Another busy week, but as I wander into 2004, things will slow down to a crawl and I’ll have time to write and reflect. Until then, I give you the week’s highlights:
--Santa was good to me, but the best thing about this Christmas was having Jay home and sharing Christmas with friends who feel like family. You can’t wrap that kind of happiness.
--I finished Middlesex. I am proud of this accomplishment because I read it during the busiest December I can remember and it’s over 500 pages of literary joy and madness. Book club meeting coming soon…
--Mona Lisa Smile made me (almost) wish I’d been born a few decades ago. The limitations and rules that applied to women are ridiculous by today’s standards, but the clothes and music were to die for. Who says I can’t wear an apron while I cook and get a law degree? Huh?
--At the other end of the movie spectrum, Jack Black proves anyone--yes, anyone-- can be in a band. Rock on.
--Taking my own advice, recent music purchases include: greatest hits from The Eagles, some all-girl blues, going crazy with Patsy Cline, some old standards sung by jazz great Chet Baker, and classic Cheap Trick just for fun. Jack would approve.
--Due to this end-of-the-year deployment, the big, broad, fat, drunken tree had to come down. It did not come down without a fight, however. I have the scratches and abrasions to prove that dry, brittle trees are bad, dangerous things.
--Christmas cards! Christmas cards! To date, cards have arrived from seventeen states, the District of Columbia and Canada. Which only means that a) I’m a geek for counting and b) people move around too much.
--I apparently make kick ass gravy-- and not enough of it.
--Sharing Christmas morning with people I am not related to is an experience. A nice one. And I’m really, really glad we didn’t go camping.
--I have a shiny new datebook in which to record, well, dates. Woooo.
--My thank you cards are not written. My bills are not paid. Ask me if I care. Go on, I dare you.
--Jay left, which casts a long shadow over everything else. Pardon me while I feel sorry for myself.
262,800 minutes
4380 hours
182.5 days
26 weeks
Six months is a long, long time to be lonely.
It’s a rainy, dreary, icky day. It’s also Christmas eve!
I don’t need to get anywhere close to a mall today, which is reason enough to be happy, but I have much to look forward to this Christmas. Good friends, yummy food and pretty, sparkly presents cancel out the lousy weather.
May your days be merry and bright…
I want to write about the over-commercialization of Christmas and the insanity of trying to shop this week.
I want to write about identity and gender now that I’m almost done with Middlesex.
I want to write about my goals and plans for 2004, which are similar to resolutions but without all the pressure and expectation.
I want to write about how I’ve been feeling and the multiple personality disorder I seem to suffer every December.
I want to write about old friends who briefly reappear in my life at this time each year, only to disappear again in January.
I want to share recipes of all the goodness I’m baking (and plan to bake) this week.
I can’t seem to organize my thoughts into anything cohesive, so I’ll save the deep thoughts for later this week (hopefully). In the meantime… I am in love with this site. I know some people who are going to get pajama-grams in 2004. Wooooo. Who doesn’t love a pair of froggie flannel pajamas??
Sickness struck me down. For the past couple of days my idea of a good time has been flannel pajamas and Nyquil. Woooo. Party party. Thankfully, it is not the F-word. It seems to be just a mild cold combined with a general worn-down-ness that comes from doing too much in too short a span of time (otherwise known as Martha-itis). I’m taking it easy (yes, me) and I’ll be okay. I wan’t joking when I said I can’t get sick until January. I will take this as a warning and get some rest.
Speaking of which, what have they done to Nyquil? I can remember when a dose of Nyquil would knock me out for twelve hours and I’d wake up the next day feeling pleasantly floaty-like. Now I take two pretty green capsules and wake up three times in eight hours (which is my normal sleep pattern). What happened to the good drugs?? I even swapped to Allergy and Cold Benadryl, which used to wipe me out so bad I couldn’t function the next day. Not anymore. Now I sleep hard for a couple of hours and wake up in the middle of the night. Bah humbug. I want the good drugs. How am I supposed to get well if I can’t get any sleep?
Life. Love. Writing. Friendship.
Sex. Books. Movies. Travel. Politics. Feminism. Academia. Insomnia. Rants. Raves. Chocolate. Lots of chocolate. Some names have been changed, some stories have been embellished. Thanks for stopping by and beware of the dog. Read more...
