We're headed for New England to visit family and friends, and to party like it's 2009. By which I mean that I'm feeling too old to party and will likely fall asleep before the new year is rung in. We have a bit in the valley of pioneers, and then it's off to Boston for visiting, and then backtracking into the Berkshires for more visiting, including a stop at the Black Barn....
packtravelunpackworkrepacktravelunpackdolaundrypacktravelunpackworkrepacktravelunpackdolaundrypacktravelunpackworkrepacktravelunpackdolaundrypacktravelunpackworkrepacktravelunpackdolaundrypacktravelunpackworkrepacktravelunpackdolaundrypacktravelunpackworkrepacktravelunpackdolaundry
that's pretty much my life for the last three months. This week, Mr. P did the laundry (yeay!), but I added bakeshopwrapresentsbakepackagegifts to the usual regiment. I'm kinda looking forward to January....
Tomorrow is Mr. P's birthday, and I have a surprise in store for him. Can't wait to spring it on him!
Christmas? I guess? I think I'm done Christmas shopping, which is good, since I hate Christmas shopping. I love giving gifts, but I hate crowds and shopping and the mall, and we have no money. So, I didn't do too much buying this year. I am not yet, however, done making Christmas gifts, as that is what most people on our list are getting. And this weekend is the last chance I'm going to get to get stuff done, so the sewing machine is humming.
As usual, my niece makes out like a bandit. I made a frilly flannel Xmas dress for her, and a cape. A little red riding hood cape. Only pink and fleece, which I figure will be practical in New England.
And a fancy schmancy button...
And little arm holes....
In the meantime, I've been working my way through the black and white pictures from the Xmas burlesque show. Should have them all up soon....
On the way back from the latest work trip to the boonies* last night I stopped at the fabric store to get a zipper for the Christmas dress I'm making for my niece. At the cutting table the young lady working there declared to her co-workers that the next day is her 18th birthday and she was so excited because "only two more years and I can get a gun." I thought I had misheard her-- the fabric cutting table not really being my image of the bastion of the NRA. But then she confirmed it, saying, "I so want a gun!"
One of her coworkers then pointed out that one needs to be 21 in VA to get a handgun. The young lady didn't see the import of that piece of information. Actually, she said, "Yeah, I know." Coworker pointed out that that was three years, not two. Girl argued with her for a while, insisting that it was only two more years, not three. Eighteen, employed, almost armed, and 21-18=3 is beyond her grasp.
Guess she'll be disappointed on her twentieth birthday. I think I fear for the rest of us.
Of course, she also declared, loudly, in front of a large group of customers, that someone asked her if she had any kids yet, and that she had responded, pointing animatedly at her crotch, "nothing is coming out of THIS until I'm MARRIED." The other women working at the cutting table stood blinking for a moment. Then one asked if she could take the next customer.
Meanwhile, this trip I got my regular deer season experience of a six year old, after being bidden to draw a picture of something that makes him happy, rendering a scene of himself holding a rifle larger than the body he'd given himself, busily killing forest creatures. In this case a deer, which was rather well drawn-- a good sized buck with a nice rack of antlers. The kid wanted to tell me all about his picture, turning his face towards me, the light glinting off his coke bottle glasses, and happily describing his snuffing out of the animal. I'm thinking that I may want to think twice about hiking in the woods around here, as they appear to be populated by nearly blind, heavily armed six year olds, and potentially armed not terribly bright young women.
* I should point out that, while the Littlest Hunter was in the boonies, the fabric store vigilante was in a suburb of Richmond.
Went to the Richmond Varietease Christmas show last night at the Canal Club-- lots of fun!
Considering the month it has been, I really wasn't sure if it would happen this year, so I'm pretty happy.
Now I need to go soak my hands to cool them down after three straight days of non-stop writing....
Lots to be thankful for-- a wonderful husband, fabulous friends, a great family. And pie. One should always be thankful for pie.
It's been kind of a rough month. Not worst ever, but not so easy. We spent Friday driving out to Tennessee to see Mr. P's grandfather. I'm relieved to say that we did get there in time to see him, but that he passed away the next day. Monday was very long-- up early for the funeral, we hit to road mid-afternoon for a long drive home in the rain and in the dark. Made it home safe and sound, if exhausted, and both of us headed to work this morning.
We're looking forward to Thanksgiving with friends, and I'm hoping to get back into the mode of being able to finish all the stuff I have on deck in the next few weeks, and maybe getting back to the gym at some point....
I ended last week happy to have ended it, however, if I had realized I was trading in last week for this week, I might have thought again. It is early Thursday morning, so who knows what new and interesting issues await, but here is my week thus far:
Sunday (highpoint of the week): Laundry & house cleaning
Monday: Good thing-- had dinner with much missed friend Jason. Bad thing-- I spent four hours driving/stuck in traffic, and then almost two hours in the metro system trying to get back to the hotel when someone jumped in front of the train across the platform at the station where I was. As in, we were all sitting on the train while across the platform emergency services were scrambling around trying to figure out where, exactly, they might find the mangled body. They kept announcing that they were being held there, the train would move on in just a few minutes, but after twenty minutes they kicked everyone out of the station and we all had to walk past cops putting out crime scene tape. Shuttle buses hadn't started yet, and booth guy at McPherson said "just go to any metro station and tell them what happened and they'll let you in". So I walked over to Metro Center to grab the red to the yellow, where I had to argue for a long time with that booth guy about whether or not I should have to pay a second fare to get on.
Tuesday: Good thing-- had dinner with dear friend Rebecca. Bad thing-- started morning out with two hour trip to Reston that should have taken forty minutes when, two exits short of my destination, everything halts on the Dulles toll road because of a nine car pile up. So for the second day in a row, I get the sight of emergency services scrambling around to retrieve mangled bodies, this time surrounded by the twisted metal of nine cars. Spend my day bringing art to the children and attempt to rush back to hotel to dump car and metro over to board meeting. This should have worked, right? Board meeting at 6:30, I leave school at 4pm, I am driving reverse commute, Reston to Arlington. I gave up on making it to the board meeting when it was 6:25 and I was still sitting in front of the Pentagon. I could have walked to the hotel faster. I could have walked to the hotel and back to Arlington National Cemetery twice in the time it took me to get past the Pentagon. So, I ended up calling into the meeting, as usual.
Wednesday: Discover, much too late to do anything about it, that the latch on that turns the hotel shower into a shower is stuck. Am forced to wash hair by squatting in the tub and shoving my head under the faucet. How happy does this make me? Not very. Get to school fine. On departure, see yet another accident. Creep past, four miles an hour. By the time I get home, I have spent more hours in the car than I did in the school.
Rest of week: Mr. P's grandfather is gravely ill, so we are heading out tomorrow morning for an emergency trip to Tennessee.
Somehow I don't think I'm going to finish nanowrimo this year. Actually, I think I might just be happy to finish November.
