"Has he been sniffin' the car fumes again?"

Now, don't get me wrong, I enjoy the occasional breath of gasoline at the pump or an extra-fat Marks-a-Lot marker just as much as the next girl, but for the most part, I am not a fume sniffer.  But last night, my sweet husband was staining a piece of furniture in our bedroom while I folded laundry in the living room.  After about 20 minutes, I started to get light- headed and feel sick to my stomach.  I had to carry my laundry baskets downstairs with me and finish. Those fumes really can make you loopy! I bet it took me another half hour to feel normal again. 

Me: (as I gag from the basement) "Babe, why don't you crack a window?"
C: "It's 27 degrees outside."
Me: "just a little? It won't hurt anything."
C: "It's not bothering me. I've got the fan on."

I couldn't smell anything from the basement, so I let it go.  C came down and hooked up our cable for me in the basement, because I was afraid of puking if I went back upstairs.  (Our basement is finished, so I didn't mind hanging out for the night there.) I did a little cleaning in preparation for our family Christmas here this coming Sunday, so I was still productive.  Before long, C hollered at me to come up and check out the furniture that he was working on.  I was eager to see what it looked like, so I ran upstairs. 

I went in the bedroom. He had stained not only one piece of furniture in there, but THREE! Surprisingly enough the fumes weren't that bad when I walked in. (I noticed he had a window open now :) ) As soon as I opened my mouth to say how good everything looked, though....Gag City.

Me: "Oh yeah, (gag) that looks beaut (half-gag) iful.  So (three-quarter gag) much better."
C: (laughing) "Go back downstairs." 
Me: (half-laughing, half-gagging) "Why don't you quit (gag) now and come downstairs? It's probably not good (gag) for you to be sniffing this either!"
C: "I'm almost done. It's really not bothering me much."

I worked on the basement for another hour or so, and then C came downstairs and said, "What are we going to do about sleeping tonight?"
Me: "Oh, I think I'll just sleep down here...give the fumes a chance to clear out tonight."
C: "No, I mean, which couch do you want down here?"
Me: "You're sleeping down here, too?"
C: "Yeah, it stinks up there."  :)

And, so, the two peas slept semi-soundly on separate couches in the basement last night.  No rest compared to our pillowtop, but at least there were no fume-induced headaches/tummyaches involved.  Here's hoping you steer clear of the fumes today!

PS...The title of this post was one of my lines from a Christmas play we did last week. Who knew it would ring (partially) true in a week? :)