THINGS I WANT TO DO IN 2008

This is a work in progress ...

• Writing class (January 16)
• Work with Linda C. on weight loss
• Blog & Journal
• Re-organize my office
• Travel with Geo
• Draw/create more
• Try to walk
• Organize pictures
• Work on family tree
• Take vitamins
• Will
• Put pictures on DVD
• Redo Garage (ugh, last year's project!)
• Make Pumpkin Bread for Thanksgiving
• Send out Christmas cards the first week of December!

QUESTIONS, I GOT A MILLION OF 'EM

A work in progress ...

If someone was speaking to you in a foreign language you were not familiar with, and they began to stutter, would you know?

Wouldn't you like to hear Gus Gordon, just once, say, "It's a bit nipply out!" on the air?

I DIDN'T DO IT BUT IT'S AOK

This year I did not make pumpkin bread at Thanksgiving, nor have I sent out any Christmas cards. I've come to realize the world has not ended because I did not complete these two events. It seemed as if they were becoming chores; chores I did not want to do.

I have made pumpkin bread for Thanksgiving for at least 17 years. I make ooodles and ooodles of loaves, and give them to family and friends. Everyone says they love it. It's my Grandma Pullin's recipe, and I know it by heart. My family was truly disappointed. But for some reason this year my heart just wasn't in it.

I have sent Christmas cards to family and friends since I was in grade school. It's something I've always enjoyed doing, and I certainly enjoy receiving them. My parents always received a bunch of them and I enjoyed sitting on the couch in front of the Christmas tree and looking at them, and listening to Christmas music. My son and my husband do not share my penchant for Christmas cards, so I am the one who picks them out, signs and addresses them, puts the return address labels and the stamps on them. Again, it just seems like a chore. It's not that I don't care for the people who would receive them, but my heart isn't in the chore.

Life will go on, and maybe next year I'll do Pumpkin Bread and Christmas Cards but forgo another tradition. I decorated my house more than usual this year, and that is a plus. Of course having the Open House party helped with that!

SENSITIVE

I wish I was less sensitive. I wish I could "grow thicker skin." I'm one of those people who takes things very personally. I'm one of those people who, even though I am mad, will blubber and cry. I'm one of those people who has a fairly good vocabulary and can speak with no trouble, until I am upset or mad. Then I just clam up and say the most stupid things. THAT makes me angry, which makes me cry more. ARGGH.

Today I had two things upset me, probably more than they should have.

First, a Freecycle member left, and had some snarky things to say, that I felt were uncalled for. I thanked her for her remarks and tried to get her to give me more information so I could help her understand why things are the way they are, and she basically dismissed me. She also corrected my grammar! (She was right, but STILL! LOL). It upset me though because to me, her perception is totally wrong. I thought if she could give me some specific information, then I'd be able to say, "This is why..." I guess it's HER issue, not mine. But I still take it very personally when people diss Freecycle, when I work so hard to make things right.

I also had a situation with someone today that has been blown out of proportion. I feel like no matter what happens she will not believe me. I have felt this way before with her. I have felt disappointed and let down by this person in the past year, but I have let it go because I love her, and I didn't want it to impact our relationship.

All morning I obsessed about these two things, letting them eat away at me. But I also found something interesting: I was checking out at (the big box store which I forget that I never want to shop in), and I offered to put away something I had retrieved. The clerk gave me a big smile and said, "Oh no, you fine, it's OK." And I said, "Are you sure? I'd be happy to put it back." She smiled again and thanked me. It seemed as if she hadn't received that courtesy before. It made me feel good. Such a simple, seemingly meaningless thing, made me feel good and forget about my negative obsessions.

I also felt good when I was leaving Staples and made the effort to take my cart back inside, in spite of the snowy parking lot. Again, such a simple stupid thing ... but it got me thinking.

I do good things most of the time. I believe I am a good person. I put away grocery carts. I say please and thank you. I pick things up when others drop them. I hold doors open for people. I talk to cashiers and clerks. I smile at people. In my neighborhood, I wave to the mailman, the bus driver, the UPS guy, the park district workers. I leave treats for my mailman year-round.

I'm not trying to say that I'm the most perfect wonderful person in the world - far from it. But I am a genuinely nice person!

I am sensitive. I suppose if I were insensitive, I wouldn't be the person I am today. So even though I'd like to have thicker skin, and cry a little less "over spilt milk," I'm suppose I am glad to be who I am.

***
10:17 PM CDT After reading this again, I don't really like the way it came out. I think it sounds a little too self-serving, and doesn't show how upset I felt or how I was trying to say that doing nice things for people made me feel better, and made me forget about the dregs of the day. Maybe I did. I am not sure. I'll leave it up because ... it is what it is.

STEWARDSHIP, RESOURCEFULNESS, THRIFT

Stewardship: the conducting, supervising, or managing of something ; especially : the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one's care

Resourcefulness: able to meet situations : capable of devising ways and means.

Thrift: careful management especially of money; frugality

I heard these words together today, and liked them. I believe everyone should try to abide by them.

GET TO KNOW YOUR NEIGHBORS!

We had an Open House Holiday Party for all our neighbors on Crusaders Saturday afternoon. We sent invitations to everyone on our street, and included the "corner folks" who are actually on other streets. Twenty-one people attended. Some did not respond, some were unable to come, but those that did said it was a great time and wondered why we don't do stuff like that more often!

We got to meet people we hadn't met before, talk with neighbors we don't see too often, and reconnect with friends.

It was from 2-4, I served very simple stuff - coffee, tea, punch made by next door neighbor Alice, and sweets (cookies and tarts), candy, fruit and nuts. We probably have the smallest house on the block, but it was just great with everyone there.

Everyone had a good time and even the snow didn't deter them - it just made it more festive. Our guests ran from age 3-80+!

I encourage all of you to have a gathering with your neighbors – we have such a great neighborhood and our neighbors are important!
Happy Holidays!

ICE STORM, SCHMICE STORM!

December 8, 2007

Bah! I said, to Storm Team 20s Scarecast of an ICE STORM WARNING. Wanting to go on our traditional holiday outing to see the 8PM performance of the Nutcracker this evening, I hovered around the weather news most of the day. Nothing but gloom and doom, ice and freezing rain and sleet was forecasted for the evening. Around 4PM, I ended up cancelling taking my Great Niece Emma to an event she really loves. (I get to see "The Chipmunk Movie" instead. Hmmm. Sort of an odd cultural exchange.)

My teenage son Alex informed me that he and his girlfriend would still be going to the Nutcracker, in spite of all the warnings, advisories and lectures from his Father.

I worried all night, looking at the clock, hoping that everything was OK. I watched the weather radar, and saw nothing in our area but a few "puffs" floating around us - no big deal. I even ventured so far as to smile at husband George and say, "It's really not doing anything outside;" not as an "I told you so," but as an attempt to assuage his feelings about our only child being out in an ice storm, and me being the one who gave him the tickets to go.

I figured Alex would be home around 10:30 or 11, and sure enough, he was - he ran in, said everything was great, they had a good time, the roads were, "um, not bad at all, really" and quick as a flash, off he went to Chatham with a friend.

What is the point to this blathering missive?!

My Border Collie, Lucky, woke me up at 1AM to tell me she had to go outside. NOW. It was VERY URGENT. My husband recently banned her from the backyard during wet weather, so I begrudgingly put on my slippers and went out the front door with her.

"Stupid non-ice storm!" I mumbled, thinking Emma and I should have gone to the Nutcracker after all ... and as I barely got the word "storm" out of my mouth, my aging 70-pound dog slid down the driveway. She would have gotten at least a 7 for her flying Hamill Camel. She looked at me like, "What the ...?!" and clambered over to the snowy yard, which was now encrusted in ice, making her walk even more awkwardly.

I stood safely under the eave by the garage, not happy about being outside in my PJs at 1AM waiting for the dog to do her thang, and kinda giggling about Lucky's swooop down the ice.

Finally, she was through, but wait … what?! Oh no! Lucky was convinced she was STUCK in the parkway, and couldn't make it into the yard. I called, I begged, I pleaded. I used my stern voice. But apparently the sidewalk had become an icy abyss that Lucky did not dare cross.

She'll do anything for food, so I bribed her with a cookie. But this time, she just stood looking forlorn, attempting to take a few steps and then skittering back.

By now, I'm more than a bit chilly in my PJs and I decide I need to go back in the house and get my coat. "That usually does the trick," I thought, knowing Lucky wouldn't want to be left outside alone in the cold.

"Come on, Lucky!!" I pleaded. No such luck, pardon the pun. So I went inside to get my coat, where I was greeted at the door by our two cats, who seemed very concerned about their friend, THE DOG. Well, I suspect that Rufus was concerned; Trixie just wanted me to come back to bed so she could snuggle.

Back outside, and Lucky's still at the bottom of the yard on the parkway, trying desperately to get into the large snowy yard but not sure how to cross the sidewalk. I implore her once more to come up with me. No way, she says.

I go back inside and grab her leash, which usually makes her very happy, tell her I'll give her treats, which usually makes her even happier, but still she would not budge.

I have nerve damage in my right leg that causes chronic pain. It's been especially bad today, and I was sure that *I* should not be attempting to get down the ice-clad driveway OR the icy snow encrusted yard, even if it was to rescue my poor old dog. I could imagine both of us down there, STUCK. I could see the snowplow going by, covering us both up with slush. Not good.

Thought for just a second about going inside and waking up the hubby, who had put the dreaded "PLEASE DO NOT LET THE DOG IN THE BACKYARD" sign on the back door in the first place. Come get your dog, I thought, feeling like Malificent, the wicked queen from Sleeping Beauty.

But alas, I am a nicer person. Hubby was mad at me anyhow for letting the aforementioned teenage son go to the Nutcracker in an ice storm. Better not poke the sleeping bear.

However, I couldn't leave my almost-12-year-old dog who, though she was supposed to be my son's dog, had really been my companion all these years, especially after my injury.

I decide to brave it. I stomp through the ice and snow, making loud crunching, crackling sounds as I went, knee aching at every step. I got closer and tried to coax Lucky towards me. She'd gingerly move forward, then move back. Too scary, she'd say.

I finally reached the edge of the yard and was able to let her smell my hand and guide her a little bit toward me. She reached the sidewalk but once again she spun around, this time doing a Salchow with triple toe loop. I can hear Dick Button now! "Amazing! GOLD for the USA!" as the crowd goes wild.

She scrambled up ahead of me in the icy yard, slipping several times, as I tried to watch her and my own steps. We got to the top of the driveway, and once again she slipped, but she managed to "make it stick."

Once inside, I went to the pantry and got her a large Milkbone dog biscuit. You deserve this, old girl. She looked up at me with grateful eyes, and nudged my hand while I patted her head.

LUCKY TUCKED IN BED FOR THE NIGHT!

So yeah ... there was an ice storm and it's slick outside ... be careful out there.