The Girl is swamped, by work, by social obligations, by housework, by the little details and minutiae of living. She feels frazzled. So Saturday...She slept. She woke up at 6:30, her usual time. However, she did a very unusual thing and laid down on the couch and slept until 11:30. She woke up, ate and went back to sleep. She got out of bed at 6:30, ran an errand, and was back in bed by 9.

She doesn't understand what all that sleepin' was about. Generally, she sleeps very little. Strange thing is: She is still tired.

Maybe the cause is all the running about she has done of late. Weekend before last she went to Pinky & Coco's for Happy Hour. Happy Hour is like a party, but more casual. There are fewer people at Happy Hour, the hosts are less formal. Everything is toned down a notch, except for the fun.

The Girl let loose. She drank too much, but not too, too much. She spent the evening talking to Abel and Frankie. They are both sweet guys. They just moved into their new home. The responsibility and joy made them hyper-? Well hyper-themselves. Like everything was ratcheted up a notch.

She feels a strong connection to Abel. He is funny, naughty, and cool, but that is not it what draws her to him. He felt instantly like family. She feels as if she has known him for a really long time. He smells familiar. And Frankie is so laid back and just so nice. (That is a terrible way to describe someone, but it is so true. People have sucked all the joy out of the word by over using it. But nice is a good thing and despite its overuse as a word, a rare thing.) She likes them.

Other people were there: a couple she didn't know and still doesn't, Nora a friend of Coco's, Sean, and Harley & David.

Abel and The Boy, after a few rounds, pulled all the alcohol in the house out, made a mixer run, and proceeded to play mad scientists. Every 15 minutes or so, Abel would emerge from the kitchen carrying little shots of poison. Everyone kept drinking. (The Boy, creator of the smoking little cups of ?, wasn't drinking. He is a strange, strange man.)

After many different sips of many different noxious concoctions, someone suggested HP. So The Boy and Pinky, both of whom were sober, loaded their cars down with drunken friends and headed over. Harley & David, ever responsible, went home. Everyone else went to HP and drank some more. They danced and talked and had a fine time. The evening ended back where it started at Pinky & Coco's. Pinky made every one breakfast. The Girl was spent. The Girl was happy.

An alarm sounds. The outside world calls, pulling The Girl from her thoughts....