Here Comes the Bride and the Tornadoes

Well, I got my voice back.  Most of it at least.  Just in time to run screaming into my basement away from the tornadoes we are expected to get here today.  Every November, we get one bout of severe weather.  Its like spring in the autumn.  From what the weatherman/woman says - today is our day.  I should be thankful.  With as busy as we have been lately, it is amazing that it is happening on a day where we have nothing going on.  Last week was a college visit.  This past weekend was an out of town wedding.  Tomorrow another college visit.  So I guess if I had to schedule in some severe weather on my calendar, today is a good day.  It is amazing that on Friday it was cold enough to be snowing and now its balmy enough for severe weather.  Then again we were about three or four hours north of Suburbia so I guess that could have something to do with it.  It was a nice trip.  Up on Thursday with a college stop along the way.  Wedding on Friday.  Back to Suburbia on Saturday.  A nice little getaway.  The wedding itself was beautiful.  The service just the right length of time.  The mood just light enough to be humorous yet personal and romantic.  The bride was glowing and the groom was grinning.  I have to admit I almost cried a few times.  Why am I such a sap?  We've only known the bride since she was in high school - possibly younger, I can't really remember life here in Suburbia without knowing her and her family.  So, I want to take this opportunity to say Congratulations to Marion the Librarian and her Music Man.  May you have love, laughter, and happiness through all the days of your life together.  Oh, and you make me feel old.

Oh, There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays

I am in a bit of a spot here.  It involves me, hometown, family and Christmas.  See my family has some big traditions when it comes to Christmas.  From what they eat on which days to who sits where to pass out presents.  My dilemma is I would really like my daughter to get to experience these traditions.  We have never gone to hometown for actual Christmas Day proper.  We always go sometime between Christmas and New Year.  We have always used the "Santa excuse" for not coming on said day.  But I want my daughter who is now 17 to have the opportunity to experience, just once, the kind of Christmas I grew up with.  I know I can't duplicate my childhood for her but giving her a taste of what I endured . . . I mean participated in would mean a lot to me.  Not to mention my mother.  It would totally make her dreams come true to see us on December 24th and 25th.  She may get so excited she may just explode.  I don't want my mother to explode.  What kind of daughter would I be if I wanted that?  Anyway, I also have another concern.  See, my family doesn't like change.  Any kind of change at all.  If we go back for Christmas Eve/Day, this is going to throw them for a loop.  We don't have assigned seats at the table.  We don't have assigned seats in the basement for present distribution.  We just don't belong there.  I can't help feeling this way but it has been held without us for the past 16 years.  Throwing us into the mix is just asking for trouble.  A huge monkey wrench in the holiday plans.  I'm positive if I asked my Grandma she'd be thrilled to have us.  Do doubt in my mind.  My trouble is do I want to do this or not.  I don't want the drama that comes along with a large family gathering even if it is Christmas.  I think maybe I've been away too long.  Maybe I'm just remembering all the good things about Christmas and blocking out all the bad stuff and THAT is what I want my daughter to experience.  A Christmas where nobody is bitter or upset or downright angry.  Just a nice fairytale Christmas where we all sit around singing carols and drinking cocoa.  Yeah, that's not what I'm gonna get.  I guess I just have to make a decision and go with it.  The song says "there's no place like home for the holidays" but I don't know.  I am open to any advice anyone would like to share.  Let the friendly guidance commence . . . now.

Sign Language - How I Wish I Knew Thee

Every year, I lose my voice.  Usually it is in the dead of winter after I have had bronchitis (an annual event for me).  This year the bronchitis came early and the laryngitis is sticking around.  It has been almost two weeks with this minimal, scratchy, pathetic excuse for a voice and I am fed up.  I can't do anything.  I can't talk to anyone.  This includes asking questions and engaging in poite conversation - even when shopping!  I can't go through a drive-thru because they can't hear my order.  I can't even talk on the phone.  You never quite realize how important something is until its gone and my voice definitely falls into that category.  I never realized just how important the telephone is until I couldn't use it anymore.  I can't do all those little businessy things around the house that need to be done.  I keep sending Hubby to work with a list of places that need called for reservations, cancellations, questions, answers, and all that fun stuff.  He's a good sport but I can tell he's about as fed up with my voice being gone as I am.  When I do speak, it comes out in a squeeky sort of raspy almost non-audible sound.  It is usually accompanied by massive amounts of coughing.  Fun.  I've been drinking tea.  I've had the chicken soup.  I've gone long periods of time without attempting to talk thus letting my voice rest.  I don't really know what else to do.  My mom calls me periodically to check and see if I have my voice back.  Hubby tells her "no" but its killing her that I can't talk.  Oh well, I guess I should relish the silence.  Take advantage of the peace and quiet.  Enjoy the break from my own babbling.  The thing is the little voice in my head doesn't have laryngitis.  It just goes on and on 24 hours a day without stopping.  My frustration is that I can't share anything that I am thinking.  I am stuck in my own little world.  No snarky comments.  No opinionated declarations.  Nothing.  Just me in my head - alone.  I even had to cancel an appointment with my therapist because what good is therapy if you can't talk.  It's more like a lecture and I wasn't paying for that.  So, those of you with a voice - which should be all or most of you - don't take it for granted.  You never know when you'll catch my germs and be mute like me.

The Great Sugar Rush is Over. Bring on the Dead and the Elves.

Wow!  I totally suck at being a blogonista!  The month of October came and went and I barely shared anything with you guys and gals.  How dare I neglect my peeps like that.  Shame on me!  Happy Dia de los Muertos or Day of the Dead for those of you who don't speak a lick of Spanish.  We have decided to celebrate this holiday in our house mostly for three reasons - 1) To honor the dead, 2) To have an excuse other than Cinco de Mayo to eat out at a Mexican restaurant, and 3) To create altars to honor the dead and thus (you got it) to have to shop for said materials to make said altars.  We are no way of shape remotely Spanish but any excuse to eat out and shop.  Besides, doesn't it make for a well rounded child to learn about different cultures and their traditions.  Ever though its full of skeletons and such, I like the Day of the Dead much better than Halloween.  But that's ok because Halloween is over and within seconds the Christmas decorations were up in the stores and the Christmas music blaring out of their speakers.  I love Christmas so I don't really mind.  I think that the people who complain "what about Thanksgiving" need to see Thanksgiving for what it really is: Pre-Christmas.  That's right.  It's a time when everyone in the family gets together for a big meal.  Its like practice for Christmas.  Its like a warm fuzzy reminder of all the drama you will have to endure on that holiest of nights and days.  I also think that if you wait until after Thanksgiving to put up your decorations and go all Christmas everywhere, you don't have enough time to enjoy your efforts.  Put up your decorations and do your shopping before Thanksgiving so that come the actual Christmas season, all you have to do is flip a switch and sit back and enjoy your eggnog.  Otherwise, you are rushing to get everything up and everything done and by the time you are finished, it is time to take it all down and pack it all away again.  Totally not worth it!  So I shrug off the fact that we got zero trick-or-treaters this year and pull out my Christmas cards.  I've started my shopping already because its the most wonderful time of the year!  P.S.  Just in case you didn't know, Santa is just like me.  He has OCD too.  He makes a list AND THEN checks it TWICE!  Man, I love Christmas!

Let's Do Lunch

Lunch is such a difficult meal.  Its shoved there in the middle of the day and isn't really designated any importance.  Compared to breakfast, the most important meal of the day, and dinner, the main meal of the day, what is there left to define lunch.  Nothing.  Poor lunch.  It has to be packed up in a sack or prepared in a cafeteria.  There is little hope for it.  I sit here now eating lunch - a cucumber and white cheddar sandwich on a bagel - a holdover from my days spent living in England.  It is yummy but like most lunches I end up with it is the only thing we pretty much had in the kitchen that wasn't breakfast or dinner worthy.  I often times skip breakfast when I am home just so that I can eat breakfast for lunch and make it a bit more exciting.  Breakfast is much more interesting.  You have your hot foods - eggs, bacon, sausage, waffles, pancakes, even oatmeal - and then there's the always favorite standby cereal with choices ranging from fiber infused flakes to sugar loaded stars and moons.  Not to mention all of the continental breakfast items.  Dinner is a family staple - meat and potato combos or ethnic cuisine.  Dinner is where we all get together and share what has happened during the day.  Lunch is usually eaten at someone's desk or in the car while on the run.  It is an afterthought - thrown together in the morning or eaten out within ridiculous time restrictions while being accompanied by a side of guilt for spending the money on something you could have brought from home.  Either way, lunch is difficult.  It is the middle child of the meal world.  Overlooked and forgotten.  I wish I could come up with a way to save this long lost dining experience.  A way to make it better but I can't.  I struggle with what to eat for lunch nearly every day.  And now my cucumber and cheese sandwich is done.  That was it.  A cucumber and cheese sandwich.  No chips.  No side items.  Just a lonely cucumber and cheese sandwich.  I think I'm actually still hungry.  Thank goodness dinner is early tonight.

Crouching Tiger, Smiling Fish

Well, I survived another business trip.  Yes, Hubby went away again last week and left me alone with the virally infectious one known as our kid.  I thought between school and color guard rehearsal, I would be facing three days of solitary confinement.  Instead, I had a buddy all the whole time.  She planted herself on the couch and I planted myself in the chair next to it and we sat.  I only went out to get take away food.  It was kind of nice but by the time that Hubby got back I was itching to go somewhere and dying to shop.  So today we went to the Pandora store so I could get my latest addition to my my-husband-goes-away-on-business-and-I-have-to-run-the-show-alone bracelet.  I went with a list of ten possibilities and walked away with number ten on my list.  I always do that.  I think I'm going to get a certain bead and then when I get there those notions go completely out the window and I choose something off the wall that I wasn't really even considering.  Today I walked away happy with "The Happy Fish".  In an effort to get The Kid out of the house for more than ten minutes, we also went to the store to find a top to go with a skirt that I was saving to wear to a friend's wedding next month.  After searching the entire store, I was taking something over to the window to look at it against the skirt in the natural light when I noticed - the skirt had snags on it!  Just my luck!  So I had to scrap that idea and just buy a whole new outfit instead.  Poor me.  I love the outfit I got.  I wish I could wear it tomorrow but they might think I'm a little overdressed for a college admissions visit.  Yes, another Monday, another college.  That's the way we roll in this house these days.  Got to get them all in before Hubby takes his next business trip.  You know.  The trip of which we do not speak.  The trip to Hawaii.  Maybe The Kid can stay healthy for the next trip.  My luck I'll be the one to get sick.  Or maybe it'll be Hubby and he won't be able to go to Hawaii.  Wouldn't that be a shame.  <evil grin>  I guess I shouldn't complain or wish bad things on anyone.  I should just smile and be a Happy Fish.

Ahhhhh - Freak Out

Last night, we spent the late evening/night at everyone's favorite place - the local emergency room.  See our daughter has had a fever since Sunday evening and it spiked to 104 degrees.  We called the nurse line through our healthcare plan and she told us what any good healthcare employee would tell us - call the doc on call, then try to find an urgent care, but go to the hospital if absolutely necessary.  After calling the urgent care and having them tell us to go straight to the ER, we obediently went straight to the ER.  Wow.  What a diverse group of people the ER houses in the middle of the night.  There were numerous people who looked "ok" to me only to magically start coughing or limping when its their turn to go back to a room.  Then in walked my favorite patient of the night, an old man who couldn't hear and didn't want to wait his turn.  After trying (actually sobbing) to convince the registration person that all he needed was a breathing treatment, he proclaimed loudly that he was dying.  Yup, that's right, dying.  He was gonna die right there if they didn't help him right away.  He went on and on like this for about ten or fifteen minutes before finally giving up and heading to the waiting room.  But he didn't stop there, no, he proceeded out into the hall just beyond the waiting area and PULLED OUT A CIGARETTE!  He needs a breathing treatment or he's gonna die and when they ask him to wait he goes for a smoke!  I couldn't believe my eyes.  He headed outside to puff away and even missed his name being called for triage.  What are some of these people thinking?  Are they thinking at all?  Turns out the kid is ok.  Just a viral thing but of course there's nothing they can do for her but say "You have a virus.  Go home and rest."  Maybe she got it spinning her flag in the freezing cold on Friday night.  Maybe she got it in the misty cold rain at the zoo on Saturday.  Maybe she got it at school.  Who knows.  All I know is that I like people watching just as much as the next person but the ER in the middle of the night is creeps on parade and should be avoided if at all possible.  And to top it all off when we went to pay, they seemed confused and disoriented.  What?  Someone wants to voluntarily pay thir hospital bill?  Their reaction tells me Smokey the Bear and his freak show friends won't be doing that anytime soon. Why is it only the wackos seem to get sick and injured nocturnally?  I guess I shouldn't talk, I was there too.  Wonder what they thought of me - the freak with the health insurance?