News Shocks

Oh, a few other things I almost forgot to mention.

The first happened a few weeks ago. I'd been up to just past midnight, and had set the t.v. on "sleep" mode so it would automatically turn off in an hour in case I fell asleep. Just as I settled in bed, an emergency alert interrupted the program... it was an Amber Alert, which means child abduction. A woman had been found murdered in norther Missouri a few hours earlier... with her 8-month fetus cut from her womb. Now how wrong is that? Thanks to the alert, the child was found the next day with two men and a woman. The little girl was rushed to a hospital and, according to the latest I've heard, they managed to stablize her.

The other saddening news comes from Asia. A potent earthquake near Indonesia yesterday triggered a slew of deadly tsunamis that have devastated the entire region around the Indian Ocean. The death toll has already exceeded 22,000, and hundreds of thousands more have been left homeless or missing. The papers said these are the worst tsunamis to hit the region in 40 years, and this could be the costliest disaster... ever.

I swear, modern news and communication is an amazing thing. A small trajedy in my own state, and a monumental trajedy on the other side of the world... both of which I'd never even be aware of, busy enjoying and stressing over the holidays in my own small part of the world. If not for instant News reports. I'm not sure I ever really noticed how disjointed a feeling that is. To feel such profoundness over something that my immediate life does not reflect.. or even intimate, in the slightest bit.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning, I came back over to the folks’ place, and we started in on the Bubble Bread while waiting for Gram to be ready for Pop and Scrooge to pick her up. And keeping the cat out of the tree. Upon Gram’s arrival, we finally started opening presents. It has been long tradition that everybody takes a turn choosing a present that they want to see opened… whether or not they know what is inside, or to whom it is to be given. And I in my Santa Hat am the official deliverer. Translation: as the youngest member of the household, I’m the one who gets to hop up and down to pick up and deliver the gifts.

A New Game

I had a LITTLE more money this year for Christmas gifts, so there was more than a book and a calendar under the tree for everybody… from me, anyway. Plus, I had just enough extra to buy a new family game for Family Sunday Dinner night. It’s called Apples to Apples, and I was relieved that it went over VERY well. We played it all night. It really is a lotta fun. You have two different sets of cards: green apple cards and red apple cards. Each person takes turns being the “judge”, who holds a green card that lists a descriptive word, like “odd”. Each of the other players hold 7 red cards that list different scenarios, such as “giant sea turtles”, “Michael Jackson”, or “my love life”. Each player chooses one of their cards that they feel best matches the judge’s card, and submits it anonymously. The judge then decides which card he or she feels is the best match, and the player who offered that card wins that match. With the limitless combinations and interpretations, the game can get hilarious.

It’s Like They Want Me to Cook or Something

As for my own Christmas take, I was very happy. Mostly kitchen stuff… some I’d asked for, some were a pleasant surprise. Most importantly, the new convection oven… my old one works great, but is really difficult to keep clean. Which, of course, is a death sentence in my household.

Stuffin Our Faces

Christmas dinner was a much less elaborate affair than past years, but no less delicious. I think I rather LIKE having less side dishes, which leaves more room for seconds of the dishes I REALLY like. Such as cream baked asparagus… mmmmm. Mom baked up a sugar-cured ham, and was kind enough to hunt for some sort of turkey-equivalent for me, since my meat intake consists of poultry and seafood. Plus, we had baked beans, cornbread, candied yams with marshmallows, and the all-important cream baked asparagus. And pumpkin pie for dessert, of course. Well, in Pop’s and my case, whipped cream with a little bit of pumpkin pie for dessert.

All in all, a pleasant Christmas. It was good to relax… with Mom and Pop and I all workin together on the clean-up, it didn’t take long at all, and then we could all enjoy the evening of Apples to Apples. We played long into the night until both Gram and I started losing coherency and needed to head home.

Christmas With the IHOP Family

Which brings me to yesterday… all I had left was a trip to see the IHOP family. IHOP Hubby wasn’t home, as he’s back to working full time and was on the road. IHOP Buddy and I had a very pleasant visit, though I have to admit her son knows my weakness. Rather, my friend explained to me that her son HAS my weakness… and assumes everybody else does, too. Either way, he never fails to drag me down into one video game or another while I’m there. *grin* Not that I’m complaining, but poor IHOP Buddy has become accustomed to finally sitting down to read a book after getting nonsensical replies to any tidbit of conversation she tries to offer while I’m intently focusing on a game.

But that’s why we like each other so much. We can be totally rood to each other that way, and we both completely understand. Human nature is human nature, and we just go with the flow. :) Eventually, I always rip myself away from the game to visit some more with her.

Until We Meet Again

Okee, that’s about it. I sat down to type almost right after I got home from the dentist, and Ms. Pukesalot has been incessantly reminding me for about a half hour now that I’ve been completely ignoring her. I have no idea when I’ll be back on here… and it’s almost more appealing that way. It shall be as much a surprise to me as it will be for you. :)

G’night!

Finally Christmas... Eve

Done!

So I managed to get everything done and ready for Christmas. I’d been battling a migraine all week while waiting for a refill of my meds to arrive in the mail. Just when I decided to get an emergency supply from the VA here in town that Thursday, it arrived in the mail. I dosed myself good that night, and was finally feeling well enough to at least round out the last of my traditional Christmas duties. Friday was Christmas Eve, and it saw me baking and wrapping all day.

Postponing the IHOP Trip

I was originally planning to head down to New Bloomfield to take the IHOP family their gifts on Christmas Eve (as I’ve been wont to do in the past), but it was pretty late by time I was done with the wrapping. I called her up, and she already had a bevy of guests coming in and out of her home, and we decided Sunday would be a better time for us to visit and do the Christmas thing.

Dinner with Scrooge

So, with all of my holiday preparations finally completely finished, I took up my folks’ offer to go out to dinner with them for Christmas Eve. We had an old friend of the family (I’ll call him Scrooge, cuz he delights in answering every “Merry Christmas” with “Bah Humbug”) drop by for the holidays at the last moment, and he’d come into town that day. He bitched, yet again, that he'd not been mentioned in "this year's installment of War & Peace" (his definition of my Christmas newsletter), even though I never even SAW him all year. He really should learn better than to bitch about these things... last time he did so, I mentioned him incessantly in the following year's letter, and not in the slightest bit reverently. *grin*

Amway, we went out to Olive Garden, which is much nicer fare than I’m accustomed to. I don’t eat out much, anyway, unless I’m with my folks, and THEN we usually patronize much more modest establishments. So this was a treat… complete with appetizers, salad, breadsticks and some pretty damned good chicken fettuccini. Though, all of us weren’t feeling so good afterwards, which was the only damper on the evening.

Getting Ready for Morning

We got back to my folks’ place that night, and Mom finally braved putting up a small Christmas tree… AFTER the cat went to bed. Which was probly rather wise of her, considering we had a helluva time Christmas morning keeping said resident feline (not Ms. Pukesalot this time) occupied with entertainment other than the dangly objects hanging from the tree.

We got all the presents laid out under the tree Christmas Eve, and I helped Mom in the kitchen as she made the Pumpkin Pie and the Bubble Bread for Christmas morning. Pop and Scrooge had their manly discussion in the living room… they’re old boyhood friends, and I think Scrooge considers Pop (and us) the only real family he has left.

Amway, we called it a night, and I went home to give Ms. Pukesalot lots of love and attention cuz I'd be abandoning her ALL of the following day.

Catching Up to the Holidays

Back with Both Feet in the Water

So I’d promised the Receptionist at work that I’d work up a draft of the card she’d asked me to fashion after MY card from last year, and then drop it by during my day off on the Monday that Fussbudget left Columbia, so she could take it home to review with her hubby. So I did that, then ran a few errands around town, and settled to watch the remaining two movies we didn’t get around to during Fussbudget’s visit, so I could return them.

Return of the Newsletter

I finally started seriously working on my Christmas card that week. It had been looming over my head all month, and I was seriously late in getting it out. I normally get my cards sent out by the first of December. For two reasons: 1) to remind everybody else that THEY need to send ME a card, and 2) because I move around a lot, I like to make sure everybody has my most current address early.

When I sat back down to focus on my newsletter, I realized that I’d totally been in “blog” mode when I wrote it. It was MUCH longer than previous years, with far more details than I usually give about my annual doings. Normally, I’d have taken the time to edit it down, but I just couldn’t focus anymore on the thing. But it ended up working out well enough, since I had a LOT of pics I wanted to include, and I had a lot of pages with which to accommodate all of them. J Oh, and I decided to go with my Anonymous Pics theme that I instituted for the blog. I think it turned out well, aside from being so long.

Reproduction Debacle

Then came the printing. Mom was gonna help me print some of the pages out with HER printer, so we split them up, plus I took the cardstock to print. However, I failed to remember that I was using custom fonts that her computer would not recognize. And she failed to realize that the newsletter was printing out ALL wrong… words printing out over pictures and such, because they were exactly configured AROUND those pictures. With the right font.

She ended up printing about 60 or so pages before she noticed a completely different problem (her printer is configured differently from mine, so the instructions for turning the pages around to print double sided was wrong) and realized that all 60 pages were useless. It wasn’t until I went to take her some more paper that I noticed the font problem, and by then, I figured it would just be easier (longer, but easier) for me to print the rest of them all out, myself.

Breathing Space

I FINALLY got the cards done and sent out on the Monday before Christmas (Saturday). Then I had a little bit of room to breathe before it was time to worry about wrapping gifts and baking. Though, I decided not to push myself about it. I figured, my BIG obligation was the cards, and those were done. Everything else: if it got done, fine… if not, nobody was going to die. If all else failed, the presents would end up in paper bags under the tree.

Though, Mom asked that I not do that with Pop’s gifts. For as long as I can remember, Pop has always given me his gifts to Mom to wrap. He really does suck at wrapping. However, Mom insisted he’d be able to a better job than paper bags… lol

Well, I SUPPOSE he probly could. *grin*

The Visit

Preparations

So Fussbudget's visit was awesome. I worked myself into a frenzy preparing my home for a visitor, but it was worth it. I also managed to pre-prepare most of the meals for the weekend, so I was able to spend almost all of my time visiting. We didn't push ourselves to do anything, but managed to accomplish a lot. She arrived right about on schedule for dinner on that Thursday night. I had spaghetti waiting for her, and we enjoyed a pleasant meal and just yapped all night.

Shopping, Movies and Animal Medicine

Friday, she wanted to know if we had any Christmas stores in town so she could do a li'l Misery-style Christmas shopping. So we browsed around the mall and downtown... I picked up some Animal Medicine cards at this neat li'l place downtown called The Peace Nook, so we could read her cards and find out who are her animal spirit guides. It's kind of become a tradition... anybody comes to visit and we read their animal cards. Of course, in the past, all of my visitors end up taking the cards with them, but I managed to hold onto this set.

So we read her cards that night... but not until we'd gone to a movie ("Christmas with the Kranks"... not a bad movie) at the theater, and then rented no less than six more to watch during the rest of her stay. We actually managed to watch all but two before she left on Monday. *grin* Mostly chick flicks... but good stuff.

Boozin Up

She'd seen several Winery billboards during her drive through to Columbia, and asked if any would be open. She wanted to find some Misery wine to take home for her dad. None were open this time of year, but the local grocery stores always carry them. Now, Misery has a LOT of wineries, so she managed to find I think four different wines from different places, to take home. We did this on Saturday, cuz she wasn't sure if they'd sell wine on Sunday. I guess they don't in Georgia. I didn't THINK this was a law here, but we figured we'd play it safe.

The St. Louis Arch

Then it was on to St. Louis. It was pretty cold out and though the sky was overcast, it was dry, so we took a few (okay, a shitload of) Kodak moments at the St. Louis Arch. I'd told her about the itty bitty li'l pod-trams that go up INTO the arch, and she'd been debating with herself all day about going up into them. See, she can sometimes be prone to anxiety attacks. But she finally decided to do it, and did just fine during the full round trip. I have to admit, it's pretty cool up at the top of that thing. With the zoom of my dig cam, I could even make out Fussbudget’s car parked literally on the shore of the Mississippi River.

Then we moseyed around the museum (there's a museum, a couple of theaters, a li'l coffee shop, and souveneer shop... all underneath the Arch, underground), she did some souvenir/Christmas shopping, and by then it was time to eat. The Arch is right on the edge of downtown, so we simply walked over to a nearby restaurant and enjoyed the view of twilight falling around the memorial as we ate. Then took more pictures.

Train Station Style Shopping

We decided we had enough time to drop by the St. Louis Union Station, which was converted into a mall several years ago... it's pretty cool, looks very old fashioned and impressive. We had a small debacle, though, trying to park... evidently there was an event going on at one of the ballrooms, and we got mired in the middle of a street teeming with valets taking everybody's cars to park for them. More than once a smartly dressed but extremely harried individual attempted to open the doors and take the car… Fussbudget was beginning to get extremely annoyed over it all and finally started yelling at them “Quit TOUCHING my car!” *snicker* Fortunately, the door was closed at the time and they couldn’t hear her.

Adventures in the Land of Lost

When we finally decided to head home, we proceeded to get lost trying to find the alternate route to the highway, since the entrance we needed was under construction. It was all good, though… neither of us were stressing, and we’re perfectly capable of reading a map. Sometimes one must view things as adventure rather than misfortune. :)

Quiet Sunday

Sunday, Fussbudget wasn’t feeling well, so we decided to just stay in and watch movies most of the day. She DID feel well enough that afternoon to head back downtown armed with camera to get some pictures of the Mizzou campus. I have to admit, it really is a very pretty campus. One of the plethora of red squirrels that inhabit the area even stopped to pose for her.

Then it was on to Family Sunday Dinner with Gram and the folks. They’d invited her, and she was perfectly amenable to spending the evening with my family. We had a great evening, watching Agatha Christie’s “A Murder is Announced” after dinner.

Hiatus from Christmas is Over

Monday morning saw Fussbudget on her way back to Tennessee, which was her mid-way point on her way back to Georgia. She has a brother who lives there that she could stay with. I took the rest of that day off, hoping to relax, but ended up having the Christmas Season catch back up with me after my short hiatus.

Contented

Surprise

So just when I was telling Bus Snob today that I'm all blogged out, I suddenly felt like writing tonight. I think I just got overwhelmed by self-imposed holiday responsibilities this month, and couldn't quite bring myself to require a daily... or even weekly... contribution here.

But that's okay... my blog, just like everything else in my life, is simply evolving. I started it hoping to document a year of my life. I may still do so, just not so intensely. I mean, when one has nothing to report but the same-old, same-old, it gets rather tedious.

They DIDN’T forget me!

But tonight I feel good... content. Christmas is over... all of my self-imposed Christmas duties are done with, and I can stop and relax and not think of anything. After getting slightly down for not receiving very many cards this year, I suddenly had no less than 4 waiting for me in my mailbox tonight. Yay! Oh, I'd told myself that everybody else was probly simply late in getting theirs out, as was I, but sometimes logic simply doesn't take precedence. Especially when stressing. lol

The Trouble With Gift Baskets

Though, I must say it was a very pleasant surprise to receive a package in the mail from The Wanderer! She’d warned me ahead of time that it would be coming… late, she thought, but it actually got here a few days before Christmas. It was kinda funny… just after she told me about it while we were chatting, I started to lament the fact that my department at work receives a LOT of gift baskets of candy and cookies and popcorn and various and sundry OTHER stuff that’s not even remotely good for you. AND all of this stuff is stationed RIGHT next to my desk. So resisting the urge to munch on all this great stuff within hand’s reach was impossible.

Unfortunately, however, I’m fairly sure all that crap in my system contributed to the migraine I was fighting all week. *sigh* So there I was complaining about it, and the poor woman suddenly gets quiet, then says: “Oh crap… that’s just what *I* sent you!” *snicker* I had to backpeddle a bit to assure her that I would most assuredly thoroughly enjoy her cookies when they arrived… which I did, by the way. However, she DID say she wouldn’t mind if I shared them. Which was a good thing.

Inspiration

Amway, more on my good mood today: in one of the cards, a second cousin of mine asked how she could access my blog, since I'd mentioned it in my Christmas newsletter. She's always encouraged me to write, and even asked to be added to my Christmas Card list precisely because she enjoys my letters. That can't help but make a person feel good. Perhaps that's what inspired my enthusiasm to revisit this place. Either way, I wanted to express my thoughts at this exact moment... and, more importantly, didn't feel obligated to do so. So here I am. :) AND I even feel like catching up with all I’ve missed bloggin about this month. This to come shortly.

One Last Benny for the Day

Oh, and I got to take off of work early today. Granted, it was in order for the dentist to poke a bunch of pointy objects about in my mouth, but getting off early is getting off early.

I'm Back... For Now

So I've been runnin around like a chicken with my head cut off for the last week and a half. And I can't write for long cuz I'm at the end of my work day and have lots to still do at home. But I wanted to post something, or else NOT keeping up with this is in danger of becoming a habit. I've come to the conclusions, though, that I'm NOT forcing myself to do this once a day. Especially since I've been so busy. I'm gonna try for once a week, unless something extraordinary happens to write about in the interim.

A short synopsis of what I've been doing:

Cleaning, decorating, oganizing, stuffing stuff into closets, planning menus and otherwise preparing for Fussbudget's visit this weekend. She hit the road for her brother's house in Tennessee this morning, and will start out for Misery tomorrow.

Last weekend I FINALLY managed to set myself down to work on my Christmas newsletter. I figured out that my daily blog contributions were detracting from my brain's capability to engage in any other creative pursuits. Which is why I dropped it so suddenly and for so long. It took until Friday for me to get into gear, and then I had to deal with a migraine. But I got through it and finished the newsletter... and created the card. The letter ended up WAY longer than past years, and I normally would have taken the time to edit, but I only had SO much brainpower to work with, in the midst of the rest of the stuff I've been trying to get done. So everybody gets to read more rambling than usual this year. :)

Oh, and when I brought last year's Card/Newsletter in to work to reference while beginning to write the new one on Friday, the Receptionist saw the card and liked it so much she asked if she could use the design for HER cards this year. That was gratifying. :) So she took it home, reviewed it with her hubby, and they came up with a slightly varied idea for me to work on and bring her a rough draft on Tuesday when I get back to work. I won't be workin on it while Fussbudget's here, but she's supposed to leave sometime on Monday, and I have that day off too, and can probly do some card work then.

I decided against Kinko's for reproducing my cards this year, considering the quote of $300 they gave me. Most of the other places in town quoted around the same. Ouch. So mom volunteered to put HER printer to use as well, and we'll get 55 copies of the card and 3-page (front and back) newsletter printed out on our faithful inkjets hopefully before Christmas... lol.

At work, the new PM started last week... yay! He seems to be assimilating well, and is still nice post-interview. Otherwise, I've been alternately bored silly and rediculously busy for the last week and a half.

I had a VA appointment on Monday that went very well. My medical provider went over my records to make sure all the appropriate documentation was in there before I filed a request to increase my disability. See, when I was first evaluated my migraines were hardly a factor, and now I can miss 2 to 3 days a month from work, and they hinder almost every aspect of my life. so we got that cleared up, and then I discovered that I can have a representative to help me during the claim process. Which was some major cool beanage. So the paperwork is already on it's way. I'll be requesting a copy of my medical record, including my medical provider's notes, to include in the application. And they should be contacting me shortly to go through the whole evaluation process again. Should be fun, but it also shouldn't take more than 5 or 6 months to conclude.

Ummm... what else? I turned in my application for the duplex community last weekend, so now all I gotta do is wait to see if a unit opens up.

Otherwise, that's about it. My brain is really distracted at the moment, cuz I gotta get outta here, so no neat little organized and color coded paragraphs today. Gotta get home and make a grocery list for all the food I plan to cook for Fussbudget. I have tomorrow off, and will be cooking and pre-cooking all day, so I won't have to spend an awful lot of time in the kitchen when she gets here tomorrow night.

I'll be sure to report back in next week (or earlier... depends on how things go) to tell about our exciting (or not) adventures. :)

Until then... g'night!