We made it (again!)

Yay!

Recovering from a physically hard but emotionally happy weekend, and so, for today's post, you get this:

Bring on December! (Holy crap, it's December!)

One more day to post,

and there was more than one day I didn't think I'd make it, but here we are. I'll check back with you tomorrow! (Remind me that I absolutely posatutely do not want to try NaNo Writing Month next year, like I thought I might. No. Maybe in April, but definitely not in November. The End.)

Pie for breakfast is healthy, right?

So, Thanksgiving was fabulous here (Until I sort-of passed out, while trying not to pass out, and thought I was being really discreet and all, but everybody started getting up and leaving. Oops.) ~ I hope it was fabulous for all of you too (minus the passing out part).

I am recuperating slowly, which means leaving bed only for necessities, and checking e-mail only for short periods of time that my fever is down and my brain is functioning, but today is so much better than yesterday that I just wanted to check in and say that I hope you are all having a great, restful, thankful weekend.

Be back manana (in one form or another).

Be As Well As Possible.

In anticipation

of needing some rest: Happy Black Friday, all!

Happy Turkey Day!

After we built (tore down and rebuilt) a block city today, Lil Girl and I threw our own Thanksgiving Parade. Using all of the little people, birthday cake characters, and happy meal toys from our various childhoods (there's been a kid around here continuously since 1976), we wound up with a Sesame Street float, a Lion King float, a Lil Mermaid float, a bunch of clowns, a Bambi float, about 6 other Disney themed floats and had Woody from Toy Story leading the whole thing. Block City residents really seemed to enjoy, as did she and I. Afterwards, Lil Girl decided to invite every single float, wrangler and character back to the main house for Thanksgiving dinner. Here's hoping that your Thanksgiving has a few less participants, so that you don't have to rebuild your house (again) to fit them all in.

Today is pie day

and I have just two things to say -

1_ Baking pies is a LOT easier with a stove that works. *I will try to take pictures before they get eaten tomorrow.

and

2_I am in need of a hot shower and a warm bed.


Happy Thanksgiving Eve, peoples. Wish you all the best tomorrow.

Dear TV

I have never "wondered who grew my soup*".


On the other hand, thank you, Bravo, for starting the West Wing over from the beginning. :Sigh: I miss the Bartlett White House.

Fox: just so you know, I know that your American Idol previews are going to be better than the actual season of American Idol, so I don't mind that you're playing them already.

Also, bring on the Christmas specials everysinglestationever, because I have a DVR and will watch them next week, when I am feeling the Christmas spirit. Why aren't there any Thanksgiving specials, btw? May I suggest Planes, Trains, & Automobiles? Those Aren't Pillows!"

Carry on.

Sincerely, NTE


* Campbell's Soup commercial;

had a sleepover this weekend

with this boy:



We had a great time, and played enough card games to make up for the weeks since we've been able to play. We played War and Fish and Bullshit (which, for age appropriate reasons, we call I doubt it!) and BlackJack and Poker. This boy is a bluffer, for sure, and I don't know where he gets it from, because I am the one who taught him to play, and I apparently suck at bluffing (at least, that's what my family says). He also likes to go "All IN!" while I prefer to wager discreetly and sneak up on people when I have a pile large enough to knock them out. But we had a lot of fun, regardless of our different playing styles.

At one point he was laughing so hard that he passed gas and, of course, because he's a 9 year old boy, started laughing even harder. When he finally stopped giggling, he said "Excuse me: I must have laughing gas." If you don't think that started another wave of laughter, then you don't know me at all.

Don't forget to check out all the the other MBSM, where Tracey has asked us to share our heart. This boy is certainly a large piece of mine. Happy Thanksgiving to all my (mostly) Monday readers - Hope you have a great week!

Sunday night

came awfully quickly: Hope you had a great weekend, and (if you're in the US), that you've got your Thanksgiving plans in order!

I always get about this far into NaBloPoMo, and wonder what the heck I was thinking: there's sleepovers and Thanksgiving and pies to make; there's birthdays to scrap for and Christmas presents to scout out; there's doctor's appointments and relapses and every single germ in creation headed straight for me. In other words, November is not exactly a stress free month - for any of us.

But then I remember that coercing myself to write everyday reminds me that I have a connection to people who don't just exist within 65 miles of my physical self. It reinforces the idea that there are other people like me, who are just trying to make it through their days, and we're all helping each other out. It forces me to think of something to talk about, allowing for the instances when all I have to talk about is how sucky something has been & promoting instances when glorious things occur. It gives me something to look back on with pride and accomplishment at having met a goal and overcome obstacles.

So here's to another day down, and 9 days to go.

I am home again

(home again, jiggety jog). It was a relatively minor issue, which, as usual turns into something bigger because I am me. Whatever. I am over it. Back home with the heating pads, whatever virus Lil Girl managed to wipe on me (she sneezed into my shirt the other day, instead of her own, and while I know that didn't make me sick, I doubt it made me any better either), and more DVR-ed West Wings, Offices, and last night's Daily Show & Colbert Report... Then I'm going to take the hottest shower ever and zone out. We have a shiny new stove that I get to make pies in next week, and that is happiness making, indeed.

That's my update, What's cooking for you guys?

NaBloPoMo

Just made it... am relegated to the pull out couch of death again, because new stove = gas pipe = smell... back tomorrow!

Stepped in it this time

Today I managed to start a big family brou ha ha, which only reminds me why I try not to talk to people and makes me wish I lived in one of those hibernation caves you hear so much about. (Minus the bears.) Long story short(ish) - my grandmother, uncle and littlest sister weren't going to come for Thanksgiving, only littlest sister (SisterK) didn't know that. When I told her, her response was "Why do they hate happiness?" and then she called them and asked them what was up. 5 phone calls, (at least) 3 sets of hurt feelings, and one "let's not let this shadow the holiday" later, they're coming for Thanksgiving. And they'll be happy (ish) about it!

No, seriously: I have no idea how things went off the rails in regards to that whole discussion, but they went waaaay off the rails, and just blah. I know we are champion avoiders, so it will all be forgotten(ish) and never discussed again, but in the meantime, it's just too much drama. The kind of thing I have labeled (in my head) Llama Drama, because it is just so unnecessary, and everything in my life must somehow be related to a book, even if, in most instances, it's a picture book.

After all the Llama Drama, I just want to never answer the phone (and I wasn't too keen on it before all this), but I will have to, I suppose. In the meantime, I'm going to watch the cast of Nine on Oprah and hope for some rousing musical numbers ("Be Italian happens to be one of my favorites, because it is so, totally my dad).

"And Max, the king of all wild things, was lonely and wanted to be where someone loved him best of all"

Yes: this -

WANTED: A partner for richer or poorer and for better or worse and absolutely, positively in sickness and in health. A partner for fishing and French food and beach walks and kayak trips, but also for phone calls from physicians with biopsy results. A guy who knows that while much of marriage is a 50-50 give-and-take, sometimes it’s more like 80-20, and that’s OK, even when the 80-20 phase goes on and on. A man who truly doesn’t care what somebody’s breast looks like after cancer surgery, or at least will never reveal that he’s given it a moment’s thought. A guy who’s got some comfort level with secretions and knows the value of a cool, damp washcloth. A partner who knows to remove the computer mouse from a woman’s hand when she types phrases like “breast cancer death sentence” in a Google search. And, most of all, a partner who will sit in a cancer clinic waiting room and hold hard onto the purse on his lap

Because, also? This -

"What did it feel like, I wondered, to be kissed like that right out in public? Not like some passionate tongue-wrestling thing, just a kiss to declare: We are each other’s. I’d never been kissed like that. No one had declared me his, not for the whole world to see, anyway." - Story Of A Girl

and this

“He wished he knew the name of the gods who’d looked down on him the day he’d met her. If he could stack everything he owned, had done, had accomplished, on one side of a scale, it still wouldn’t out-weight the gift of her.” - Memory In Death

(and, if you want to read more about "Real/Everyday/99%/Omega/Sandwich Heroes" check out this Smart Bitches thread.)

I know these guys exist ~> I'm lucky enough to have some examples in a few friends and family members, so I know it's not too much to wish for; someone who loves you best. (I just worry if it's feasible for me, but I guess everybody does.)

Except for the punching, some pretty good advice.

Just can't get it together again here, people: My Best Shot Monday photo is stuck in my camera, and my energy is nil. So I decided to give you some of the most recent quotes that have caught my attention & go back to the West Wing marathon my DVR so kindly saved for me.

“If exhaustion were a tangible object, something you could point to and say, "Look, there's my tiredness," mine would have it's own orbit. It would glow red in the night sky and be feared by villagers and prophets alike. Virgins, no doubt, would be sacrificed to it.”

From “Looky, Daddy” blog

"The only real way to get at how much real pain a person is in is to ask them and trust them. The danger of not believing people is much greater than the danger of overprescribing opioids. The big challenge we have is educating medical doctors. Politicians are even harder, but medical doctors are also thick as bricks." .

Jeffrey Mogil, PhD; From O Magazine, April 2009

"I ate a lot of widower food: peanut butter sandwiches, cereal, frozen steak burritos. I heated the burritos in the oven and if they didn't come out thoroughly defrosted I said, Hell, what's the difference, and crunched through the frost. The hungry feeling and the lonely feeling merged until it was hard to tell them apart. I stopped cooking. Couldn't stand the idea of it. Who would eat it? Who would notice? Who would care? ... But there's still hunger. The sun goes down and there are quick decisions to make."

Love is a mix tape; Life and loss , One Song at a time by Rob Sheffield

Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful.

-- Buddha

The to-read pile is more than just a physical stack of books: it's a tower of ambitions failed, hopes unrealised, good intentions unfulfilled. Worse still, it's a cold hard reminder of mortality. Already, I have intentions to read more books than I can hope to manage in a normal lifetime. How will this pile of books taunt me when I'm 64?"

Perils of the TBR

Everyone, at some point in their lives, wakes up in the middle of the night with the feeling that they are all alone in the world, and that nobody loves them now and that nobody will ever love them, and that they will never have a decent night’s sleep again and will spend their lives wandering blearily around a loveless landscape, hoping desperately that their circumstances will improve, but suspecting, in their heart of hearts, that they will remain unloved forever. The best thing to do in these circumstances is to wake somebody else up, so that they can feel this way, too.

- Lemony Snicket

In the Schrute family we believe in a five-fingered intervention. [raises fist] Awareness. Education. Control. Acceptance. And punching.

— Dwight Schrute, The Office

Ah, to be this organized...

Not feeling better today, so please enjoy pictures of bookcases - not ours, unfortunately, as the not feeling better has extended to still not getting the books any further than random piles on the floor - but ones from various tumblrs and whatnot. Bookcases... drool.

Via the blog on the bookshelf




Via FYReading

Via Infinite Butterflies

Check back tomorrow for things that make sense

I dared to venture out of the house last night, and am definitely paying for it today. I am lucky enough to hear things like "You look like you are hungover" without ever getting to experience the being fun (?) of actually drinking. Headaches, dry heaves, body aches, noises that are too noisy, lights that are too bright ~ just my normal recuperation period, basically. It was nice to be out - seeing my sisters while wearing something other than my pajamas; getting bubbles blown at us by the famous (probably only in Cambridge) Bubble Lady; embarrassing SisterK by having the waiters attempt to sing Happy Birthday (wow, they did such a bad job) - but it sucks to have to pay for it. To realize that (most likely due to whatever bug I am still trying to fight off already) the hours out/suffering afterwards ratio is definitely not tipping in my favor. Oh well: what's done is done, and we almost wound up with a leprechaun's jacket, so it was worth it.

Oh, also: I am so glad that you all liked the MILAs ~ I could spend forever reading those! I know they basically show that I am a big geek, since more than half of the ones I save are related to Harry Potter or things like that, but if you spend any time here, you already know that anyways. :)

Average Lives

All of these amusing little anecdotes are recent postings from My Life Is Average (which I have been calling "My Life Is Awesome", simply because it seems much more apt). If you haven't been over there, you should check it out - these are just a few of my favorites lately, but there are about 50 new posts a day, and there's usually 2 or 3 that give me a little chuckle. Enjoy yourself flipping through them... but beware: Time Suck Major!


Today, my liitle sister was playing barbies in her room. When I walked by all I heard was "First, my ninja barbies, we are going to destroy Hannah Montana and her awful music, and then we will take over the world!" I don't know whether to be terrified or extremely proud. MLIA

Today, while in my mother's 2nd grade classroom, I was looking at the bulletin board. It read "Believe in Yourself" and each student had to write one goal they wanted to achieve down. While most kids wrote "i can run faster" or "i can reach my reading goal", one child put down "i can hug a penguin". MLIA

Today, my sister and I turned our yard into the Godric's Hollow cemetery. We made headstones for all the important characters that had died in the Harry Potter books and played music from the Harry Potter soundtracks. Tonight, when I opened my front door to greet some trick-or-treaters, a young Harry Potter was weeping by his parents' gravestone in my front yard. I gave him the rest of the candy. MLIA

Today I dressed up as Gandalf and went to work. I was late. When I walked in my boss said "you're late", to which I replied "a wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to." I didn't get in trouble. MLIA.

Today, I was in a large corn maze and began to be bored. To change this, I decided to yell "Marco!" at the top of my lungs. Off in the distance, I heard a single person yell "Polo!" back equally as loud. We continued for an hour and a half until I found her. We now have a date set up for tomorrow. MLIA.

Today, I was was at work (I teach kindergarten) when I noticed a little boy trying to steal a girl's barbie doll. I was about to go break up the argument when the girl yelled "Swiper no swiping!" the boy yelled "OH MAN" and walked off. Thank you Dora for teaching kids proper self defense.

Today, I was walking around school and I noticed a blue paw print taped to the wall. Intrigued, I removed it and looked around for the culprit. A student in a large blue dog costume peered around the corner, put a finger to his lips and promptly disappeared. I have never been more confused and excited in my life. MLIA

Today, it was our Year 12 Assembly, where everyone dresses up and we run the assembly ourselves for the rest of the school. One of my friends dressed up as the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland, and during the Principal's speech to us, he yelled out "CHANGE PLACES!!!" 1500 students got up and ran to a different seat, and the Principal continued with his speech and acted nothing happened. MLIA

Today, I realized that the Clapper does not only respond to clapping, it also responds to any exceptionally loud noise. It may be a bit noisy around here, now, but lights come on when I scream 'Lumos!' and that's all that matters. MLIA

Today, during SSR (silent sustained reading), I pulled out a book by Dr. Suess and began to read. Apparently the cute guy next to me was reading over my shoulder, because at the end of the book, he sighed and said to me, "I love happy endings." I'm in love. MLIA

Today, my friends and I were walking down the hall in a straight line across when one of my friends stopped and rearranged the order we were walking in. I didn't realize what he was doing until I noticed that our shirts were now in rainbow order. We're best friends for this reason. MLIA.



These are SO my people.

Well, today is Thursday (as opposed to Tuesday, when I just thought it was), but I don't get my four days off: we have Lil Girl tonight for a sleepover (her first in a very long time) because her other grandmother has to have day surgery tomorrow, and we're helping out. Of course, I'm also supposed to go out to dinner for SisterK's birthday, so we'll see how that goes. For tonight though, we've got a movie to watch, some mashed potatoes boiling, and Lil Girl is going to have her first bubble bath at the new house: sounds good to me.

(And then later, I'll have The Office to watch< so that's awesome too. )

Thank You

Last year on Veteran's Day, I posted a picture of my father , circa 1980 something, during one of his many tours of duty. He was in the United States Navy from 1978-1993 (? on the ending date), and it's one of my favorite pictures of him, even though I don't have any idea when/where he is in the picture. I was lucky enough to get the picture from three of his on-ship buddies when we met with them a few years back, & they couldn't remember where they might have been (although the consensus was that it was probably the Mediterranean). My father passed away 10 years ago, and our relationship was incredibly complex. But those men remembered him, and thought well enough of him to try to look him up 15-20 years after they had served together. They thought well enough of him to contact my brother, my sister and I and to arrange a meeting with us, after they found out he had died. They brought us pictures and stories and I will always appreciate them for doing it, because so many of my happy memories of my daddy have long been overshadowed by some of his more atrocious behavior during his last years on earth. Regardless of all that, though, I do know that he served his country well and that he worked diligently for many of his years in the service.

I have always been proud to be a sailor's daughter, even when I wasn't proud of the sailor himself. I have pictures of his burial at sea, a few pictures of him in his uniform, but instead I'm going to choose another picture that his friends gave us when we met them. Here he is in the tiny little quarters on ship, being a goof:



My family has a long history of service, actually: My Nana's father was in the Navy, and served during World War I aboard the USS Mt Vernon. Originally a seized German ship, the Mt Vernon was torpedoed by the Germans in September of 1918, while James (my great-grandfather) was serving. Although luckily uninjured, he was sent back to the US following the attack, and served at a Naval Hospital (which is, coincidentally, right around the corner from the new house) near Boston until he was discharged. Here is a photo of the ship's crew I found online - He's in there somewhere:



And here he is up close, in uniform:



My other maternal great-grandfather, (my grandfather's father) also served during what his discharge papers call "The World War" as a Wireman and a Private in the United States Army from 1917-1919. (Unfortunately I don't have any photos of him in his uniform, and actually only two or three pictures of him at all.) And his son, my mother's father, my Papa, served in the Army during WWII: All I know about his service is that he was a driver in a convoy going up the narrow mountain roads (in Northern Africa, maybe?) and the truck in front of him was hit, and drove right over the edge of the mountain. When he came back from the war, he never drove again. Here he is at the very end of the chow line (and not nearly as excited as some of his fellow troops):

On my father's side, three of his brothers served in various armed forces; all of my great-uncles and two of my great-aunts served during WWII (my Grandfather was the only child (of 7) who could not); Both of my Grandmother's brothers fought during the Battle of the Bulge - One of her brothers was a medic, and later told her that his biggest fear was that he would be running through the battlefield and be called to a soldier only to see it was his brother - thankfully that did not happen, and they both made it back safely; And the oldest American Veteran in my family (that I am aware of) was my great-great-Grandfather - my Grandmother's grandfather - who was killed in a flash flood after enlisting in the Union Army.

I'm lucky enough now that none of my uncles, aunts or cousins are serving any longer, but I can remember how scared I was during the first Gulf War, knowing that my father was over there serving. I can specifically remember flipping off the Nintendo one afternoon and CNN was on, and they were showing the live bombings, and I was frozen in fear, worrying that one of those fighting might have been my father, and that something horrible could happen to him. I cannot explain how much gratitude I have for those who are serving, and for their families. Today and always: Thank you.