Random Bits

Christmas came and went - a very low-key Christmas, which is all to the good.  Dad was released from the hospital directly home.  There was talk of him going to rehab, but decided home nurse visits would be what he needed rather than in unit somewhere dreadful.  So he came home on December 16th.  He's been getting stronger ever since, and late last week his cardiologist gave him back his car keys - which means he is driving himself to the mall to do his walking therapy (too cold and too much snow/ice to walk around the outdoor track, and he needs it to be a level surface - so the mall it is!).

Today he even showed up at the gallery with the dog.  He really shouldn't have had the dog with him (muscular 70 pound Lab) because he shouldn't be pulled - but I guess it all went okay.  Interesting things I did not know about cardiac surgery.... when they do the "long cut" (from just under the throat notch to around the diaphragm area) there is less pain, and easier recovery than if they do the "short cut."  Longer scar, but easier path back to health.  Dad had the "long cut."  He was only on heavy duty pain killers while he was in the cardiac ICU unit, and off them completely pretty much before he left that unit to go to the step-down unit.  And he's only had to take the prescribed pain meds once since he got home (first full day home, he had trouble readjusting to a non-adjusting bed - completely normal).  He is healing well.

I spent a lot of time at the gallery today, because not only did we redo both windows (wtf? both?) we also took down the Christmas ornaments and cards and things, which necessitated the reorganization of the whole front of the shop - and then the cleanup of all the holes left in displays around the shop.  In between customers, of course.

My "big gift" this Christmas from my parents was exactly what I asked for.  I got an airbrush - which I spent a lot of Saturday playing with.  So damned cool, I can't even.  It has much much MUCH better control than I realized, and learning the ins and outs is going to a hell of a lot of fun.  I am using it with ink at the moment.  I have some fluid medium that I can mix with regular acrylic, but I am not really ready for that yet - the ink will let me learn with fairly easy cleanup.   It is pretty and shiny and I will be hauling the whole rig over to my folks in a couple of weeks to show my mother how it works.

Went to NYC for New Years (no, not Times Square - but we did see the fireworks in Central Park).  It was awesome, and exactly what I needed - a few days away.  I spent more money than I should have, but less than I expected to all told.  I used the cash "holiday gift" that work gave out at the holiday party - pretty much exclusively all weekend.

Second year in a row Bergdorf Goodman blew us away with their holiday windows.  They were spectacular.  Even the one or two we were less fond of were amazingly well thought out and executed.

While I was gone we got TEN inches of snow... which had compressed itself down to about four inches by the time I returned.  I had no idea it was ten inches until my mom told me today.  Oddly enough, someone plowed my drive while I was gone, because it was very clear it had been plowed.  The walkways hadn't been touched, but the driveway was mostly clear.  Weird.  No idea which neighbor gave me the New Year's gift of a plowed drive... But I won't turn it down (since I was a couple hundred miles away when it happened...)!

G turned ELEVEN last week.  ELEVEN!  Soon, she'll be taller than me...

I'm in California this week (ugh waking up at 5am Do Not Want) and yesterday my company spent the day at its holiday party activities.

We started the day "volunteering" - that is preparing things for one of the local soup kitchens. I was delegated to the arts and crafts table making cards for dual thank you and holiday cards for the group to give its most stalwart volunteers. Other folks put bagged lunches together, and made chex mix and packaged it, and put together sample packages of diapers and toiletries for folks in need to pick up. We would have also been set to cutting vegetables in the kitchen, but the chef didn't arrive in time for us to do that activity. But it all seemed to go well.

Then we had lunch at Palacio in Los Gatos (which doesn't seem like it is usually open for lunch - we had the whole place to ourselves). During lunch we did a modified white elephant ornament exchange. I'm glad the ornament I ended up with isn't glass. Delicate, but not glass.

Then we were set loose on the streets of downtown Los Gatos with a sum of money and told "spend it or lose it - and you must spend it on yourself!"

OMG STRESSFUL (last year they gave us the same amount in amazon gift cards and I still have some left over from that)!!! I did not spend the whole amount - but I have an item in mind that I *will* spend it on, and that seemed to be okay - but it is a gadget and I need to research more about them before I purchase (e-reader for those who want to know - Kindle or Nook or Other?). Four people put the whole amount toward the purchase of an iPad (it got them more than halfway there), and two people upgraded to the iPhone4S. The apple store did very well with our crowd!

A few people cheated (a bit) and got kitchen/cooking stuff. I know it isn't technically cheating, and I suppose if cooking is where it is for you it might be fine, but I still felt appliances aren't "personal" enough. Whatever.

I got a few baubles in one of the cutest boutiques - just to have *something* to show. One of the ladies and her husband are going on vacation between Christmas and New Years to where they had their honeymoon, and she saved most of hers to go toward the golf cart rental which is the preferred mode of transportation on the island resort. I thought that was a good use of the money - because it will make their vacation that much better.

We ended the day at a wine bar, and spent some time showing off what we got - or describing what we were going to get. One woman has a fancy party for her father's 75th birthday and thought she knew which fancy dress she was going to get, but tried it on and decided not that one! so she saved it for when she finds a dress (and if any is left for shoes, etc.).

Shopping - especially under a time crunch like that - is incredibly difficult for me. The one co-worker I hang with the most gets even more stressed out and freaked because we are both "let me think about it" types. She, however, decided to upgrade her iPhone to the new one and spent it all in one fell swoop. Which left her so much more relaxed than I remember her being two years ago when we did this same activity. I guess the take away for the holiday party is *always always always* have a short list of pricy items you would love to own but might put off buying yourself to trot out and either talk about purchasing when you get home, or actually get while there.

The day was a lovely one though, sunny and and not cold at all (damned California and they still have roses and pansies blooming in freakin' December - which is a weird juxtaposition with the evergreen holiday decorations!).

Saturday lasted an age, I tell you! Actually, it only lasted about fifty hours due to the international date line and various flights.

I left Tokyo/Narita around 5:20pm on Saturday and landed in Newark, NJ at about 4:15pm also Saturday. Landing an hour earlier than I left... weird!

I finally got myself and my stuff home around 10pm and promptly crashed. Sunday started well - if early - but I was exhausted by the end of it - fell asleep just before eight, woke up around 9:30pm and went back to sleep around 11pm. Up this morning at 5:30am... Its going to be a long damned week.

I hope Thanksgiving goes more or less smoothly for me - although I may be sneaking off to my niece's bedroom to take a nap...

Ugh - I could happily go back to sleep for another couple of hours.

Valentine's has never really meant much to me. So, I kind of avoid the whole pink/red/white extravaganza.

Although helping at the shop yesterday I assisted a man with picking out a pair of seven hundred and fifty dollar 18K gold earrings. I assume he has a Valentine.

Lots of men were in and out all morning - Mum and D (the other display committee member present) sold about $200 worth of stuff long before the shop officially opened. And I helped a gut with a pretty glass vase. Another couple with a gorgeous bird batik, and my afore-mentioned earring gift buyer.

All in all it looked like sales would be good for a Sunday.

Why is it that my parents dog cannot seem to coordinate his feet to climb stairs, but has no trouble leaping from the ground to the top of a snow bank four feet high in one bound?

Rehearsal last night was choreo review (holy hell we needed it!).

Tonight we get to put singing and dancing together. Terrifying!

My sole contribution to it being Valentines is that I am wearing my pink and red heart-print underwear.

Sorry if that is TMI.

My mom loves this story.

Thirty-mmnrghphl years ago yesterday, my parents were living in a two-bedroom apartment in a urban suburb of Boston. They had one child, a boy (just 18 months old at the time), and were awaiting the arrival of their second, a girl (me, for those playing at home). I was due in mid-December.

So they invited my father's father and his wife to join them for Thanksgiving. They drove the seven or so hours to get to Boston from where they lived, and arrived Wednesday late afternoon. The Boston area was hunkering down expecting a storm. A Nor'easter. My parents met my grandparents at the door with this startling pronouncement: Watch M (my brother), we're going to the hospital!

Nor'easter blows in over night, as do I. In the wee hours of Thursday morning, I arrived, three weeks early.

Mom never did cook Thanksgiving dinner that year.

Every so often the calendar brings Thanksgiving on my birthday. This is just one of those years.

Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving all my fellow US folk - however you celebrate! *This* year I get birthday cake with my pumpkin pie.

...Thanksgiving make my birthday into a birthweek. Which is the difficulty of having a birthday at the end of November. It tends to get lost in the hustle of holiday *stuff.* gwendolyngrace took me out for dinner on my birthday proper, which was lovely and was capped by divine pumpkin bread pudding (OMG so GOOD).

But I won't celebrate it with my parents and whatever segment of my brother's family shows up until tomorrow (one is working on either a cold or the flu - so who knows how the rest are feeling now).

Thanksgiving was very nice - my Uncle V came for a couple of days and hung out with my dad. I know my dad treasures the time he gets to spend with his brother, even if he wouldn't put it in those words. We had turkey and lasagna (Mom is mostly vegetarian - she will eat fish, but not any other types of animal protein) - with a few fixings. Just a few, since there were only going to be four of us. My brother's family went to his in-laws for most of the day - and then stopped by for about an hour with overtired, but still pretty manically-cheerful sprogs. Only L, who'd had a nap, was really all that awake. I do not envy my brother and sister-in-law getting the kids to sleep that night.

I successfully avoided most retail establishments for the last few days. Although, I did shop a bit on Amazon, only because when I checked "Supernatural Season Four" is on sale for $15. and since I've been waiting for a good price, I went ahead and ordered it. Sadly, I stopped watching Supernatural since I missed a number of programs in a row last season and haven't caught up yet.

So hopefully while I am off between Christmas and New Years (my company pays us to not work between December 25 and January 2 - no vacation time needed) I will catch up on everything I've been missing.

I'm also contemplating doll clothes patterns. My nieces are old enough now to appreciate and not destroy anything I might make for their American Girl Dolls. And my younger niece is very into clothing - both her own and her dolls.

I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving. And if you braved the retail crowds, I hope you were able to get that item that tempted you out for it.

Thank you for all the birthday wishes - I so appreciate it! And hazelhawthorne - happy belated birthday to my birthday twin.

♥

Happy New Year to anyone passing by. 2009 seems like a year full of hope for a lot of people. Which is a great thing, as we all could use some hope right now. Everyone is posting retrospectives on last year, and bright shiny resolutions, or plans for this new year we've got so shiny bright.

My 2009 starts off with my eldest niece's birthday today. She is turning seven. Happy Birthday G! She is reading better and better every time I see her, and has begun to be a crafty, arty little girl. She has dolls she is fairly uncomfortable playing with, but likes to have. I think in contrast her little sister's doll collection (which is steadily growing out of control with Barbie this and Barbie that) G is ... more sane? No, wrong word. More balanced in her pursuits. G is artistic and athletic and a definite girl without being a girlie-girl. B is the girlie-girl and so definitely into the hair and makeup (they got beginner makeup cases for Christmas, and I think B will completely enjoy hers way more than G) and clothes and PINK everywhere.

G is at once more aggressive and also kinder and more empathetic than her little sister. L is still too young - but my brother says he seems to like football - he quiets right down when it is on the television. I am not sure whether or not that will have any bearing whatever. He is only six months old. I liked bananas and tomato sauce when I was six months old. Neither is something I am likely to eat now.

Back to the new year... 2008 started off fairly sucktastically with me changing jobs in February. And January as a whole month was phenomenally bad. I single handedly shut down an office space while doing my day job on top of that. February started well with the new company and while getting up to speed with the new folks, it was a relief to finally talk to competent people and have them grok. And while February and March were pretty much a wash, by April things eased off a little bit. By July I took a few days and didn't feel like I would come back to disaster. By August, I took a whole eight days off (in a row!) and didn't check email once, and it was my first real not-checking-in-at-all vacation since 2003. It was awesome. I'm in the swing, now, and the "new" company is still made of win and I am way happier as a result.

2008 was also the year I finally lost the weight. I am down to a size 12, but those are getting a bit loose, so hopefully I will settle into a size 10. Size 12 was kind of pie-in-the-sky. Size 10 kind of blows my mind a little. I am eating better, and will continue to do so. I should continue to eat more things with chlorophyll and seeds. I need to pick up the exercise, though. Maybe start weight training this year? Maybe some higher impact aerobic stuff? Diet only gets you halfway to healthy. So 2009 will be the advent of more exercise.

2009 is also the year I want to build up my savings account. I have 401(k) and IRAS I contribute to faithfully. But my emergency savings doesn't really amount to much yet. By April, I should have a small bit a month I can put away into savings (car payments ending). I want to remember to do this each and every month. Its not a lot, but it should add up.

High points of 2008 -

JOB:
Philadelphia (March) taught my new company, that while they had a lot to learn, they also had a lot to offer.
Dublin (July) was beautiful and got us closer to a meeting where the company was confident and feeling good.
Minneapolis (November) was close to perfect. The hotel is the perfect configuration, and in an urban setting where there are multitudes of places to eat within walking distance. The wireless throughout the hotel worked swimmingly, and the complaints we got were of the room too hot/cold variety and easily fixed

PERSONAL DAYS OFF:
Portus (July) was fabulous. People were terrific, a good time was had by all, and while I haven't jumped on the Wrock bandwagon (and don't quite understand the phenomenon) I can listen with appreciation
Maine (August) was better than it had any right being. Only one flaw, and that was our missing friend who couldn't make the 2008 trip. 2009 will hopefully not have that drawback, and Rhode Island promises to be all kinds of fun
Holidays (December) my company pays us to take the week between Christmas and New Years off. It doesn't count against your vacation time. So big win there, also. Even if I monitored email a little

LIFE IN GENERAL:
The year got progressively better. I love the people I am working with, even if I am a remote or "virtual" employee. The time difference between here and there works in our favor.
I gained a new family member who is cute as a button and healthy as a horse.
I've been reconnecting to old friends on Facebook - my high school class is coming out of the woodwork - and one has even posted a class photo from second grade - me in all my pigtailed glory back when I was wee
I got the bathroom mostly fixed. It needs a couple of coats of paint, a new window, and a new medicine cabinet, and new lights, but the tiled walls and floors are done, new sink and new toilet, and I can shower instead of bathe!
This is the year I pay off the car! By March it will be all mine instead of just mostly mine.

So I'll end the navel-gazing there. Here is to a better 2009!

I am stealing this from something someone emailed me. But I thought it was funny - so here you go:


At this special time of year, and in the spirit of universal tolerance,
understanding, equality, balance, freedom, global connectedness and
non-discrimination, it is my long-standing tradition to send an email
out to everyone with universal greetings and positive karmic wishes for
you all. I wish you and all those within your sphere of influence/
circle of concern/ general vicinity/ group of friends and
broadly-defined family units a very merry/ happy/ peaceful/ joyous/
relaxed/ pleasant/ quiet/ calming/ blessed/ spiritual/ fulfilling/
renewing and/or other-emotional-state-as-desired Christmas/ Hanukkah/
Kwanzaa/ BodhiDay/ Santa Lucia Day/ Las Posadas/ Eid-al-Adha/ Boxing
Day/ Feast of Saturnalia/ Ceremony of the Goddess/ Emancipation Day/
Epiphany/ Moonlight Festival/ Midnight or three-day mediatation and/or
other-secular-or-religious-holiday/feast/celebration as appropriate, and
hope that the holidays bring you closer to your husband/ wife/ domestic
partner(s)/ significant other(s)/ children/ parents/ aunts/ uncles/
nieces/ nephews/ nuclear family/ extended family/ favorite TV show/
favorite toy/ favorite pastime/ fond memory/ friends/ the planet/ the
world/ transcendental understanding/ the path/ the Goddess/ the Well/
the Temple/ the council or Quorum of the Twelve/ the Sanctuary/ the Tao/
the prophet or Prophet/ the Saviour/ Samsara/ the Buddha/ the Ancient
One/ the Way/ a ribbon or wormhole in the space-time continuum leading
straight to the Nexus and/or the secular or religious diety/ object of
worship/ meditative focal point/ path of learning/ hobby/ pastime/
positive addiction or future goal of your choice in accordance with your
particular situations, persuasions, beliefs, goals, wishes and desires.

Or, as they say where I come from.... I wish you and your families a
Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

Yeah, totally screwed. I got just acclimatized enough to California to have my sleep schedule fucked up for the last few days. So yeah, after 1am and I am still wide awake. It is snowing here. Supposed to turn to rain in the morning, and rain for while tomorrow (later today). Whatever - its gonna be messy. But the snow won't stick around since it is supposed to get up into the forties.

No response to the email I sent detailing *why* I said no when asked to do something for the production this March. The president of the group responded, and we talked a little bit tonight. But the producer(s) - nothing. I know they got my email. I did find out one producer has dropped the project entirely.

Still feeling conflicted and crappy about it. But I still feel I made the right decision, so. There is that.

Was at rehearsal for the children's theatre production tonight. I am filling in for the stage managers because one is sick, and the other can't come to rehearsals until after Jan 15. Blocking act 2 - in a tiny tiny space. But I think they'll be fine - even if they only have about a month to mount this production. Wish they had about ten more feet in every direction to play in. Because the stage they will be playing on is frickin' huge.

Ah, well. How can it be December 17th already? I am so not ready for the holidays. Want to sleep now, please. And it seems I am really damned random when twiddling my thumbs in the wee hours...

I love love love this hotel. The people are mostly the same folks who were working here back the last time we were here in march of '05. So they know us. They are on top of issues as they arise, and it is a very easy meeting (so far) for those of us who are meeting logistics.

And the hotel is a very nice place. Perfect layout. We are contained on the second and third floors. And the hotel is attached to the Skyways, and you can get all over downtown without steeping outside. Awesome.

Been here since Thursday, and already tired of the room service menu. But luckily, the skyways stay open for way longer on weeknights than on weekends, and we can get out easier thn the last couple of days.

The days are kinda blurring together as they do when one is onsite. The hotel folks took us out to dinner on Friday - a very nice place in walking distance, sadly not connected via the skyways (but only about five blocks, so even in the cold it wasn't that bad).

Macy's has their eighth floor display up, and we were there Saturday evening just to poke around, and ended up going through it. This year's theme? A day in the life of Santa's Elves. Cute. Some of the animatronic displays were better than others, and there were a few elf faces that were interesting. I wouldn't stand in line for it, but it was kinda sweet to see it. My favorite bits were reindeer flight school, the mail drop with the mail bags coming in on hot air balloons, the elf bunkhouse, and the one poor elf spinning drunkenly with a gift box stuck on his head.

I have seen bits of snow flaking here and there - but nothing that amounts to anything besides a bit of prettiness while it is airborne.

I feel like it is later than Monday because I haven't really had a weekend, and won't have one really until Thanksgiving. I might take the 25th off as a comp day, though. Just because.

Wish I was home.