Careful what you pray for

Someone in my family had good news this week.  After a two year search, and a gazillion interviews, our son has landed the job of his dreams.  In southern California. I know.  I'm sad.

A road trip is called for!  By February 1st, we will pack what's reasonable to carry into a Ford Focus--after the golf clubs, that won't be much--and we'll head first south, and then west.  I hope he packs hankies. I don't think we can handle the more direct route through the mountains in the heart of winter, so we'll follow the trail of The Mother Road.  Route 66. I'm already looking for diners along the route that we simply can't miss, and landmarks we shouldn't.

I can't quite believe I'm doing another cross country trip by car in less than 6 months.  At least I get to fly home at the end of this one. Though I'm sure I won't want to leave him there.

Oh, hell.  I can't think about that...

Nope.  Can't go there yet.  I'd rather focus on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives and an amazing soundtrack.

When life isn't fair

Of all the things one can catch, I can think of many that are better than what I caught this week.  I mean catching fireflies is fun, so is catching the right mate. Catching your plane on time can take you away to places exotic, warm and beautiful.

Catching the flu?  Not so great.

Despite my best efforts at avoidance, like getting vaccinated, eating well, being clean and washing my hands all of the time, I have contracted influenza.  Everything hurts, including my hair follicles and I have a persistent fever that despite taking ibuprofen in prescription strength, hasn't budged from 101 degrees.  I am the third person in my home who has been brought low by the flu, even though we all had our vaccines.  I'm sure we're dealing with a strain that wasn't in the shot.  We were each one miserable.

This all started Thursday and it's not too late for me to get Tamiflu...if I could only stand upright long enough to get up, get dressed, go to urgent care and let someone stick a swab down my nose.  Dying sounds preferable to all of that.

What a miserable little virus!

When negatives make a positive

I'm making one self indulgent and empowering resolution this year.  I'm not talking about my expanding waist size, or other physical problems I may have.   Last year, my attempts to let go and be a forgiving human being were fairly successful.  Of course I endeavored to forgive just one person, so maybe that's why it worked out so well.  I didn't take on the Universe.  Just one annoying occupant and for the most part, the moment I let her go in my mind, I've barely given her a thought.

This year, my sole resolution is to embrace the word, no.

No.

Usually thought of as something negative, the word, no,  can be a positive if you learn how to use it to your benefit and as a complete sentence.  Can you work today?  No.  How about the next 4 days in a row because I was incredibly shortsighted and didn't plan for a dearth of nurses even though I'm the one who gave them all that time off?  No.  All by itself, it's an answer that requires no further adjectives, verbs or nouns.  Not, no, I'm busy. Or tired. Or sick. Or overwhelmed.  Just, No. I will grant you that the only way it's positive is if I count it as thus.  For instance, months ago, I set my schedule and worked full time ahead of the holiday so I could afford to take the entire week off between Christmas and New Year's Day.  When my boss begged me to work extra this week, I capitulated, allowed myself to be cajoled, and worked an additional 20 hours I'd not planned to work while she went on vacation.  Who's the fool?  Me.  Today I'm exhausted and feel completely empty after a marathon stretch of days triaging the problems of the sick.  Changing from full time to contingent this past year was to benefit me, not others, but I'm allowing myself to feel pressured to say yes all of the  time.  Well, not anymore.  As of this moment forward, if it doesn't fit into my schedule, I will allow myself to say NO to my heart's content.  If this decision is thought to be selfish, well, so be it.  If I don't see to my own well being and sanity, who will?

While I fully realize that this can be perceived as a negative at a time I'm supposed to be positive and looking forward, I kind of think that making time for myself is positive, and learning to use the word, NO,  liberally,  is a good way to start my year.

Happy New Year, my friends.  And if you have any advice on how to say no whilst making it sound like a positive thing, I'm all ears!

Wolf in sheep's clothing

Oh, OK, it's really just Leo wrapped in a fake sherpa blanket he got for Christmas.  I thought you'd like to see what goes on around here while I'm hard at work.

Nothing.

Note to self:  Take lessons from the dog.

Holiday Recap

Let me sum up...

The food, which nearly cooked itself, was good and the brand new meat thermometer worked very well.  There is a story there, but the overly proud cook who resides in my psyche is still smarting too much from the Thanksgiving turkey fiasco to even discuss that much.  Suffice it to say, I think the new thermometer will preclude the need for therapy.  There was time enough yesterday to lolly-gag and play with Christmas presents throughout the day ( I really appreciated my new dry shampoo and the fact I didn't have to wash my hair before company came).  Wine, good wine, was consumed, but not by anyone in excess (maybe this alone kept people from noticing I had not washed my hair).  No feelings were hurt and no tears were shed, unless you count Leo, who cried because  he was jailed for playing too roughly with a two year old.  It all started over a ball.  Laughter made the rounds of the rooms and I think we all had a really great time.  Even the weather cooperated by depositing enough snow to make it a white Christmas, but not enough to throw a monkey wrench into holiday travels.

Was this my family holiday?  Someone better pinch me to be sure I didn't sleep through Christmas!

I haven't had a great tale of woe on a holiday since Mr. Larger Than Life passed on.  I don't miss the drama, but I've been trying to put my finger on what's different, and I think this is it.  We had ham yesterday, which would have thrilled him up until the moment he discovered it wasn't full of nitrites, processed, smoked, covered in sugary goo or overly salty.  What we did have was fresh, covered in rosemary, garlic and olive oil and went rather well with the sweet and sour cabbage, mashed potatoes and homemade applesauce.  He would have hated that meal.  We consumed it with gusto!

Tonight I'm finally starting that Squares on a Roll workshop at my local yarn store.  I'm beyond excited, but rather realistic, too.  I'm betting the weather will not play nicely and the northern end of that storm will deposit too much snow for even knitters to deal with.  I live within walking distance of the shop, but I know others don't, so we'll have to see what happens.  Just in case, I'm going to spend some time looking for the yarn I put away "in a safe place" for this class.

Merry Christmas

"I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And Wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"

~Longfellow

Thank you for visiting this past year. I treasure the friendships I've made here. Have a wonderful holiday.

Time! I need time!

That's what Bilbo said to Gollum, and that's what I find myself saying now.  Instead of using three precious hours to even start wrapping holiday gifts, I used it instead to go to the movies with Brian.  I spent three hours forgetting my work and the news I've watched for the past 8 days.  There isn't enough brain bleach in the world to make the things I've dealt with, seen, read and heard go completely away, but three hours was good.  So was the movie.

If you're a purist and find yourself disappointed when the script doesn't match the book, you may be a bit let down, but I wasn't.  I've read these books many times over the years, including The Silmarillion and the index in the back of The Return of the King.  I think parts of both of these were pulled into this tale and it built another story onto the back of The Hobbit.  For those who've never read Tolkien's work, the Lord of the Rings movies will likely make more sense once you've seen all of this series.

That's enough dawdling.  I really must get my butt in gear.  I haven't wrapped, I haven't cleaned and as of this moment, no flour has flown through the kitchen.  What kind of Christmas would it be without homemade cookies?

I hope you're all doing better with time than me.