Christmas Eve

Today's been about memories. I don't actually celebrate Christmas, although I put a lot of gusto into it at work, as I know the patients and others like the silly hats, etc. The spirit of Christmas, after all, transcends religions. But as a Pagan, I celebrate Yule, which is the Winter Solstice. But I don't have friends anymore who are Pagan, and I'm not in a position to really celebrate it to the fullest. I do celebrate Hanukkah with my roommate, but it was very low-key (just the candles) this year. This whole holiday season has been difficult. So I'm in the house, the only one awake (even in the afternoon), and, having grown up Southern Baptist, I think of Christmases past with my family. I had a very complex dynamic with my parents, no siblings to affect it, and no close family left in Kentucky (with apologies to my mom's cousins). I grew up very isolated, and Christmas was the one time we were a family. So here I am feeling a little lonely. Lots of emotions have been flooding me, as the holiday season does for so many. There are some good and bad memories. Truth is, it's all fuzzy anyway. But the emotions are there, and they're particularly troublesome today. But it'll pass. The hope of light is there, after, all, and I have good friends. I'm hoping the new year will be a good one.

The last few days have been

very nice. I've read.  I've relaxed, taking a nap here and there.  I've listened to music, and I've done stuff around the house like raking leaves (again) to try to get ready for the vacuuming truck that comes by.  I got 2/3 of the yard done this afternoon, and I'll try to do the rest tomorrow.  I came inside to hydrate and got caught up in a 'Black Mirror' episode, and realised I was really tired and with the game called off tomorrow, it could wait till tomorrow, when the weather's supposed to be a little better anyway.  I have a two-foot pile of leaves in the road verge at the moment; it'll just grow a little bigger.  Most of the main leaves are already there.

Tomorrow I'll do my normal Sunday tasks: floors, bathroom, trash/recyclables, laundry, and cat litter boxes.  I did the dishes tonight so I think they're okay.  But the evening will visitation for the little lady who died, whom I cared a good deal about.  I'm going to take my friend over that afternoon to help with my other friend, who will be in a wheelchair so he can attend the family hour of visitation, and then I'll come at the regular time for the public.  I would take our friend, but my car is an old Ford Taurus that is so low to the ground that we have trouble getting in and out of it, much less someone with mobility issues.  I am not a big fan of visitation--I find it a bit morbid, to be honest.  But for her, I'll do it.  She was such a wonderful person, who lit up a whole room.  I was looking at Thanksgiving flowers the other day and found myself thinking about bringing some, and then remembered that she was gone.  That's the worst thing, I think, after someone dies--all the little things you want to share with them that evaporate in your mind as soon as you realise they have passed and you'll never share with them again.  It brings the pain up all over again.  That was certainly the case for me when my mom died.

So for now, though, I'm listening to Mumford & Sons, trying to decide whether I should 1) go to bed or 2) read some more.  The book (Kate Morton's The Distant Hours) is very well-written, the prose is lovely, and I'm about 50 pages in and I like how it's unfolding.  But I'm a little tired.  I'm in my pyjamas and I've brushed my teeth.  I'm ready for bed.

Today I got something I'd ordered as a lightning deal from Amazon, which I almost never do.  It's 128 GB SD card that is meant to go in a camera but can also go in laptops with the right reader, and I have one on mine.  I got it for $19.95, which was roughly half of the normal price, and it works, it's inserted into my computer, and I've backed up some files to it.  It's not great as a long-term storage option (they do break down over time, just like flash drives), but it was cheap and easy and while I have my documents backed up in other places (OneDrive, Dropbox), after what happened with the Windows update in October when I lost all my documents, I thought that it would make a good local option that wasn't at the mercy of cloud providers, and I can't afford a USB removable hard drive at the moment.  Also, if something happened to my laptop I could just switch out the card like I do with the microSD card in my phone (that has pictures and music on it).  So we'll see how it works out.   I took a few minutes earlier to back things up to the card and to the cloud.  I need to do that with the desktop, which YKWIA uses.  I also spent some time yesterday at the storage unit (looking for a couple of cutting boards, with no luck) and found my Civilization IV game, and so I pulled out the old DVD-ROM external drive I have here (it's from when computers didn't have them yet, and my computer is so 'advanced' it doesn't have one at all, so even though it's a little slow and clunky, it works--although not to play CDs lately, something in one of the Microsoft updates apparently broke that, too, so I guess the only CDs I'll buy in the near future are ones with AutoRip, where they do it for you, as otherwise, I can't get the CD music on my phone.  Anyway, it does work for CD-ROMs, and I was able to get the game onto this computer, so I'm happy, as it's one of the few games I ever play consistently.

Okay, I guess I'm just babbling about my life now.  It's going pretty well.  Work is still stressful but not as much as it had been.  I am very blessed right now.  I do feel a little guilty posting the pictures of Thanksgiving and the abundance of food for two people.  I live paycheque-to-paycheque, and I don't feel particularly affluent at all, but on the other hand, I have so much compared to some--a home to go to, food to eat, great companionship, and relatively good health, really.  I don't mean to flaunt it, but I think of the homeless, or the starving children in Yemen, or the refugees seeking asylum, etc., and I do feel guilty, although I really was just trying to express how grateful I am for life right now.  I don't have enough money to donate to any causes right now, it's been a struggle lately, and we had to pool our resources to make Thanksgiving happen, but maybe I could volunteer some time around Christmas.  Which reminds me, I guess I need to get some cards to send out.  We don't really celebrate Christmas, as I'm pagan (I celebrate the Winter Solstice, Yule) and YKWIA is Jewish.  But the holiday season is still a good time to think of others.  Chanukah, which of course is a minor holiday in the Jewish year, although most Christians, I think, just see it as Jewish Christmas, is coming up quickly--it starts December 2nd.  My plan is to get YKWIA some good house shoes, as his shoes have nearly died.  (I can say that here, as he doesn't read my blog, because as he puts it, he knows what goes on in my life).  But I'll have to wait till the next payday, which happens in the middle of Chanukah.

Okay, the cat wants to cuddle, the music has stopped.  Time to go to bed.  Good night.

I'm kind of in a holiday mood now that Thanksgiving is over

Of course, the holidays will be fairly quiet at home. YKWIA is Jewish, and I think Chanukah starts December 8th, but one, it is actually quite a minor holiday in Judaism, and two, I've already ordered and given him his gift, a nice set of linen napkins, since we were very pressed for any, as most of his had worn out.

As far as me, I'm not Christian. I have put up a tree a couple years running, after years of using Norfolk Virginia pines as my Yule trees (evergreens being a pagan borrowing for Christmas, after all). But my tree and ornaments are in the storage unit, and there's really no room for a tree in the house; when A was living here, it was in the living room. Now I live in the living room, you see, so my bed takes up much of the room, and the nightstands take up the corners that the tree used to go in.

Now the other day, I did buy a lovely rosemary bush topiary that had been shaped like a little cone-like shape, on a whim, even though I've never been able to keep a rosemary bush alive, ever. I decided, though, that there was no really great place for it; the best window for light is above his window seat in his bedroom, and while several plants are there and thriving, I wouldn't really see it much. The cedar chest is right out; the water could damage it. So I decided my little bay at the medical centre was pretty bright with the lights and the sunlight coming in through the windows across the lobby, so I put it on my desk, the one thing I've actually done to personalise the place rather than my little fan and the beaded wrist and hand wrests. It looks rather festive in its little red pot. They also decorated today, putting small, narrow trees all along the lobby windows with bows on them and little tree skirts, with white lights, but the actual ornaments are coloured and hung by the patients. That went much smoother than the folks and my endocrinologist's office, who seemed quite challenged by their tree and were providing a great deal of merriment to those waiting in their attempts to fluff and string working lights. When I came out, it still looked the same. They'd apparently given up for a bit. Trees can be quite challenging to decorate, of course. I'm glad I'm not stringing one with lights and doing the whole tinsel and ornament thing this year.

I came home from my appointment thinking that it had been a good day (much less stressful than yesterday, when I was exhausted), but YKWIA rightly realised I was aching, cranky, and obviously not at my best, so he sent me to take some ibuprofen and then nap while he took a shower and cooked some broccoli with garlic sauce. We had that, chickpea soup, carrot salad, and some French bread. I feel a little better. I came back to my room after cleaning up and starting the dishwasher, only to find the cat happily grooming himself on my soft blanket that was on my bed. He's curled up next to me as I type. :) He's been a challenge to feed lately--he seems to be allergic to most foods, so we've got him on a seafood grain-free food, as anything with chicken or grain makes his stomach upset and/or his eyes water. But the new food does seem to be working, I just don't think he likes it that much. It's probably pretty bland. The little dog left her food in her bowl tonight (she does that on occasion), and the cat was trying to crunch down on her food till we put it up so he wouldn't react to it.

Okay, I guess that's all for now. I considered posting about the weird run of sexual harassment stories lately (don't get me wrong, I believe most of the women, but it seems the climate is such that a witch hunt could ensue, and lives and careers can be permanently damaged by claims that may not be substantiated before the consequences happen, as some have seemed very abrupt.) On the other hand, I think it's very good that the men who have been pigs and abusive over the years are finally having their comeuppance. It's a tricky thing. I've known someone who claimed to have been raped, but never prosecuted and apparently just left town at the time. On the one hand, I'd like to believe her because I don't want to dismiss someone's experience or trivialise her claim. On the other hand, given her other behaviours, we seriously doubted such a thing had ever happened, because she was very attention-seeking (she also attempted to present evidence that she made up herself that a death cult from Taos was out to get her). What can I say, I've known a lot of weird and sometimes quite troubled people, most of them women, unfortunately. But she could have been telling the truth; mental health issues do not mean you haven't been victimised--in fact that probably increases your chances. But it is so hard to tell what happened between two people that were not witnessed by anyone. Others coming forward might increase the chances that it's a pervasive thing and that the guy (or woman, depending on the harasser's gender, as it could be either) is really guilty. But as we know from cases where people come out of the woodwork to accuse others, such as the Salem witch trials and other hysterias, it can be an iffy thing. I hope those who are guilty are brought to justice. I hope those who aren't are eventually exonerated. But the court of public opinion can be a vicious thing, and there is no such thing as innocent until proven guilty outside of the courtroom.

Well, I guess I wrote about that after all. Good night.

Listening to Pentatonix and trying to get into some Yuletide cheer...

Well, the tree is up and the lights are on, and after a short break, so are the ornaments. I have given my yearly accidental blood offering--it never fails, I pinch my hand putting on the branches at some point. I suspect it's because I'm a pagan celebrating Yule with an artificial tree. I prefer a live one, but this was given to me, works nicely, and I can't afford a live tree that will just die quickly, and seems a shame to cut a live tree. :) Happy Yuletide, or Solstice, or Christmas, or Hanukkah, or whatever holiday you may celebrate, if any. May the light shine in you, and in your life, as the long darkness gives way to the slow return of the sun.

So far today I have:

1. Slept in a little, as I had a hard time extricating myself from some very weird, weird dreams.
2. Showered and dressed--in Capris, a short sleeve shirt, and sandals, because it was 52 degrees this morning when I woke up, is hovering around 60 now, and is supposed to top out about 63-66, depending on which weather station you go by.
3. Called A to see if creamer was needed by YKWIA before Saturday, as Kroger closes at 5:30 this evening and I was going to have to go to the grocery because there was not really anything to eat in the house.
4. Spent an hour and a half at Kroger trying to get what I needed as frugally as possible.
5. Got gas at Kroger for 60 cents off a gallon, bringing it to $1.24/gallon. I filled the car up for less than $17 (but I wasn't on empty, just a little under a quarter of a tank).
6. Brought the groceries in.
7. Put away the cold things.
8. Turned on the tree and lights (yes, I know, it's after Yule. I keep it up for awhile. I'll probably take it down on New Year's. A Christmas tree I would have kept up till January 6th, when the Christmas season traditionally ends.)
9. Poured myself a cold drink, as I was parched and hot. I have the heat off, of course, but I'd like to open the windows, but I don't think I can get to the ones in the living room due to the tree.

What I'm planning on doing today, if at all possible:

1. First, get some breakfast. It's almost noon and I haven't eaten yet today.
2. Clean out the fridge.
3. Clean the kitchen.
4. Unload and load the dishwasher.
5. Do a few plastic/non-dishwasher-safe dishes.
6. Run the dishwasher, if it's full.
7. Put away the rest of the groceries.
8. Clean the bathroom.
9. Straighten up the living/dining area.
10. Gather the laundry.
11. Go through old mail and recycle what I can.
12. Gather and take out the trash.
13. Gather and take out the recyclables.
14. Water plants.
15. Put water in fish tanks.
16. Exercise on the complex gym's bike.
17. Put together some candy favours for three friends for the holiday. I couldn't really afford to do presents, but this is the equivalent of a stocking, really.
18. Listen to pagan and other music.
19. Do the game notes.

Tomorrow I need to:

1. Call my mom and wish her a merry Christmas.
2. Help a friend move two bookshelves worth of books over a bit (that may spill into Saturday, I'm not sure).
3. Spend time with my friends.

But today is my day to try to get everything back on track.

UPDATE: I've removed watching The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, part 1. A and I may be watching a movie or two in the series (he hasn't seen them) while we're off, and it would be nice to see them again before watching the third one. Instead, I've put in doing the game notes. Not quite as fun, but I've got the time now, and it would be nice to get it finished long before Saturday night. :)

In the last couple of days I have

1. Gone to the library.
2. Returned a few library books.
3. Paid my electric bill while I was there.
4. Tried to set up a bill pay through my bank, but it wouldn't allow me a date earlier than the absolute last day it was due.
5. Took my cable/internet equipment back to Time Warner Cable and explained that I was cancelling service.
6. Went to the bank and got a cashier's cheque.
7. Mailed an overnight envelope with the important bill in it, to the tune of $20 for postage.
8. Drove to Danville.
9. Visited with my mom and her family overnight.
10. Read part of a book on my Kindle.
11. Exchanged gifts.
12. Returned to Lexington.
13. Decompressed over at a friend's house.
14. Took a friend to the grocery store.
15. Watched a Netflix movie with a friend.
16. Visited to nearly 2 am.
17. Went over at 9 am to get their house ready for the game.
18. Played the game.
19. Talked about some issues that came up during my visit with my mom.

Now I'm home, listening to music, and preparing for bed. Hope you had a good holiday break. It seems weird to be going back to work after a five-day break, but it's good to have been off.

I must admit

that is is more convenient to use a cable connexion for the Internet, rather than posting via my phone or using my laptop tethered to my phone or as my phone as a hotspot, hence the fact that I haven't blogged over the last few days. Plus, I've been pretty busy over the weekend, and I basically have come home and just crashed. Today I expected to do just that. I was in check-out again, for one, and then went over to my friends' house to work on something that lasted till 10 pm. But I came home and popped some popcorn for dinner, ate a clementine (hey, they were about all I had, except for some oatmeal and some canned spinach), and then had some hot chocolate. Fortunately I would normally be paid on Christmas, but instead will be paid Christmas Eve, or even, hopefully, near midnight tomorrow, so I can take care of some bills that have been piling up and causing my phone to ring 12 or more times a day. But tomorrow is my last day to work this week. I have a lot to do while I'm off:

1. Pay bills.
2. Take back my cable box and modem.
3. Really work on the house.
4. Fix latkes for a friend for Chanukah.
5. Work on a project with him rearranging his library desk.
6. Go visit my mom.
7. Finish the game notes.
8. Play the game.
9. Return a book to the library.

So there's a couple of videos I enjoyed over the weekend, one found by Brenda and the other by YKWIA, that I'd like to share here:

First, the one Brenda told us about:



and then YKWIA found this very sweet love song:



Hope you enjoy them. Okay, it is getting late. One more day of work before I get a five-day break, so I should get to bed and get up early and do well. Good night!

Starting to get in the holiday mood

Today I:

1. Put up the tree at work (see below). I didn't have any lights, but I think it worked well, plus I could put it on one of the shelving units rather than on the floor where it would look tiny. The Little Golden Book ornaments were made by a coworker who used to oversee the library. The snowmen are tongue depressors the inpatient unit made, and the crocheted angel is one a now-retired co-worker gave me. The angel on top is porcelain and red-haired. This tree is probably about 25 years old as near as I can figure, at least (but adheres to all regulations regarding flame retardance).
2. Listened to an a cappella holiday album by Pentatonix
3. Enjoyed a free holiday lunch at work, where they fixed some fish for those of us who don't eat prime rib or chicken
4. Went to a holiday social after work and spent time with my co-workers and eating cheese and dessert (the hors d'oevres were made with meat)
5. Watched a Christmas episode of 'Grimm' with YKWIA
6. Hung up holiday lights in my windows (multicolour, steady)
7. Put lights (white, steady) and garland (pearlescent clear) onto my little Norfolk Virginia pine at home. By that time it was midnight, so I"ll wait till tomorrow to put most of the ornaments on. I also have holographic-etched silver snowflakes to go in the windows.

I really should find a tree skirt for the one at work. It would look even better.

So I am feeling

Less nervous about scheduling and am a little more confident in what I'm doing this week as opposed to last week,  where I felt drained and stressed.  And it was a very busy week,  but I mostly stayed on top of things and juggled my library and revenue cycle duties pretty well. Thursday and Friday I can take care of those two areas in greater depth,  plus I have some meetings to go to.  Tomorrow I have to leave early to take a friend to an appointment as well.  But I am an hour-and-a-half ahead on my time,  so I won't have to dip into my personal time off much. 

I've been trying to build it up due to the impending holidays,  and barring getting sicker or something like that,  I should be on track for two days at Thanksgiving,  three at Christmas (we have Christmas Eve off in addition to Christmas Day.  It seemed a good plan to take that Friday off as well).  Of course,  there is also New Year's. So that is six days.  With the next pay period I'll have about eight days saved. By the end of the year there will be about two more.

I am still sick,  but hanging in there.  I am tired of blowing my nose,  which is very irritated.  Even with the medication,  which I am almost out of,  it has not been fun.  But if I can get better without it going into a sinus infection or bronchitis,  I will be quite happy.

I was going to read for a bit.  Turns out I left my Kindle wireless connexion on several days ago,  so it's charging.  Yes,  I know,  this is where real,  physical books have an advantage. So instead I am listening to music and debating on whether it's too late in the day for a nap.  :) Or, I could just pick one of the many books I have on sixteen bookshelves and read.  I have several out from the library I need to get to,  as well.  :)

A good day and evening

Work went well. I had to run out at lunch though for my insulin, which I'd almost forgotten to refill in time. And the doctor's office had put one box instead of two when they upped my prescription slightly, and the pharmacy caught that it would only have lasted about 12 days. I did leave the balance of my prescription in a refrigerator in a work kitchenette, so I have to be sure to remember it tomorrow.

I couldn't to the pharmacy after work because I had physical therapy, and by the time I'd have gotten out, they'd have closed. That was a very good session lasting from about 5:15 till about 6:45 pm. I did more steps than I had last time, and generally pushed myself to do a little better than before.

After that I checked in with friends to see if they needed anything, as one had called me while I was in PT. I ran by the grocery for some things for me and a couple for them and then went over to their place and watched 'House of Anubis' and did some computer troubleshooting. They gave me a lovely belated holiday gift, a blouse in a dark bluish purple that is one of my best colours. It is a sort of tunic (too short as a dress, but long for a blouse) and normal from the front but with pleats coming down the back that completely hides one's butt, which can be very useful for me. I'm looking forward to wearing it Monday (tomorrow is jeans day at work, and it's too dressy for jeans).

Now I'm home. Brandon had texted me, but I just got the message and it's a bit late to text back. I'll talk to him tomorrow, hopefully. I think I'll massage my feet a bit and head on to bed. I'm glad tomorrow's Friday--it's been a long, but good week. Good night.

Holiday cheer

Brandon's family and I had a gift exchange earlier. The fireman outfit was a great hit with the four-year-old. I'm not so sure about the bullhorn in terms of his parents' ears, but that's what aunties are for, right?

I got a movie I really love on DVD, The Princess Bride. I'm going to watch it tonight. I'll have to watch it with Brandon sometime--he hasn't seen it, which boggled my mind until I remembered he was something like four when it came out.

I also got a gift card to Amazon, which is running a special of 20 mp3 albums today for $1.99 or less. I found several of the albums had music I like, plus another one that I'd been wanting for awhile, so I've been downloading music this afternoon. I got quite an assortment:

• Motown's #1 Hits, vol. 1 (26 songs, 99 cents)
• Abba Gold (19 songs, 99 cents)
• Johnny Cash 16 Biggest Hits (16 songs, $1.99)
• Best of Simon and Garfunkel (20 songs, $1.99)
• The Very Best of Neil Diamond (23 songs, $5.99)

and just had to pay the balance of about $4. Not too shabby. That's 104 songs. Thanks, guys! If I'd downloaded all the songs separately (and some were only available on the albums), it would have been $101. So I think I did pretty well. :) Since I now have 14 albums on my Amazon Cloud Player and three singles, I finally downloaded the application for it onto the tablet so that I don't have to store the downloaded music on the device.

I also had a co-worker stop by with a gift from a couple of them, a nice outfit and a lovely-smelling candle.

It was nice to see everyone and have a bit of holiday cheer. Now I think I'm going to listen to some music and have some kugel. :)

I hope you are able to spend the holidays (whichever you celebrate) with loved ones this year. And have a wonderful new year!

I went back to sleep for an hour and a half and it did wonders

And no more nightmares, thankfully. I was able to actually get fairly comfortable, and I could have stayed in bed longer, but it was better to go ahead and come out here, as I want a chance of sleeping tonight. So I've gotten up, eaten my salad, packet of string cheese, and orange juice, and I've done my exercises. My thigh does not like me at the moment, but I think it's getting with the programme.

I may not be doing Thanksgiving, and I'm not sure how much I'll be able to do before Chanukah/Yule/Christmas (the first of which is just a couple of weeks away!), but I did get a Christmas cactus to bring out a little cheer in the house. Granted it's one more plant to try to keep alive right now (I've lost my rosemary, but they're touchy anyway), but it seemed better to spend $3.99 on that than $20 on a small Yule tree I can't really decorate right now. Besides, the Norfolk Virginia pines always have glitter sprayed on them these days, and I kill them every year. I blame the glitter. The sun is starting to kiss the plants in the double window right now, and the cactus' red buds are quite bright.

I'm glad I had Jill, my officemate, bring me my fan from my desk. It plugs into the computer and blows a fair amount of air around. The air conditioning is off (I just couldn't get used to running it) and it's 64 degrees outside, and beautiful. The fan takes some of the stuffiness out of things. I wish I could open the windows, but I'm just not physically able to do that right now, and even if someone opened them for me, I can't close them either, and I'd have to by nightfall.

Okay, someone is coming over in about an hour. I think I'll try to read a bit, since the light's so nice in the living area right now.

I had a nice visit overnight

with my mom and grandmother. It was absolutely the best thing to go after the rush of Christmas so that we could really just sit down and talk. It was nice seeing them, and I count it as much better than the hectic environment there was at Thanksgiving. My mom gave my grandmother one of those digital photo frames for the holiday, and my stepfather loaded it with lots of pictures, so we watched for awhile and talked about the family members both here and gone. I got my grandmother a warm snuggly, soft blanket. Really, at 87, a person gets to be hard to shop for, and she tends to get cold easily--she's like a little bird.

My mom has a Kindle, so an Amazon gift card seemed appropriate, and my step-father is a gadget nut who builds computers, so he got one from Best Buy.

I think I've done pretty well at getting folks something small that they'll like and use. One present I'm unsure of, because the person may already have one. We'll see; I kept the receipt. I actually saw something at the library earlier that at first glance I thought he would like, a compendium of early Alfred Hitchcock movies, but then I realised several were silent and he's one of those people who lies in bed with the movie on and a pillow over his eyes. Really. So no good on that, he'll get what I already bought him. :)

I got home today and checked the mail and there wasn't anything from Netflix, and then I realised I was looking at Friday's mail and Saturday's hadn't arrived. It did a few minutes later and there was the comforting little red envelope with A Beautiful Mind in it. I plan to watch that on Monday.

Okay, I have stuff to do, and should get off my butt and do them. I'll probably post around midnight and wish everyone a happy new year. Good night, otherwise, though.

Well, I crashed and burned, I'm afraid

I slept over 12 hours, maybe 13. But I feel ever so much better, and it's sunny rather than drizzly today.

So here we go:

Friday: Finished things up for the holiday at work, and then a friend took me to the store to buy last minute ingredients for dinner for the next night. I stayed at my other friend's house and we made spiced nuts and sugar cookies.

Saturday: Up early and over to my friend's house to start cooking. We prepped and cooked for eleven hours, making several courses and a 14 separate dishes, if you count the nuts and cookies from the day before. This included bleu cheese gougers, Danish onion soup (with a quart of champagne in it), salmon to die for, eggplant steaks with a filling that were then breaded and pan fried, stuffed tomatoes, spinach pie (it was supposed to be spanikopita, but I got puff pastry dough instead of filo, but it came out wonderful), braised onions, a butternut squash and goat cheese salad, and gingerbread cookies. I'm forgetting something, but it was all wonderful. Unfortunately we could only get through about five things that night, so I made plans to come back on Christmas day since the buses were running on a limited basis, in the early morning and then in the afternoon.

Sunday (Christmas Day): I was waiting at the bus stop shortly before 8 am with a little Santa hat on that my skeleton at work normally wears, and an SUV drove up with a woman getting out. At first I thought he was dropping her off (that often happens at that stop, as it's on the edge of where the bus goes). Then she handed me an envelope and said 'Merry Christmas', and got back in her vehicle. It had $50 in it. I thanked them and they drove away. So I was able to get groceries the next day, something that was sadly lacking in my house.

We had the rest of our meal and it was absolutely wonderful. Then I headed home and that night watched the Doctor Who Christmas special, 'The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe'. It was great.

Monday: I went back over to my friends' house and visited, watched The King's Speech, which was excellent, and then I spent an hour and a half making both potato and cheese latkes for Chanukah (one of my friends is Jewish). They came out better than any batch I've ever made. We sat down and ate and had a good time. I headed home and got here about midnight.

So you can see it's been a busy weekend. In a few days I'm going to visit my family for a low-key visit. I was just so overwhelmed at Thanksgiving that I decided it would be less hectic and involve more quality time if I chose a day other than the actual holiday, and I think it worked out splendidly. I hope your holidays went just as well.

I just returned from getting something from the laundry room

and my whole apartment smells like falafel. I came home (thanks, Brandon, for the ride on a rainy, icky day) and made some, then laid down and napped for a bit. I hurt all over (did I mention rain), especially in my hips, which woke me up. So I got up, took some ibuprofen, and decided to do some stuff on the computer.

The next few days will be a combination of busy and slow. A friend is cooking a dinner Saturday that sounds like it will be to die for. Sunday is the 'Doctor Who' Christmas special. Oh, and Christmas, for those who celebrate. Either Sunday or Monday I'm going to go over to a friend's and make latkes for Chanukah. Next week I'm going to visit my mom and grandmother too. I thought it would be better to do it post-holiday, so we can get more visiting in--Thanksgiving was just too overwhelming for me. At work, though, there are a lot of people on vacation and almost nothing going on. I have a couple of projects to work on, but it's going to be mind-boggling slow.

My holiday is over, of course, with the sundown. I'm considering taking the lights and ornaments off the little rosemary tree already to make sure it lives. :) But it worked pretty well.

I think I'll do that now. If I don't post again tonight, have a great night. And no matter what holiday you celebrate, I hope it's full of peace and laughter, and a safe one at that.

It's nice when your phone company

sends you a holiday greeting. This video was filmed in the Chicago area at a mall, surprising shoppers. And it's nice to see that many women (including plus-sized) dressed up, happy, and enjoying themselves. Kudos to T-Mobile for including all sizes, shapes, and races. (And I think they did a nice job with the song, too.)

I feel like myself again

Yesterday I was still in trip anxiety mode a bit, and felt beaten down and just almost hung over. Can you get jetlag on one hour difference in timezone? But I had two flights in two days, and lots of new stuff to absorb, so I guess it makes sense.

This morning it's warm (high 50s) and raining. It doesn't feel like December at all. I usually feel more in the holiday spirit with a little warm-up (having grown up in warm places like the deep South and the California desert for at least half of my childhood, where a dusting of snow was a rarity and meant days off from school). But not this time.

We're having a department meeting today where we're having a holiday meal from Texas Roadhouse. I have visions of salmon dancing in my head. Then tomorrow is the big holiday dinner for the hospital, where everyone brings homemade desserts and they provide the rest. I thought about making pumpkin cheesecake, but 1) I'd have to take it on the bus, 2) I'm going to be busy tonight and don't have time to get the ingredients and a springform pan, and 3) I love pumpkin cheesecake but shouldn't eat it myself due to the diabetes. So I think I'll skip again this year.

I'm going in to work early so I can leave a half-hour early. Have a great day.

Tonight I got some rest

and then talked with a friend on the phone for a good long while. Now I'm wondering how much my paycheque will be this time, as last pay day I was overpaid, so this time they're taking that money back--just before the holidays.

Now that the trip is over, it's time to start thinking about things like holiday cards and presents. I have some idea for most of the gifts, but I'm stumped on one or two. We'll see.

I did manage to get both the office and home decorated for the holidays, at least. I have to get a couple of addresses for sending out cards.

But that's something to figure out tomorrow, when I have a better idea of how much I can spend. I must keep enough for food and incidentals, so this will be a challenge. I think I'm at least good on medicine until my flexible spending account kicks in again January 1st, thank goodness.

Well, I'm rambling. I should go back to sleep (after taking my insulin). Hope you have a good night.

A somewhat materialist post-holiday post

These came for me today from Barnes & Noble.

Yeah, I know, I'm an Amazon girl, but I had a gift card. The one on the right is my present from Brenda--Stephen R Donaldson's Against All Things Ending. The one on the left is a book I really like that I'm reading on the Kindle, but I decided I wanted a hard copy of it as well, and since I needed to round out the order to get free shipping, I decided I'd get that. It's Gary Corby's The Pericles Commission. The purple thing, by the way, is my Kindle in its cover. The dog is Tugger, the DOCLINE mascot. I got that for being one of the first to apply for a grant. :)

All in all it's been a very satisfying gift-receiving season. I got:

• Walden and Other Writings, by Henry David Thoreau (in actual book form)
  
• Against All Endings, by Stephen R Donaldson (also in actual book form)
  
• A personal-sized blender that does smoothies, salsa, etc. and comes with two sizes of tops, two blades, and some cups for drinking the smoothies out of. Since I do not own a blender, this could be very useful. Hmmm...dacquris...
  
• A (purple) velvet pant and jacket set
  

That's it. And for once I was able to give people a little better presents than, say, the pretty rocks I did one year. I'm happy.

:) Glad I (mostly) got through my holiday shopping sin-free

7 deadly sins of holiday shopping: A tongue-in-cheek look at keeping us on the straight and narrow this time of year

I admit to a little anger when trying to shop for me with my gift, but really, everyone else was a piece of cake (and I am not too proud to bargain-shop). Gluttony is always an issue this time of year, though, so I cannot cast stones.