The Return of the Hannah

My girlfriend returned to me last night after a month long absence.  She had gone down to Kansas to visit her family and friends while I remained behind in good old Northern Idaho at the mercy of real and imagined insects and spiders which may or may not have bitten me on my neck, under my arm, behind my knee, and on  my foot.  While she was away, the cats claimed me as their bitch.  Yoda, in particular, made homework and life in general quite difficult as he developed a very pronounced yowl for attention.  When not yowling, he helped himself onto my face as a heating pad for his belly.  And if he wasn't doing that he was all up in my arms purring and nuzzling me and hugging me.  It was wonderful, except that I really needed to get my homework done.

Well, I got it all done.  Then I went and picked up my girlfriend and she and I went to Denny's for late night pancakes.  Back at home, in our bed, we cuddled and talked as we fought for pillow space with a blue octopus named Ted and a My Little Pony plushie that you might know as Fluttershy.  Galen and Ellie were visitors off and on through the night but Yoda was a permanent fixture in the bed.  It nice and peaceful.  The rest of the household was asleep.  Was.  After Hannah told me the story of a dusky voiced cat (maaaaohhh) who spent several days double bagged and stuffed in the freezer part of the kitchen fridge after his death, my laughter woke everyone up and, for the first time in a long time, I was petitioned to 'please, keep it down.'  I replied that I would but mom wasn't convinced apparently because she stood there for a while longer repeating her plea.  It was just so desperate!  Well, I did my best to abide by the pact of 'sure, I'll keep it down.'

This first outburst of laughter, however, was but a prelude to the rest of the night.  I rubbed Hannah's back, then she turned over and cuddled me (i.e. tortured me with her fingernails along my sensitive side flesh until all I could do was threaten her demise and wriggle like a fish while trying to 'keep it down').  After this, I imparted to her the persistence with which Yoda had sought my attention while she was away.  Just as I was mentioning this, the little devil himself hopped onto me and stepped his dainty, digging paws into my tummy.  I told him to get "up out of my grille!"  That was the beginning of the end for me.  Hannah reached over, giggling, and ran her hand over my face explaining, "this is your mug," then touched my lips, "this is your grille."  And I don't know if it was just that I'd missed her, or that I was mentally spent after all the homework, or if I just hadn't been getting enough sleep lately, but for some reason I just lost it.  I laughed so hard that I scared Yoda right off of me.  Laughed until I had to literally suffocate myself with a pillow.  And the laughing morphed into weird garbled sobs, but by then I was tasting something very interesting in my throat.  It tasted like hot, red tears.  I sat up and put a finger under my nostril.  Yep.  I had laughed so hard that I'd given myself a bloody nose.

For a good few seconds I debated if I really needed to get up and take care of it - surely I could just swallow it all away and keep laying there in the comfortable and warm bed.  But the desire for a blood free pillow won out.  I scurried away to the bathroom to tend to my face, and when I returned, sobered from my  hysteria, Hannah was already half way to REM sleep.  It was then that I realized we hadn't kissed yet since she'd been back.  We had hugged, coddled, caressed, and even nibbled on each other, but we hadn't kissed.  She was too sleepy to refuse me so I nuzzled closer and told her we'd forgotten something.  We kissed and that was that.  Sleep.  I'm quite happy she's home.