then throw a kicking tantrum when her father collected her for breakfast. There was running, yelling, crying, barking, cursing, door-slamming... Just too much to sleep through.

Neffydd sighed and looked at the clock. 11:22 it glared, redly at her. She rolled over and slowed her breathing, taking deep breaths until she finally felt her body relaxing into sleep.

"Neffdd, it's time to get up..." Sullens had his hand on her hip.

She groaned and looked at the clock, again. 11:34... DAMMIT!!!!

"What the Hell?!?" she demanded.

"We were going to my parents' for lunch," He spoke softly, "remember?"

"Yes!" She wanted to wring his neck. "I remember telling you that I didn't want to leave for another HOUR!"

"But..." He started.

"I just want a little nap!" She cried.

"I thought you'd need some time to get ready." he shifted on the bed, probably pulling away so if she decided to murder him he could get out of the room quicker. "We were going to stop at Market, too."

"I am!" She tossed back the covers, revealing that she was almost completely dressed. "All I need is a shirt and shoes to be ready to walk out the door."

"OK," he replied, "I'll let you be."

"No use now." She sighed. "I won't be able to get to sleep before we have to go."

She rose and finished dressing then readied the Minions to leave. They packed the Minions into the conveyance and traveled to Market.

At Market they picked up a few trinkets and some medicine then headed out to Warder Sullens' parents.

When the arrived, Sullens' parents were assembling a delightful lunch. Mini danced around the kitchen trying to get as much attention from her grandmother as possible, delighted that she could 'help' her beloved grandmother assemble a fruit salad.

Lunch was soon consumed and Sullens' brother suggested that they all go to a near-by park to play. Before leaving, Neffydd was presented with a small cabinet with a sturdy top and several drawers and lidded cubbies for her sewing room. It was a great birthday gift! She'd been saying how much she wanted a sewing stand for a while.

Then they piled into their different traveling contraptions and headed to the park where they climbed on the playground, ran, chased, yelled, laughed, jumped... in general, had a pretty fun time.

When they thought the children were tired enough they assembled them into the vehicles and headed back to Sullens' parents house. Shortly after they left the park a peace officer stopped them, citing an inspection lapse then proceeded to bully and belittle Sullens for his memory problems before impounding the family vehicle. Neffydd knew that the officer had a job to do, she knew that the registration on the vehicle had been suspended and it had to be impounded... She didn't know why the officer had to be so wretched.

Sullens' father collected them from the side of the road, gave them a light "You know better" talking to, then brought them back home and talked over what they were going to do.

After returning home, Neffydd had just enough time to take a quick shower, dress appropriately and gather her things for work before boarding the public transportation to work.

Work was blessedly uneventful, besides discovering that one of the harpies, (the one no one liked,) had quit and Neffydd was about to start getting more hours. She exchanged a couple notes with Katryni and played some games.

Right before she left for the day, her boss sat with Neffydd in a meeting room for her monthly review. Her boss repremanded her for clocking in late eight times, then informed her that the policy is that ONE minute is late. Neffydd made a mental note to cut-in-line next time she was waiting at the time clock to punch-in... not matter how angry the other people get. He boss went on to inform Neffydd that not having a personal phone was a violation and it wasn't good enough that they had Sullens' phone number.

She rode home, on the public transport, listening to her portable music maker, watching the people come and go.