Rock-a-Bye Sweet Baby Jesus

Dang! I was all set to come on here and share a couple nuggets from the homefront, but then I discovered that my profile pic (Michaelangelo's David, slightly more discreet) had been hijacked by Photobucket! Instead of the pic, there was a lovely note saying I hadn't signed on to Photobucket in 90 days and they had removed my image. Granted, I hadn't actually been on Photobucket in more than 730 days, but still...

Well, I signed on, ignored some ads, and my pic has reappeared. Guess I'll be doing that every 90 days or so. Hmph.

So, where was I?

Traveled home to NJ on Tuesday to spend the holidays with my mother and great aunt. Coming 'home' here is a little strange since it's not where I actually grew up. I had hoped to see some high school friends while I was up here, but it became too much of a production to pull that off. I'm seeing another aunt and cousins for the first time in ages and also my bff who I missed last Christmas, so that's good...

My elderly Irish Catholic great aunt lives with my mother and while she has gotten much more subdued in her old age, she's still mighty entertaining at times. Yesterday she provided us with two new Christmas traditions...

Seems she wrapped her hearing aids up in some facial tissue and placed them on the bathroom vanity before taking her shower -- and then apparently tossed the tissues into the bathroom trash when she was done. Then she emptied the bathroom trash into the kitchen trash bag -- which unfortunately had just become the dumping ground for the turkey packaging and the 10 paper towels my mother used to sop up the turkey juice that had fallen on the floor.

My aunt went through each and every piece of trash in that bag twice yesterday looking for her hearing aids. Yes, I offered help, but she declined. Mom finally got in there on the second pass. My favorite part was overhearing this exchange from the other room:

Aunt Jean: "I found one!"
Mom: "Are you sure that's a hearing aid and not a giblet??"

Aunt Jean did in fact find one in the trash (and popped that bad boy right back in her ear) and then strangely discovered the other one in her bedroom, near the cat toys. I didn't have the heart to ask how that had happened....

Not too long after, I was in the living room and the nativity caught my eye. I remembered that we had lost baby Jesus quite some time ago and wondered if a substitute had been obtained. Sure enough, something was wrapped up in swaddling facial tissue -- a Werther's Original!

Yes, my aunt substituted a butterscotch candy for the Son of God. My friend Colleen remarked on Facebook, "Oh sweet, sweet delicious baby Jesus."

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas (if you're so inclined)!

Typing to Warm My Hands

Well hello there! How the heck are you? Sorry I've been away for so long. I kind of fell off the blog planet there for a little bit. For those of you who aren't my facebook friends and haven't seen my status updates, they've gone something like this:

I don't have heat.
I have heat.
I lost my heat.
I'm freezing.
Heat's back.
Oh, now it's gone again.

Outside of that, I don't know what I've been up to quite frankly. Well, I have an idea, but nothing I can or will go into. Just know that I lost my way a little bit. I also did some growing, but not quickly enough, I guess. So yours truly has some work to do on herself. I'm tired and scared, but I surrender to the universe. Cognitive therapy and lots of running, here I come. :)

I hope you're all prepared for Christmas. I haven't done a lick of shopping and had planned on going out this weekend, but lost heat once again. My money is currently being thrown at service techs who can't help me. The last hope is coming sometime tomorrow. In the meantime, I haven't been able to leave the dog in the ice cold house, so no shopping for me this weekend. What a strange trip it's been of late.

I've missed some parties and events due to various things lately but hope to get back out there when I return from NJ. Going up on Tuesday to spend the holidays with Mom and guess my new homework for myself will coincide with the New Year.

Well, this is just a rambly blog, isn't it??

Just wanted to check in. Hope you're all happy and healthy and well, and perhaps we'll speak more frequently in the coming days and weeks...

Love Yourself

What a difference a day makes!

Last time I checked, it was November 30th and I had gone two solid months posting a blog every day. And then...

Well my blogging bottom fell out!!

Coincidentally, (ironically, Alanis?) I got my internet access checked and repaired on Tuesday, December 1, and haven't been back.

Sorry about that...

I was a little busy last week and away from home most nights and I felt that my more-than-occasional "phone blogs" of October and November were pretty lacking. So I decided that unless I could flesh something out at my computer, I wouldn't write.

Well that was a huge mistake. At least I didn't make it, "Unless I can flesh something GOOD out at my computer, I won't write." Might as well shut the darn thing down...

I've had a rough couple days and only today discovered that they miiiiight be coinciding with my menstrual cycle. (Listen, I told you the Crimson Tide blog wouldn't be about it, I never said I wouldn't mention it again). I've spent the last two days wondering if I just checked out on some basic socialization lessons in nursery school and kindergarten. And that of course, led me to Robert Fulghum's All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten:

"All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sand pile at school.

These are the things I learned:

Share everything.

Play fair.

Don't hit people.

Put things back where you found them.

Clean up your own mess.

Don't take things that aren't yours.

Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.

Wash your hands before you eat.

Flush.

Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.

Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.

Take a nap every afternoon.

When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.
Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: the roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.

Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we.

And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.

Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.

Think what a better world it would be if we all - the whole world - had cookies and milk at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had as a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess.

And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out in the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together."

While I love this and think there's great wisdom and whimsy in it, I have to say that I guess I didn't miss out. The lessons I didn't learn weren't covered in kindergarten. Not sure when or how I was supposed to pick them up. So I'll have to take a deep breath and try -- once again -- to teach them to myself. I'm stronger on some than others, but I could use a little reminder on all:

Trust in others and yourself.

Be energized by the unknown, not rattled.

Embrace change.

Be a liquid, not a solid.

No good can come from insecurity.

Jealousy is insidious.

You have value and worth.

Don't live expecting the other shoe to drop.

Listen to your instincts.

Love yourself.



Goodnight all, maybe I'll see you tomorrow, maybe I won't...but regardless,

To be continued..........