What Struck Me

• Icky. I woke feeling worse than I did yesterday, but somehow I think I may be heading out the other side of this cold/infection/whatever it is. Or maybe it’s just that the T*l*n*l Cold is doing it’s job.
• Grateful. Pat got the boys off to school this morning so I could stay in bed a bit longer. And he went out food shopping last night, despite the fact that he’s not feeling 100% himself, so I could have my Banana Nut Crunch cereal this morning.
• Impressed. A gift I ordered Tuesday afternoon was shipped from Shanghai on Wednesday morning, and arrived here at 9am today. And it’s even personalized! Certainly much better service than a certain rug seller…
• Proud. I did it! I completed the NaBloPoMo challenge and posted every day during November! As someone who notoriously doesn’t follow through- this is a good thing.

Thanks to M. Kennedy at Fussy for her brilliant idea, it was fun! And thanks to Lane at pink elephants for the randomizer, which made it even more fun. And thanks to The Zero Boss, where I first saw the idea mentioned.

(and no, I’m not going to do the Holidailies thing, time to go back to blogging if/when I actually have something to say!)

No, I’m not drunk.

I am, however, dosing myself with Zithromax. I have a spare Z-Pak lying around from a year or so ago, it was prescribed for Andy but, as I often do, I waited a day or so to see if he got better (meaning what he had was viral). He did, but I filled the scrip anyway, you know, to have.

This cold hasn’t gotten any better, in fact I’ve been feeling progressively worse. It’s moving into my ears, I can feel it tickling my voice box. Last time this happened, I ended up with pneumonia. My options were to either go to the doctor, pay a copay, and risk her lecturing me on how it may be viral and I should wait it out (which, as I said, is my standard MO anyway) or I can just start the Z-Pak and hope it works. Obviously, I’m going with the second option. This is the worst time of year to be sick, especially this year, when I have 2 family parties to plan, and assorted other obligations. A sinus/ear/bronchial infection is simply unacceptable. So I find myself hoping this thing is bacterial. Ugh.

In other news, I’m having major issues trying to get the rug I ordered for my dining room. I’ll save you the long sordid tale, which involves two rugs (I need one) and charges for both on my credit card, and the one I don’t want sitting in my garage while the one I do want apparently sits in shipping limbo. I’ll even refrain from mentioning the retailer… yet. They’ve got another week to fix this problem, or I’ll be mighty, mighty pissed off.

One of my favorite things about the holidays is television. I love watching my old favorites, I love watching the decorating shows, I even love watching sappy manipulative TV movies (even more so when they’re so incredibly cheesy that I’m sobbing one minute and laughing incredulously the next.)

Last night I watched Great American Christmas on USA Network. I thought I was settling in for a typical decorations n’ recipes holiday show. But soon I realized, nope.

They start off introducing the families they followed through last Christmas season. The Olympic hopeful and his irritating in laws who get in the way of his training. The guy traveling from New York to LA via a rented moving truck to move in with his girlfriend who gave him a “be here by Christmas or see ya!” ultimatum. The gay man bringing his boyfriend back home to the family who really doesn’t want him to. The suburban mom, dad, and two kids (including snarky daughter who I loved!) who are hosting nearly 100 relatives. The wealthy Los Angeles family who are typical of all the other wealthy LA families you see on TV (The OC, Laguna Beach…) except Dad is the pastor at the Crystal Cathedral. And the ex-con who’s trying as hard as he can to prove to his wife & kids that he’s a changed man. Each intro included conflict and hope and potential for disaster.

So, it was very promising!

Did it succeed? Well, except for host Howie Mandel’s insistence that everyone had a “perfect Christmas”, while in the same sentence he listed what hadn’t been perfect… the show worked. There were some scenes that worked so well- that made me squirm in my seat, made me laugh, made me teary. So, yeah, it worked. If you get a chance, try to catch a rerun (or let your Tivo find it for you.)

Before that I caught the end of A Charlie Brown Christmas on ABC. Ugh. It was on from 8-9, and I thought maybe they did some kind of thing at the beginning to stretch it into an hour, so I’d catch the end, the best part anyway. Instead I was assaulted with some new sketches they threw together based on old strips, in that time honored way Peanuts has always done. But it was… not good. The worst was the actress who voiced Sally- my ears!!! And the animation was too slick. Luckily I have the original on tape.

In fact, I have most of the classic holiday shows on tape, some from over 20 years ago (yes, they still play.) The quality of some shows is poor, but since I taped them off the TV, the commercials alone make them worth watching. Atari and Teddy Ruxpin, anyone?

Say you’re getting a cellphone for your son for his birthday. Say you planned to add a line to your existing account, and let him use one of your older, but perfectly good and not outdated, phones, because, well, he’s 14 and fourteen year olds do all kinds of damage to cellphones.

And say while you’re on the phone setting up the new line, they offer you a free phone. You can have this one , worth about $200. It happens to be the phone you really want. For yourself.

Or maybe you can have this one , worth about $130. It happens to be the phone you already have, a perfectly good phone for a fourteen year old boy.

Do you get this one
and give the kid the one that you already have, knowing that he’s going to absolutely freak that you even got him a phone because he’s convinced he’s not getting one, and he really doesn’t care what kind of phone it is, as long as it works?

As mentioned in my previous post, today I followed through on my threat to clean the basement.

Did Tim thank me and tell me what a great mommy I am for doing the chore I’ve been trying to get him to do all month?

No.

He just gave me this.
(click to biggie)

For the record I did not vacuum. My favorite rule is #11.

Everybody’s sick. Pat’s got a sinus thing. Nick had a sour icky stomach this morning. Tim seems to be ok but his tummy hurt earlier, too. And me- I woke up with a sore throat, which hasn’t gotten better.

But it didn’t stop me from finally doing what I’d been threatening for a month now. The basement playroom has been literally (and I do use the word properly here) covered in Legos and assorted other toys. It was impossible to walk across the room without stepping on something. Now, I don’t go down there often, so it can get pretty messy, but it’s never been this bad. I’ve been sending Tim (the culprit) down there to clean it but he’s been doing… it… so… slowly…

So today I grabbed a broom and a dustpan and filled two trash bags. Believe me, he won’t miss the Legos I tossed. Add to that plain ol’ trash, and some broken toys and games. And yes, even some old toys that aren’t broken but don’t get touched. Yeah, I know, what a waste. I used to save that stuff, I had years of stuff saved up. Some I sold at our garage sale last spring. I tried to donate the rest- but Salvation Army won’t take toys for some reason. So unless you know someone who wants our old dirty toys- they’re getting trashed. I’ll just add them to the pile.

It made me feel better.

Sometimes I feel like life is just happening around me and all I can do is try to keep up. It’s definitely been that way for the last week and a half. And the emotions have been running high, too.

But things are getting back to normal. Pat’s taken Andy back to school, the other two go back to school tomorrow. It’s been nice having all three boys around again- even though it’s been much louder and crazier. Andy the Antagonist. But having him home made me realize how much I miss him being around. And despite any complaining I may do… well, things happen we wish wouldn’t, but they’re relatively little things. When I see the medical, psychological, financial, emotional… stuff… that others have to deal with on a daily basis- I’m just amazed at how lucky we are. My kids are bright, funny, happy. I look at them and it validates the choices Pat and I have made regarding how we live our lives, how we raise our children. It’s working.

Please oh please don’t let me be eating those words when Tim hits adolescence!