Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?

Or more to the point, what day it is. It's like we had a week of Sundays here. It's very disorienting.

So we went to the ILs for Christmas. It was not a big gift year, but it was just right. I hope the MIL decides never to do actual shopping again, and just stuff some cash in envelopes and hand that out. The fun thing this year was that the big gifts were for them, the MIL and the FIL. The kids gave them the portrait they had done at Sears, and on cue, the MIL misted all up. It was really great, she just loved it. And she hadn't had the chance to shop for the FIL, but he had asked his daughter (my SIL) to pick out a nice piece of jewelery, so the MIL got to cry at that too.)

The FIL really looked great, and very healthy. He did lose a ton of weight -- certainly over 100 pounds -- but after a few minutes of thinking that he looked different, he just looked like himself, only smaller. It really gave me a great deal of hope that they will be able to move, hopefully by this summer, to that wonderful community that is much closer to us. If we never have to spend another Christmas on the New Jersey Turnpike or the Garden State Parkway, that will be gift enough for us for the rest of our lives.

Yesterday was a very lazy day for me, although I did do tons of laundry. I finished it today, since K is at work and we're not competing for the machines. It's not all put away, but it is all folded and neatly stacked, which is to say, not sitting in a laundry basket for the next two weeks (a la my last load of laundry.) All I have left to fold and put away are the napkins and tablecloth, which are in the dryer.

I've decided to stop using my notify list; I hope that isn't a problem for all three people who are on it, but I've been posting a lot from my phone lately, and I can't do the list from there. Most people, I think, are using RSS feeders these days. I'll take the button off the page in a bit, but someone actually just asked to join the list, so I'm sorry to say I won't be adding you since I won't be sending out notifies anymore.

My remaining chore for the day is to wrap up leftovers for freezing, so I best get to it before the nap monster takes over completely.

It's a Christmas Miracle

My husband is, as we speak, putting on a new toilet seat. This is the miracle. Because I bought the thing nearly three years ago when one of the feet on the inside of the lid of the old toilet seat disappeared, so you can't sit on the closed toilet seat without feeling like you're about to fall over into the sink, but the new one has been sitting there, in its box, since I got it. First it sat in the hallway outside the Hubs' office room, and then, tidying up, probably for Christmas Eve two years ago, I put it into the bathroom, against the wall next to the toilet. And there it sat, collecting dust. When I was cleaning the bathroom just before -- it is Christmas, after all -- I asked him if he might possibly change the seat today, and he said brightly "You know? I was just thinking about doing that!"

Omigod. Men.

(I can't do it myself, btw, because I no longer have the hand strength to unscrew the plastic bolt that holds it there, and didn't even when I bought the new seat.)

One of the odd things about Christmas Eve dinner is that even though we make the whole thing and eat it here (unlike Thanksgiving), is that it's much less work all the way around. It's just a much easier meal, I guess. The Hubs will have to take out the table later, but he can even wait for the SnL to help him, since he'll be here by five. Last year after dinner, the two of them put it away in a flash. Ahhh. Mothers who have only sons may perhaps dream of a daughter in law to go shopping with, or like that. Mothers of daughters dream of someone who can help their husbands lift heavy objects and therefore avoid untimely death.

There's not much I need to do at this point. K is making a squash sauce for one of the two pasta dishes, and when she's done, I'll make the pie. (I got strawberry pie filling. Actually, if strawberries were in season, I could make this filling easy, because I used to make strawberry pies years ago and it's not that labor-intensive to make.) Anyway, so I need to make the pie, and then there's not much more I can do until later. I've got the tablecloth and napkins in the dryer, not that I didn't wash them last year, but then I left them in the basement, so a freshening up was in order. This year, I'll put them away in a drawer in the living room with the other Christmas stuff. And maybe by next year I'll have a real table that doesn't have to be folded up and stuff, and I'll even invite the new ILs, which is to say, R's new ILs, which is to say the machetunim.

Oh, okay, when I left school yesterday, before I went to the supermarket, I made a quick run to the smaller, emptier Macy's in Paramus:

I don't have a firm plan yet, but I knew it was the red that attracted me, so I started with these few pieces: two pasta bowl sets (since we serve two pastas on Christmas Eve) and a smaller serving bowl, which I'm going to use for garlic bread. (I know it's small for bread, but ain't it pretty?) And the whole thing will look nice on the table with my red napkins and white Corel. Hmm, must remember to gather some mugs beforehand. (I have no coffee cups, just assorted mugs hanging on a rack. I'm going to get Fiesta coffee cups and dessert sets, though, probably in rainbow colors. Remind me to write about my mother's dessert sets, which my sister has now, which is fine.)

Okay, so. My stomach is good today, I don't have my knee brace on since I'm not even leaving the house. Dinner and gifts tonight with our newly expanded nuclear family.

Merry Christmas to all who do that sort of thing, and the most peaceful of days to all.

January Already?

Ah yes, it's January already. Yesterday the Wii Fit told me that my "Fit Age" was 56, on year older than I am, but actually it was only 11 days older than I was yesterday. Time makes fools of us all.

Rolling right along, I spent some time with the Chum today, who repaired my broken Mickey Mouse statue -- I can't find the entry where I wrote that it was broken -- more or less; it would have been perfect but I smeared the glue a little and now his chest his glue-shiny instead of matte like the rest of home. But I have him in a better place now where I can see him everyday, but not close enough to see the glue, and I'm hardly planning to sell him, so all is okay. And if I want, I can put him on the living room shelf next to the Lladro shepherd my mother glued the head back onto 35 years ago.

So here's my idiot move of the day, or more precisely, my noticing the idiot move I made on Christmas. I bought a Sigg metal water bottle each for my niece and nephew (Hubs' side) and my Chum. I put each one in a gift bag, same size, but matching patterns for the kids and a different one for the Chum. (Or not, as it turns out.) I added an amusing datebook to the Chum's bag, and a $100 AmEx gift card to each of the kids'. Gave the kids their gifts on Christmas. Gave the Chum hers today. She pulled out the water bottle, raved, I said "There's something else in there" and she pulled out a $100 gift card. OOOPS! I wonder which of the kids got stiffed? Anyway, I called my sister-in-law right away but had to leave a message; I want to send out the gift card in the mail tomorrow (the Chum knew it wasn't for her; we don't gift on that level) but I want the kid to know it's coming and which one to send it to. Oh me.

[This paragraph was removed by me.]

Technically, today was the last day of the Christmas break, since it's back to work on Monday, and school's closed every weekend, but I'm going to let that vacation vibe linger for another couple of days. I'm getting my nails done tomorrow and R is coming over Sunday, by which time we should know if her upcoming housing change is going to happen, or not. When I talked to her on the phone before, the boyfriend got on and thanked me again for the Barnes and Noble giftcard we gave him for Christmas and told me what he bought with it today. It was very cute.

I'm going to go have some leftover white pizza for dinner, and then I'll know for sure if that's what's got my stomach going or not. Sometimes you have to make the sacrifice for the sake of knowledge.


WATCHING FAMILY GUY :: ENTRY #1953
READING: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norell by Susanna Clarke

Everything is Peaceful and Serene

Christmas is over, all is well. It went pretty smoothly and without stress this year, except for the few things I mentioned yesterday. I got some cute things, and all seemed happy with what I got them. I could go into paragraphs about the ILs, but I'm going to let it go because they're old, which is really the problem. (Oh, maybe a little.)

One of the things we do is that we call them as soon as we get home so they knew we've arrived safely. No problem there. Last night K and R left the ILs about twenty minutes before the Hubs and I did; K had to drop R off at her apartment and then drive the twenty minutes home from there. She pulled into our driveway about twelve seconds before we did. So we get inside, the Hubs calls his father, who says he's been very worried, because he heard from R twenty minutes ago and not K. Because even though he knows it's a twenty minute drive, he's not always thinking that way anymore. I don't think it's dementia of any kind, I just think his neurons don't fire as fast as they used to. But the MIL doesn't seem to get that, and whenever he doesn't get something, she gets very frustrated with him. Oy. They are not going gently, maybe because their own parents died before they got very old and they have no experience with it. Just guessing.

Today was a quiet, slow day. I slept until nine, and then took a three hour nap in the afternoon! In between, K and I went to look at KB Toys to see if there was anything in the closing sale we wanted -- there wasn't -- and I went to K-Mart to look for a video game I want, to get with a gift card I got -- they didn't have it. And that's it.

I'm looking forward to a nice week off. I have a haircut scheduled and one doctor's appointment, and on Sunday, the girls and I are having brunch with the Sibs and Wonderful Niece.

I hope everybody had a good holiday or day off or whatever it was for you --

WATCHING WIFE SWAP :: ENTRY #1948
READING: ????? by ?????

Merry Christmas to All

and assorted good wishes of the season.

I meant to write last night after the Christmas Eve dinner, but I never got the chance to. Yesterday went incredibly well on all accounts. The day was relaxed and easy, my table (in the living room) looked good, the food was good, the boyfriend seemed relaxed and comfortable with us. I had had to go to K-Mart in the morning for a tablecloth, and the weather was awful, but other than that I was in all day, and all went well.

It's nearly eleven, so we have all gotten up and opened our gifts. I have a feeling that I let K down this year, which seems to happen to her (although usually from her grandparents). I forgot to order the one DVD she wanted most, and I seem to have gotten her a GPS that requires extensive setting up that isn't working for her. So that's my Christmas. R made me a sock monkey, which I had wanted, although I didn't expect her to make it herself, so that's even better. What can I say? I didn't sleep so well again, so I guess I'm letting that get to me.

You know, I've been married for 31 years, and I spent two Christmases with the Hubs' family before that, and I've got to say, I've about had it. There's a long drive on a crowded highway, there's the whole gift exchange. I would mind it less if there were no gifts involved. The ILs are so set in their ways and old, which means not flexible and not noticing what's going on around them. Ah, I'm just being Scrooge this morning. It started when I handed out the presents from under the tree and everyone had a big pile but K and I felt bad. Although she was very happy with the unexpected GPS (until she started setting it up.)

I sound like a real bummer, but I'm just letting off the steam here; I have to be bright and cheery all day.

Hope you all have the day you want to have --

WATCHING FRASIER :: ENTRY #1947
READING: ????? by ?????

So, Ornaments

I slept until a blissful 9 AM this morning, and woke up to a non-functioning coffee-maker. Oh, and a snowstorm. It took me nearly an hour to run a vinegar cycle and then numerous plain water cycles, and then, voila, coffee.

It's the first night of Chanukah -- I just realized we forgot to light the candles because I was taking a nap and K has a migraine -- but I did make latkes for lunch, and then we decorated the tree.

I have many, many ornaments, many more than I have pictures of here. Even so, here ya go.


These two tarnished sliver snowflakes are the only silver I have in my house (and clearly, I need to get some polish tomorrow.) I have them because they were made in the Reed and Barton Silver Factory, which is in Taunton, Mass., where my father was born and grew up.


These are the girls' special ornaments. The one on the left is K's, a gift from a friend in pre-school, and the one on the right, the glass rocking horse, is R's, given to us once by my sister.


During the years that my sister had a Christmas tree (husband #2), she and I gave each other rocking horse ornaments every year.


I mentioned that I had started out years ago with a half dozen cheap glass balls. Now the girls, especially K, bring me glass balls from their travels, when they can. The one on the left is fromn a trip they took together to Colorado. The middle one is from Germany, the one on the right from Venice.


More rocking horses.


Various other glass balls, the two on the right from Disney World, as you might guess.


K especially likes to give me ornaments that reflect ... well, us, or at least her. The one on the lft lights up and says Merry Fucking Christmas. The one on the right, of course, is a Sock Monkey Jesus.


Lots of Disney. Here are Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. We have a similar set of the three fairies from Sleepy Beauty.


From Wales, R brought a red dragon and a love spoon.


I have gotten ornaments from every vacation we've gone on. The Scary Elf is from Sturbridge Village (Mass.) when I was pregnant with R. The shell is from the beach at Cape May when K was three. The loon is from Squam Lake (N.H.), where we vacationed for many years, and the Hubs went there as a kid with his folks as well. The sorcerer's hat is from last year's trip to DW. No idea where the dough people came from.


I collect things that represent children's stories or rhymes. Wynken, Blynken, and Nod on the left, and of course, Jack Frost. A lot of these are Hallmark ornaments.


For many years, I made at least one a year.


I also have all but one of the Hallmark thimble ornaments. I also have a collection of actual thimbles that I started years ago, which is why I started collecting these ornaments. The first one came out the year we were married.


My Colleague's husband for many years was a craftsman who worked in sand-blasted and stained glass, so this was one of his smaller works. Yes, it's cracked. I have another one that isn't, but I didn't find it until after I took the picture.


More children's stories and characters.


I made these before we were married, actually. The Christmas before, so that was 1976, I made a set of these plastic-needlepoint canvas ornaments for the MIL, and one for us, to be used the next year.

Just a sampling. The tree is done, and looks very nice.


WATCHING BEDKNOBS AND BROOMSTICKS :: ENTRY #1944
READING: How to be Good by Nick Hornby

Why, Hello There!

So it's been a quiet day, more or less. I slept delightfully late, til nearly 8:00, and then got around to my missions. My head wasn't foggy, and really wasn't all day, so I guess I'm more or less better. I went to Lowe's, where every tree was seven feet or more, and then stopped at KMart because it was on the way, where I saw The Perfect Tree, but of course, it was out of stock. I ended up getting a six foot tree that really has a much smaller profile than our old tree, without lights built in. (The perfect tree was nicely shaped and had colored lights, but all they had in stock was that tree with clear lights, a definite no-no here.) And the tree I got was very reasonably priced. It's still in the car, but I may set it up tomorrow morning, even though we won't be decorating it for a couple of weeks, because R is going away next weekend.

Of course Barnes and Noble had calendars, just not the calendars I was looking for. I get each of the girls a calendar each year with their current favorite TV show or movie, so this year I was looking for a Torchwood for R (filmed in Cardiff, where she lived for a year) and a Dr. Who for K, but it seems I will need to go to a store in the United Kingdom for these, so, no luck. But R tells me there's a good calendar kiosk in one of the close malls, so I can go there and pick up a Futurama and a Simpsons, both old stand-bys. Or maybe two Futuramas this year. I'll see what they have.

And I got my other errands done, and then when R came for the afternoon we went out to IHOP for lunch, and other than that, I've been in, reading and whatnot. I re-created my Christmas list, and I swear something's missing, but I went through the pile of gifts (which gets smaller in year, not in number, but in physical size) and everything's accounted for, so I don't know what I think is missing, but I know the total money spent for each of the girls is less now than it was. Which would be fine, but I think it just means that I'm not counting something.

Tomorrow morning, I have no intention of waking up until I'm absolutely interested in doing so. Nowhere to go, no errands to do. What a lovely luxury it is to sleep in.



WATCHING HARRY POTTER AND SOMETHING OR OTHER :: ENTRY #1930
READING: The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards

Later That Same Day

You know, the crazy people in my family are always saying to me "Don't over-do!" Yeah, yeah; I always tell them that I can't do more than I'm capable of, so don't worry about it. Yeah, so I was leaving the mall this morning around 11:30, and wondering if I should go someplace else to look for the Christmas tree, and I was so hot, and chilled, and I thought, "Oh, this is what they mean. GO HOME." So I did.

I could not find calendars at Barnes and Noble, nor a tree at Target, so I stopped at the mall out there (where we usually go on Sunday since our malls are closed, but this just happens to be near the Target I like to go to) because they always have a calendar kiosk in the same place, just inside one of the doors, but of course it wasn't there. I had to walk through the mall to find it -- didn't have the ones I wanted anyway -- but there I was outside the Apple Store, so I went in and got the new portable hard drive that I thought would have to wait until January, since I wasn't going to our mall til then. And then I stopped at Lord and Taylor, the MIL's favorite store, and got her a bracelet, last gift for her, WOO HOO. And then back to the car, where I made the aforementioned wise choice to come home.

I haven't slept again this afternoon, but my head is not so right. K just went out to get me some chicken soup and matzo balls and gefilte fish for dinner; I told her I would go anywhere but I wouldn't drive, so she just went to pick up and bring home.

I ended up spending a chunk of time this afternoon with the hard drive, and got all my iTunes music copied over and set up, but somehow I managed to delete a bunch of apps from the iPhone. :( I got them back, but lost all the data in my Holiday Gift app. I emailed their tech support, so maybe they'll tell me how to get it back, but if not, I know what I still need, I just lost the record of what I already had and what was for who.

So I guess if I feel up to it tomorrow, I'll have to go to KMart, or Home Depot, or Lowe's to look for a tree. I got all our previous trees at Treasure Island, which no longer exists, so I have no frame of reference here for where to go. I think what I want is a size they don't make, which is five feet. Five and a half would be okay, I think. I have to ask the Hubs what size our old tree is; he's a better judge of that than I am, but I think it must be seven.

I am getting very hungry. I need protein. I need protein now. Where is that kid? (Just kidding; she just left. She'll be back in five minutes. I may be waiting at the front door.)


WATCHING THE BARBARIANS :: ENTRY #1929
READING: The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards

Still Resting

Well, still home, anyway. It seemed the thing to do this morning. And then I went back to sleep and slept for three more hours. Again, I don't feel bad right now, but I wouldn't want to use this head to make any important decisions. (When I said that to R last night on the phone, she said "Oh, about that money I wanted to borrow ..." but she was kidding.)

K has gone to the mall, and when I get myself together, I'd like to go out and get two errands done, one small, one not small. I need to get the girls calendars for Christmas; I get them every year, so that should be a quick Barnes and Noble stop. And then I need to get us a new Christmas tree.

We're downsizing, not a lot, but some. It would be very nice not to have to rearrange the entire living room every Christmas, and I may get a pre-lit, although that's not a big factor. K has reminded me that we have A LOT of ornaments, and I know we do. We'll manage. It's time. And our old tree, which is not that old, will be there when one of the girls needs it, or if they don't, we'll donate it somewhere in a few years.

Now I'm having an eensy weensy hot flash, because I just finished my coffee. And now I can take some excedrin for the headache, and then get dressed and go out. So I can come home and crash again later. All good.



WATCHING WIFESWAP :: ENTRY #1928
READING: The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards

How Do You Make an Obsessive-Compulsive Happy?

Stick to the plan.

I was blissfully alone this morning as I got up, Wii'ed, and went about my recently revised morning routine. Not that the Hubs would have gotten in my way if he'd been up; we pass in the morning like ships in the night. But he was taking the day off today so he slept in, and K had nothing to do today so she was going to sleep in, too.

*sigh* I heart my routine. The only strange thing was that when everything that needed to be done was done, and I still had five minutes before leaving the house, I crashed. I sat down to read diaries, and suddenly my eyes got heavy and started to close. I pulled myself together and came to work, but once the testing started in the building and the library was empty, I put my head down on my desk for ten minutes and more or less slept. Very strange, because I both slept last night and had nice solid protein for breakfast. (When I'm Crohnish, I crave protein, and could have eggs three times a day.)

Ah, the sleeping. In response to a comment, I did try melatonin several years ago, but it had no effect on me at all. The Valerian Root Oil capsules that I'm taking now, though, are very good. Even the nights I've had trouble falling asleep for the last week -- and that was caused by a late phone call that disrupted my sleep routine for many days -- the Valerian helps me sleep more deeply once I do fall asleep. So I'm a fan of the Valerian.

Why, you may wonder, does K have nothing to do today? Ah, the joy of being the parent of a crazed student. I have these two daughters, you know. R started to read on her own at three, did a book report on The Little House in the Big Woods in kindergarten, did fourth grade math in first grade, and then proceeded to never do homework as long as she lived, and never care whether any assignment was in on time or at all. She got good SAT scores and decent, but not outstanding, grades. As long as her English teachers kept giving her books to read that weren't in the curriculum, she was happy.

The other one, however, learned to read in kindergarten like everyone else, and was on grade level with all her other subjects, but always complained about every assignment: she would never finish it on time, she would fail, she couldn't do it. Naturally, I assumed that this one was a struggling student; it took me years to realize that she was the crazy bright one, but had stress issues. I don't think she every missed a homework assignment from first grade up, and I don't know if she ever got less than an A in anything except advanced science in high school. She even got A's in math in high school, although she retained absolutely none of it. (That's my kid.) Whereas the other one intuitively understood all math (thanks to her dad) just as she had intuited reading; the only reason she didn't get A's was because she didn't do the homework. She got A's on all the tests.

I digress. K's big final project for her Methods of Teaching class is due on Thursday. It's the biggest deal in the education program other than student teaching. It's a teaching unit that consists of a minimum of six lessons. Early last week, she said she was going to get started on it, but with the holiday coming, she didn't see how she could finish it. She would have to work all day Friday, for starters, but we ended up having lunch with the Hubs' family on Friday. Oh, she was so behind!

(Note: I did not know at this point that "get started on it" meant that she already had her complete outline and four or five of the lessons done.)

She worked all weekend. No, it was never gonna happen, and if it did, it wouldn't be what her professors wanted. She couldn't fit it into six lessons; it was looking more like ten. It would be too long. It wouldn't be enough. And anyway, she had four other minor assignments to do, also due on Thursday. Couldn't be done.

We discussed some of it Sunday night. She said that on Monday she would show what crap she had to one of the professors so she would have time to do it all over, but then he didn't show up for his office hours. Yesterday morning, I printed it out for her in school -- about 125 pages -- and she went and got a binder and plastic sleeves and put it together. She made an appointment to see the other professor, who looked it over and beamed at her. It was perfect, he said, and wouldn't even give it back to her for more tweaking; consider it turned in. And about those other four assignments, he would speak to his co-teacher and see if he could get those cut back.

After dinner last night, she said, I don't know what to do! Should I take a break now? Work all day tomorrow? I still have that other stuff to do! An hour later, she came back downstairs and said she was all done.

It's exhausting to be her parent. But she's gonna be the most prepared teacher in America once she gets going.

Oh, and I was going to comment on the so-called Christmas wars thing. If someone says Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays to me, it's all the same, and I take it in the spirit it was meant. Everybody needs to chill out on this one. When you are a minority in a country or an area, you need to accept that the world is not being tailored to you. I sang Christmas carols in school as a child, and with the Girl Scouts, and that's the way it was, even when my class was 90% Jewish and so was the teacher teaching us the songs. (I remember Mr. Miller the music teacher, who was both Jewish and gay before any of us knew what gay was, teaching us In Excelcis Deo in 7th grade chorus, and I thought it was such a beautiful song.) Those of us in these religious minorities, whatever they happen to be, either need to get used to the way it is here or live someplace else where it's different. No one is forcing us to believe, or even behave, in any way, which is what the Constitution protects us from. And if someone in a store says Merry Christmas to a Muslim, the Constitution protects the right to do that, too. It's not meant as an offense, it's meant as a gesture of goodwill. Take it from whence it comes, and let the rest go.


WATCHING FAMILY GUY :: ENTRY #1926
READING: The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

Wiiiii!

Here I am, thanks to Cosmic, who created her impression of me on the Wii! I haven't gotten to it yet today, but I hope to a little later. And yes, this is exactly what I really look like.

I slept until almost eight this morning, at least sort of, for me, so when I got up I did not pass go, did not collect $200, but got dressed immediately and went to Whole Foods to get a turkey. I don't know if I mentioned it, but R and K were after me to order this year's turkey from a farm -- there is actually a turkey farm fairly close by -- so that we would get something locally raised, no preservatives, etc. I agreed, but never remembered to go order it; I probably would have had to order it in July. But K saw free-range, chemical free turkeys at Whole Foods the other day, so that was the next best thing.

Of course, I assumed it would cost more than a Butterball, but I didn't give it much thought until I looked at the label and saw that my just-under-fifteen-pound turkey cost over $56.00! So today, when I ask you Am I crazy or what? feel free to go with a resounding YES! If my father can see this wherever he is, he is appalled and horrified. Hey, it was only a few years ago that we stopped getting the free turkey from Shoprite. (You know, x amount of dollars worth of receipts over x number of weeks and you got a free house brand, or a Butterball for 29 cents a pound.) Thanksgiving around here is nearly as expensive as Christmas.

K was flinging out gift ideas for people I need to buy for today; I was madly scribbling them down. All I need now are ideas for ... let's see, my husband and children and my in-laws, who are of course, the biggest gift receivers. But it's nice to have all the others taken care of, even if I have a little shopping to do. I don't mind the shopping; it's the ideas that are hard.

So I have many errands to run after school tomorrow, which all could have been done today if the stores here were open on Sunday, which they are not. And yes, we also don't pump our own gas in New Jersey; it's not a custom, it's the law. Things are strange here, I'm thinking.

I'm thinking that if they cut open my brain after I'd dead, preferably not before, they will find that it's about 45% I Love Lucy. There's a marathon on this weekend, and I've had it on in the background for hours and hours, both yesterday and today. And I've been watching these same shows literally since birth. I still think it's funny. So there's today example of brain damage, I guess.

And IT'S SPIRIT WEEK at school. Yay. This used to be such a big deal for me, when I was junior class advisor, and now I just want them to leave me alone. But I will wear school colors Monday and Tuesday, and my football jersey on Wednesday. (Seniors buy football-jersey-like shirts to wear for Spirit Week, all with their class year on the front for the number, and they go get their names on the back. One year, I had a shirt made with my number -- 71 -- and my name on the back. I also have both of the girls' shirts, so I could wear a 99 or an 02, if I so chose.)

It must be officially winter today, because the Hubs made soup. I think I'll have some for dinner, and if I don't die (veggies, beans, etc.; smells heavenly), I'll take some for lunch tomorrow, too.


WATCHING I LOVE LUCY :: ENTRY #1917
READING: The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

Merry Christmas!

So, I'm updating a little while I can, but I probably won't do much for the next few days. I did go to the hospital this morning, and they did bloodwork and x-rays and rules out pneumonia and all kinds of other things. It is s virus, a terrible virus, and I will have to wait it out. In the meantime, I will run a fever, have sores in my mouth, and other delights I won't even mention.

K made the Christmas eve meal tonight all by herself; I was very proud of her. I couldn't eat it, of course, but I was proud that she did it. I'm not gong to the ILs tomorrow with the Hubs and the girls. I'll be in touch with my sister during the day and maybe she'll drop in on me. Each time I remember the last Christmas I stayed home -- 16 years ago, after the brain tumor -- and I remember that my parents came and spent the afternoon with me, I get all misty and start to cry. I have been missing them very much these days.

Okay. I just need to go back and take out all the typos that I don't wan't you to see , and then I can post. At the moment, this really looks like it was typed by a monkey. (But pneumonia I got right the first time.)

WATCHING L/O :: ENTRY #1653

Is It Real Or Is It Memorex?

I am feeling a modicum of less terrible today, which either means that I'm getting better or that I'm in a vicodin haze. I'm thinking it's maybe a 40/60 split. My stomach was better today. But I am very sloooooooow. I can hardly read; it makes my eyes close. And then, instead of falling asleep, I have a 30 second dream/hallucination and then I open my eyes again. It's been an interesting day.

But I was clear as a bell last night until 3 am, at which point I finally went to bed. And I was plenty happy, too. This is some weird shit, man. I was also clear enough at some point today to get bills paid. My plan for tomorrow is a quick drugstore run before I take the med, a long, loopy day, and then the doctor at 4.15. If I still can't drive by then, the Hubs said he would come home and take me. (!)

Otherwise, nothing more here, keep the traffic moving. Oh, here's my Christmas-tree filled living room:



WATCHING L/O :: ENTRY #1652

Juuust a Bit Better

And I have a Harry movie on and the creepy part is coming, so I thought I'd follow up on the insanity that was my earlier entry.

Even though my head is just a little loopy, which means that the med has kicked in and calmed the stomach ickies, and the Advil has kicked in so my back is hold-up-able. For however long it lasts. I even put all that pain-killing goo on my bad mouth places and ate some pop-tarts. I've been finding that it's very difficult to eat solid food without using your tongue.

Okay, so plan for tomorrow is to definitely talk to, if not see, a doctor, and to get more mouth goo and other little goodies. Although I don't generally scan the internet for details when I have a real disease -- only when I think I might have one -- I did do a little research, and dehydration does seem to be a big factor here. And if I put on enough mooth goo first, I can drink without much pain, for a while, at least. Anybody know if you can give Pedialyte to grownups? I'd rather walk around with a saline drip in my arm than drink water all day.

Anyway, putting up the tree today was happy and fun and I loved it. We have so many ornament themes: Disney (you knew that), rocking horses, racoons, glass balls, handmade ornaments, and the irreverent ornaments that my darling daughters have brought in recent years. I'll try to get pictures of those tomorrow.

I'm getting spacey now, so I'll finish up. After I posted before, the Hubs came and chatted awhile and got the full picture of my illness (during which I tearfully apologized to him for making him marry a mess, which, predictably, he said was hardly my fault and that I was not a mess anyway), and then K sat with me for the Simpsons, but we mostly talked. I felt very good then, but not in a teary way (and not physically at that point, although a little better now.)

Okay. People who are drugged up should not write on the Internet! Oughta be a law.

WATCHING HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE :: ENTRY #1650

TGIF

So, I just keep rolling along. Once again, it seems I got a ridiculous amount of stuff done after school today, which must makes me wonder why the living room is still a mess. More on that later.

The phone rings about 9 this morning -- at school -- and it's R, so naturally, my heart sinks because I anticipate crisis. No, she's just waiting for her train and calls to tell me that all is well, the cat let her sleep all night, and like that. So that's nice. Then the phone rings again around 10, and it's K, so my toes clench, but she's calling to tell me that she feels much better today, is going to campus and to do a few errands.

And I'm thinking. My mother used to call me every single morning at work (and five or six times a day, most days), whether because she was also co-dependent or OCD (which she was), or both, I don't know. She called with such regularity -- 8.30 every morning -- that when the phone rang at 8.30, the kids in the library would say "Mrs. Chai! It's your mother!" Ahem. Yes. Anyway, so the girls called this morning, and my first thought was, Oh, is this a regular thing now? And what did I have ... five years of my gut not tying itself into knots when the phone rang in the morning? Ah, well. Truth is, I had a sudden severe wave of missing my mother very much the other day, so I guess you gotta take the good with the bad. As annoying as her calls could be -- the phone also rang every afternoon as soon as I got home and sat down on the toilet -- there's very little I wouldn't give for one of those calls right now. So if the girls call, they call. Let's hope they always do.

The living room. We use our living room for very little, except to pass through to the rest of the house when we come in, and to let stuff sit on the chairs until we need it for something. And there are lots of chairs that we've acquired in there in recent years, so it's kind of like a doctor's waiting room that never has any patients. Anyway, I said something to the Hubs before about just moving out one chair and putting the Christmas tree in its space, not in front of the window where we usually put it, but easier than re-arranging everything. He steps into the living room, studies it for a minute, and goes back to cooking his dinner. "What?" I said. He goes back again, looks at the living room, and comes back into the kitchen. And says "Why don't we just put the tree in the middle of the room?"

Well. How gloriously ridiculous. We will only be using the room to decorate the tree and to open the presents. It won't be in anyone's way, really. No cats to knock it down anymore. It'll look pretty damn funny, but still good from outside, still viewable through the picture window. And we'll see all the ornaments, not just the ones on the "good" side. Damned if we're not going to do it. The girls will probably not be amused, but hey, when they buy a house they can put their Christmas trees wherever they want. I'll get a picture for you all, if I can.

And tomorrow night, I have some sort of party to attend with the Hubs' work people. Oh joy. This will do wonders for my social anxiety. And since I don't think jeans are in order, I'll have to go out in the morning and try to get something suitable to wear. You'd think I would have thought of this before today. And shoes. With me, it always ends up with the shoes.


WATCHING L & O :: ENTRY #1642

It's Beginning

bluesleepy wrote about her Christmas tree and decorating today, and Yankee Chick
(and others) did a Christmas survey, so I'm inspired.

Let me remind you that I have been celebrating Christmas only for the last 32 of my 54 years, since I joined the Hubs' family, but still, that's a pretty long time. So we have plenty of long-held Christmas traditions here in our family, although any references to childhood gifts and the like refer to Chanukah.

I love Christmas, and I love having a Christmas tree, especially. 32 years ago, when the Hubs and I were only dating, I handmade a couple of ornaments for his mother, needlepoint cubes on plastic canvas. And I made a couple for us, too. For many years, one of our tree traditions was that I hand made at least one ornament per year. Although that first year on our own, 30 years ago, I handmade a lot of cheap ornaments from kits to fill the tree up. We only still use one or two of those.

I also made sure to get an ornament, or something I could use as an ornament, from anyplace we traveled to. Some of these are very cheesy -- I went to Maine, I got a stuffed lobster -- and some are neat, like the shell I got on the beach at Cape May that was the perfect ornament shape.

We have many ornaments that the kids made, either in school or at home, and several that I made with their annual Christmas pictures in them or on them. I got at least one ornament for each child in the family from one of those mail order places that engraves names on cheap ornaments, so that's one each for my kids and for each of their cousins.

We have lots -- LOTS -- of Disney or Hallmark character ornaments. We have a really terrific Hallmark that clips onto a branch instead of hanging and is Horton Hatching the Egg from the Dr. Seuss book.

And I love glass ball ornaments. I had a set of six that I bought that first year, just clear glass balls, like bubbles, and by now, they are all gone. But when the girls travel, especially K, I get a glass ball ornament from wherever they go. I have one from Venice that is particularly beautiful.

So, as you can imagine, I have enough ornaments for three or four trees. Many years ago, I was home sick the week before Christmas, and I took the opportunity to put a bunch of ornaments we didn't use anymore into two of those big popcorn cans, to be starter ornaments for each of the girls when they need them. Over the last few years, I've distilled down into two canvas boxes the ornaments we do use, and the others are packed away in the basement. We have a very rigid routine for decorating the tree. The Hubs brings it upstairs and puts on the lights and the topper. Every ornament is hung by the girls. I take each one out of the box and make sure it has a hook, and then hand it over to one of them. Certain ornaments "belong" to each one of them, and even now, a fight will break out if the wrong sister hangs one of those particular ones.

So there ya go. Here's the survey.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Both, mostly bags.

2. Real tree or artificial? It's real. We bought it in a real store. (Okay, artificial.)

3. When do you put up the tree? 2nd or 3rd weekend in December

4. When do you take the tree down? First weekend in January

5. Do you like eggnog? Love. It. Good with a little Kahlua in it, too.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? I got a life-size doll too, but it scared the crap out of me. I got a stuffed animal Quick Draw McGraw that I wanted very, very much and loved the fur off of over the years.

7. Do you have a nativity scene? No. The MIL does, though, and the grandchildren would always play with it, move stuff around, and so on, and I commented once that this was a very sturdy nativity set to have withstood all those years of her own children and then grandchildren playing with it. She said "Are you kidding? If my own children ever touched it, I would have broken their arms." Ah, the wonder of grandchildren. I believe she bought the set at Woolworth's the year she was married.

8. Hardest person to buy for? Husband

9. Easiest person to buy for? Both of my kids are fairly easy to buy for.

10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Endless years of pink sweaters from the MIL

11. Mail or email Christmas cards? Neither. I stopped sending cards 16 years ago, when I had a brain tumor in December. I figured no one would mind if they didn't get a card from me, and they would probably just cry if they did.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? I like It's a Wonderful Life, of course, but I'm a sucker for the Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol that was on when I was a kid. I also LOVED as a kid Amahl and the Night Visitors, which is never on anymore, hasn't been in nearly 50 years. And of course, the You'll-Shoot-Your-Eye-Out-Kid movie. The Hubs and I were big Jean Shepherd fans even before that movie came out, so it totally delighted us, and still does.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? I used to start making a list and picking things off in August, but now I won't start until after Thanksgiving, unless I happen to see some perfect thing before. And I did most of it online this year.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Not the way the question means, like re-gifting something. On the way home from my ILs, I offer whatever the MIL gave me to my kids, since it's generally something I would never use or wear.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? I don't think I have a favorite. Traditionally, we have an antipasto when we arrive at the ILs, and our first course is Holiday Soup, which I believe is more commonly known as Italian Wedding Soup. And I like a cannoli for desert, although they're not so good for me anymore. Everything in between soup and cannoli is pretty standard.

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Colored lights that blink. The ones we have came with six (I think) programs for different light settings. I have no idea how they work or how to make them work; either the Hubs or R sets them.

17. Favorite Christmas song? Least favorite song is that Burl Ives one: Holly Jolly Christmas. It makes me want to rip my ears off. There are many Christmas songs I like, and I generally like Christmas music as long as I don't have to hear it 24/7 for a couple of months. Since the movie Love Actually, I'm very fond of All I Want for Christmas is You.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? We travel a couple of hours each way down and then back up the Garden State Parkway to the in-laws.

19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer’s? Yes. Yes I can. And at one time, I could recite "The Night Before Christmas" from memory. (The actual name of the poem is "A Visit from St. Nicholas", I believe.)

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? We have a snowflake that I made many years ago with plastic needlepoint canvas, white yarn, and white beads. We're very attached to it, but each year I wonder if it's going to make it just one more time. It's become very fragile. There are no angels or stars anywhere on our tree.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? The girls give each other one on Christmas eve. The rest Christmas morning.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? The endless commercialization, and music overkill. Also, I'm very freaked out by those reindeer lawn ornaments that slowly move their heads up and down or back and forth.

23. What I love most about Christmas? I like giving gifts to people. I like the tree and all the ornaments. When the kids were little, I loved their excitement. (I also loved that, until they were grown, they never realized that the year Daddy became a vegan, we left juice for Santa and a carrot for the reindeer instead of the traditional milk and cookies. We explained that Santa was finally watching his weight.)

Have a Wonderful Christmas Everyone…..


WATCHING HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE :: ENTRY #1637

Thursday Off

[copied from dland]

These are the socks that R made me for Christmas:

and this is the belt:

I'm weighing in on the Gerald Ford thing. Although I liked him very much at the time (personally, not politically), I'm afraid that what I remember about him are things that are not so great. For one, I remember watching him debate Jimmy Carter and saying something about Eastern Europe not being under Soviet domination and everybody's jaw just dropping -- including Carter's -- and knowing that he had just lost himself an election. On another note, my nephew, now 32 and pictured here in a recent post at his most adorable, was quite the verbal little kid. In 1975 -- roughly when the picture was taken -- we could get him to say, with great excitement, at the beginning of any baseball game: "Bicentennial fwag! Bicentennial fwag!" because, as you may or may not recall, the standard American flag was replaced with some bogus thing for a couple of years there in honor of the great Bicentennial of the nation. But his most amusing Stupid Kid Trick, which his father taught him in 1976, so he was about two, was this:

His father: "Jeff, what does Jimmy Carter do?"

Little Jeff: "Jimmy Carter make peanuts!"

His father: "Jeff, what does President Ford do?"

Jeff: "Pwesident Fawd fall down!"

On the other hand, I admired him and his family very much, and thought he should have been made our permanent ceremonial president, someone with no actual power but who makes all the public appearances. He seemed to have a great deal of integrity, a good quality in a president.

In other news, I'm enjoying these days off tremendously. Today I got my nails done -- more on that in a minute -- and then had a facial. Tomorrow I'm getting orientation on the weight machines at the gym and then the complimentary massage that comes with my membership. (Then an afternoon with the Sibs.) The funny thing about all this, the nails, the facial, the new make-up, is that I smell terrific.

Which leads me to my next problem, which is that I'm allergic like crazy this week, but I don't think it's to any of these specific things: the make-up, the other cosmetic smells. I'm reacting to every bit of dust in the atmosphere, and to other scents that I can't quite track down, but I've been sneezing like crazy. It doesn't seem to be a cold, but it's hard to tell sometimes. The SCM has been known to say things to me from time to time about how he was bothered by post-nasal drip and couldn't sleep the night before and has that ever happened to me? and I have to tell him each time that I've had permanent post-nasal drip since I was four; I was probably a teenager before I realized that every other human didn't have that feeling all the time like I did. But it's been bothering me more this week, I guess because of whatever it is that's irritating my allergies. Let's keep our fingers crossed that it really isn't all my fancy new make-up.

Oh, nails, I almost forgot. I may have asked this before, I don't know. Someone told me that getting your nails done regularly is "a New Jersey thing." Whatever the hell that means, but is it true? Are there no nails salons anywhere else in the country? (Not counting New York, as New Jersey goes, so goes New York City and the surrounding suburban counties.) We have maybe a half-dozen nail salons here in little Bizarro Town, all with names like Sexy Nails, and Sexy Nails II. (Yes, there's also a Sexy Nails III.) Or French Nails. Like that.

My last rant of the day is -- again -- my hearing aids. You know, I have these two devices clipped onto my ears that communicate with each other via RF (radio frequency) signals. This is the only way hearing aids are made now for my kind of hearing loss, but I'm increasingly aware that this is no longer a viable technology because there is just so much random RF signal traffic in the general world. It's increased exponentially in the last few years since I got these aids. At first, I wanted to complain about some new device in CVS that was causing the static, but now it's everywhere, randomly, in stores and in all kinds of places. It's time to replace the technology that powers my ears with something new -- bluetooth would be nice -- but it doesn't exist yet. I wish I knew where to complain to, maybe to the company that makes them. (Only one company does.) It's my understanding that there are so few people with my kind of hearing loss, at least people who have it and wear hearing aids, that the industry just isn't motivated to do much for us.

Anyway, I'm running out to CVS to pick something up (and to avoid folding laundry), so I know what to expect when I get there.

Damn, I smell good.


WATCHING DR. PHIL :: ENTRY #1333

Where Does the Time Go?

[copied from dland]

Not any place constructive, I can tell you that. Oh, maybe a little.

I'm all mixed up on dates, which you wouldn't think I'd be, considering that yesterday was December 25, but since we had family Christmas on Saturday, I'm all turned around. I think I did post on Sunday, but not yesterday.

Yesterday was as quiet as a day gets. I never did get dressed (although yes, I did put on a bra; a whole day without one is not so much as comfortable as you might think) and other than that, I don't think I did anything at all. Were the girls both here? Uh ... I think so. They went to the movies Sunday afternoon, but I don't even remember what they were doing in the house yesterday, or what I did. I do remember that R slept until 10:30 while we were all waiting to open gifts, and just as we sat down to do that, the ILs called to wish us a Merry etc. and ask what we got, and so on, but we finally got to it. Here's the take:

K gave me a cuddly zippered top I had picked out at the Giant Jeans Conglomerate, as well as two very cuddly pairs of socks.

R gave me a pair of socks THAT SHE MADE (pictures tomorrow) and a matching belt THAT SHE MADE. (She knits.)

The Hubs gave me a couple of books (a new biography of Walt Disney and a book by Bob Newhart), the "new" Beatles album, Love, which is actually wonderful, and a Lenox statue thingy of Mickey and Minnie Mouse. Hey, it means he went to a mall. I'm impressed.

He seemed amused by his bobble-heads, and very much liked the newest Rumpole book that I gave him, as well as another trinket or two. The girls seemed to enjoy their hauls as well, although the backup battery I got K for her phone didn't have the right connector, and I took that back this morning. I'll get her a battery backup for her iPod instead, since she's got one day a week next semester where she has something like a four-hour break between classes, and her phone holds a charge better than an iPod does.

I actually braved the mall again today, twice in a holiday week, this time to get a little more info on that cool make-up I got last week. Okay, okay, I got another item or two, but I also got my make-up done in the store so the girl could show me how to use everything, so that was fine. Today's mall strategy was that I wasn't going to care where I parked, which made things less tense. Of course, I could have parked in my driveway and walked to the mall, considering how far it was, but since we're still having spring in December, it wasn't a big deal.

Then this afternoon, the girls and I headed down the Parkway again to go to a wake, which I think I mentioned the other day. It was a little odd to drive an hour and a quarter each way to spend fifteen minutes there, but it was the right thing to do. The colleague whose father had passed away said that only one other person from school had come, and although he wasn't expecting anyone, really, I did know that other guy was going -- he had told me the time and place of the wake -- and I knew it was the right thing for us to go, too. This guy has been an incredible teacher/mentor/friend to my children, and they wanted very much to pay their respects to him. He was touched that we came, and we were very glad that we went.

I just looked back at my last couple of entries, so, to follow up: I made the pumpkin pies. We did have cognac after dinner on Sunday, and may I say, yuck. Also red wine with dinner, probably the first red wine I've had in twenty years, but it was nice and dry, so I liked it. (I found the wine glasses and the huge wine goblets that were a wedding gift but which we had never ever used until the cognac.) We did have Chinese food last night.

So now you know where the time went, and so do I, I guess. I have some actual activities planned for tomorrow, so perhaps I will have something to write about. Keep your fingers crossed for no broken bones or torn anythings; I'm going to the gym in morning.


WATCHING no idea :: ENTRY #1331

Merry Rat Schism!

[copied from dland]

Boxx wanted to see pictures of my holiday sweaters.

Blue:

Green:

I wore the blue one, because I was also wearing jeans (of course) and I wore the blue crocs, too. Should we all be more dressed up? I have no idea. Since it's usually just the ten of us at the ILs' house, jeans are pretty standard. (Except for the high school years, when the niece, according to her mother, did not own a pair of jeans. She also apparently owned only capri-length pants, which is what she wore year round. But no jeans.)

Later. Next day, actually. I mean, today.

So we headed down the Parkway around two, and got to the ILs around 3:30, no traffic whatsoever. The SIL and her brood were already there, which is maybe the second time they have arrived before us in 30 years. The MIL served the antipasto, everyone dug in, and gifts were opened.

The gifts were all fun, some particularly good, but the MIL apologized and said she was having an off year. Which she was, because just when she was ready to get her shopping started, all this mess with the FIL's back started up and she was making daily trips to the emergency room rather than the malls. Anyway, she had gotten me a Chico's gift card before all the hoohah started, and everybody else got a check. She got one DVD for each kid, then gave them money, and all their stocking stuff. The SIL gave R, along with money, a copy of The Joy of Cooking, which the kid did not put down all evening.

(A note on the FIL's health, since I've mentioned it before. His last injection for pain worked, and it's not a steroid injection, which means he can just go back for one every six to eight weeks for the rest of his life and be pain-free. Score for him. His mobility is still very limited though, and he's finally agreed that he needs one of those scooter things you see advertised on TV all the time, so he's got the prescription and he's getting one of those. The only sad thing I noticed was that he seems so much shorter, what with the back trouble and the difficulty in standing up straight; he seemed no more than 5'8" maybe, and he's always been 6'2". But no pain is the most important thing.)

There was way too much time between gifts and going out, so we pretty much just sat around, and left the house at six. The MIL rode with us, and the BIL drove his crew and the FIL in the FILs' car, which is the only one big enough for him to get into. The restaurant is in a strip-mall of restaurants, but is very nice inside and has absolutely excellent food. (An Italian restaurant.) All was well and nice; they had set us up at a round table, so we could all see and hear everyone. Even my usually-silent nephew spoke some; maybe he's finally growing up. We all have leftovers for today, which impacts on our own holiday meal schedule, but more on that later.

Then we went back to the house for some few desserts, although we'd had coffee in the restaurant. The MIL has many holiday decorations and trinkets all over; the Hubs' favorite is this alphabet-block thing that spells out "Merry Christmas" and has a Santa sitting on it, but every year, he spends heaven knows how much time re-arranging the blocks to say stupid things. Last night, K got into the act, and in a few minutes, topped her father's all-time best:

(That's the MIL on the side.)

We got home about eleven, also without traffic, and now we're in to spend the holidays with -- horrors! -- just us. I woke up with a colossal headache, probably from drinking nearly a whole glass of wine with dinner, which is more wine than I've had in years, so I'm getting a late start. The girls have even offered to go to the supermarket on their own, and I'm thinking of taking them up on it. Looks like we'll have our more-or-less traditional meal tonight (shrimp cocktail, orange salad, something else, I don't remember) but we'll skip the pasta, since the Hubs and K still have huge portions of last night's pasta left over, which they'll probably have for lunch. (I have sea bass leftover, but R polished off her filet mignon.) Somebody needs to make sure that the Chinese food place is open tomorrow, in which case, that'll be dinner. So I'm not cooking as much as I thought, although I will make some pumpkin pies later.

We were saying on the ride home last night that we should have wine with dinner tonight, and nobody could even remember where are wine glasses are. I did find them this morning, but the Hubs also found a bottle of cognac that someone gave him once, and I don't know if I can come up with glasses for that; I got some as a wedding present, but they've never been used, just toted around from place to place, no takers in any garage sale ever, and still someplace in a box in the basement. Maybe I'll look later. As for the wine and stuff, we always have bottles of one thing or another around, even though we rarely drink in the house, because the Hubs gets them as gifts every Christmas. He says he opens one bottle a year and uses it in his cooking from time to time. Anyway, I believe I agreed to drink red tonight, so we don't have to open two different bottles for just the four of us, and I'm guessing I haven't had red wine in 25 years. So tomorrow's headache ought to be a doozy. (I had a nice, very dry Frascati last night with dinner, and I know shit about wine, but it was most enjoyable. The drier the wine, the better I like it.)

So here it is, 10:30, and so far, what I've accomplished today is that I brushed my teeth, had a cup of coffee, and read Parade magazine. And read diaries and typed this, of course. I should probably go put on a bra, and then check the basement for those glasses. Or something.

Merry Rat Schism, everyone!


WATCHING BULL AND TED :: ENTRY #1330

Merry Christmas! Uh ... Wait

[copied from dland]

Okay, it's Christmas for us, kind of, although it feels like a regular Saturday in late October because it's 60 degrees out there today. But don't worry, Mr. President, global warming is just something the liberals made up to try to scare people into voting for them. Nothing for you to worry about.

The Hubs is at the office, and R isn't here yet, since we really don't have to leave until around two. Have I mentioned how much I hate the way this whole operation has been planned this year, the time, the day, everything? All to accommodate my niece -- not Wonderful Niece, the other side of the family -- who is going to Europe on Monday, and whose story, I have to tell you, does not sound kosher to me for a lot of reasons. She's really going, I just think not for the pure academic purposes she would have her grandmother believe.

So, on top of my uncharacteristic mall excursion yesterday, I went to Kohl's this morning because I was suddenly seized of the desire to wear a holiday sweater tonight. I don't believe I ever had any kind of holiday sweater, and they were on sale, so I got two, and with co-ordinated mock turtlenecks to wear under them. K is plenty scared, let me tell you; she's ready to call the padded truck people, and asked me to promise never to wear them. Bullshit. I bought them, I'll wear one set later. At least I'll look like I'm happy to be there, dammit. I won't look remotely like myself, but I'll fit right in.

I finished my book last night, which was Elsewhere, by Gabrielle Zevin. It's a YA book, but reminiscent a bit of The Lovely Bones. In this one, we see what the girl's afterlife is like, what happens there, the relationships she makes. I'm not saying it's a Pulitzer winner, but I liked it a lot and I cried.

So far, two out of the three others here think that being home with just ourselves on Christmas is the perfect opportunity to have Chinese food, like they did in The Christmas Story, especially since it is, they say, the traditional Christmas Day meal of Jewish people. Well, I wouldn't have to cook another meal, anyway. I don't know if Chinese food places really are open on Christmas or not, but we'll have to find out. Of course, we never had Chinese food on Christmas when I was growing up because it was my parents' anniversary and we always went out to some very fancy place for dinner.

I have so much straightening up to do in the house this week, and so far, no motivation to get started. At the moment, another hour of sleep sounds good, although unlikely. Actually, I think I'm going to look for my Mah Jongg sets. I have two used ones that my mother got me ten years ago -- more I guess -- which is another whole story, but someone at school has offered to teach a few of us how to play. I'm just wondering where they're hiding here in the house. There's a nice Christmas activity for you.

Good weekend, all.


WATCHING REEL TALK :: ENTRY #1329