Oh extra long holiday weekend, can I even remember you?
Of course I can! Mostly!
I suppose calling it an "extra long" weekend implies "longer than anticipated," but mostly it wasn't. On Wednesday I was in the middle of something when I happened to look at my watch and notice it was just after 4 p.m. "Ah well," I said to myself, returning to work, "no early dismissal today." Then a minute later, when the clock on my computer (sometimes I look at my watch, sometimes the computer, what can I say?!) read 4:03 p.m., my boss came over the intercom to tell us the office was closing at 4:00. ...Thanks? Now plenty of people could just close up shop and go home, but I have end-of-day (and end-of-week) things I need to do, so I couldn't. I started on them right away, though, and managed to get finished up by 4:30.
It was raining/wet snowing most of the afternoon, including the drive home, but it wasn't cold enough to stick to anything. I still avoided main roads because: wet weather + day before Thanksgiving. I was still home before 5 p.m., ahh.
That night, I didn't do anything in particular. Clearly I wrote a blog post at some point or other. Also I'm pretty sure I went to bed early. I didn't have to bake or prepare anything, because we had a very minimal Thanksgiving planned.
Every other year, my brother's family goes down to Florida to spend Thanksgiving at my sister-in-law's mother's condo down there. Two years ago, the first time they were away since both my father and my SiL's father had passed away (2009 and 2010), I admit to having had some trepidation. Prior to 2009, when my brother's half of the family was away, my mother and father and I would still do a tiny turkey dinner together for Thanksgiving. 2011 was the first year since Dad had passed away that the whole family wasn't in town, so Mom and I decided to go to a restaurant. I felt strange about this somehow, although it makes perfect sense. Small families, families with mixed dietary needs/tastes, people who just plain don't want to cook all day (and then some): it's a good option! Anyway, I loved it in 2011 and I loved it this year. I do like to cook but it stresses Mom out. Cooking a big meal for two of us just didn't seem worth it, and the food at Victoria Gastro Pub is better than what I'd put together at any rate! Mom came to my place around 12:30ish, came in and said hi to the kitties and made a quick pit stop, then we turned around and went to the restaurant for our 1:15 reservations. It was busy but not very crowded, and we were seated right away. Everyone was friendly and happy, and I made a point to personally thank every person who dealt with us (waitstaff, people who bused the table, host/esses, etc.) for working on Thanksgiving. Again, I know that restaurants are providing an actual very useful service on Thanksgiving, and that they are open shorter hours so staff can still spend time with family, but I appreciate people working on Thanksgiving regardless. It is only necessary for a few jobs, and I've worked some of those jobs before, and it can be tough. (Don't get me started on the recent trend of retail stores opening on Thanksgiving itself - bleah.)
Mom and I had a lovely meal and a nice talk and didn't rush through it, and we were done by about 3:00. I drove us back to my place and then she drove home. As for me, I'd had a full day. I'd gotten up in the morning and taken a nice long walk (didn't write about that earlier, heh), then had the big meal of the day. It was 3:30 p.m. and I had nothing to do. I thought about starting to do party prep but instead I just made myself relax. I did sit down to write a blog post that got a bit long and rambling. I didn't really eat dinner, just noshed a bit. And - wonder of wonders - this year the old MST3K "Turkey Day" tradition continued online! There was a website set up where six episodes would stream, and Joel Hodgson introduced them all. It. Was. Fantastic. In college, I worked a security job that was 24/7/365, and I often volunteered to work on Thanksgiving. For one thing, my family was tiny and it was pretty easy just to schedule our dinner around whenever I was working. For another, my parents didn't have cable, so if I wanted to watch MST3K, I had to do it at work or at a friend's house. So on Thursday, after I wrote and while I snacked and ambled around and eventually just lay on the couch, I watched the end of "Cave Dwellers" and all of "Final Sacrifice" and part of "Mitchell" and it was FANTASTIC. Then I went the heck to bed.
Another day of not getting up to an alarm! I got so much sleep this weekend, I nearly wept with happiness. I got up on Friday and took another long walk. Then I got home, ate breakfast, showered, and headed out. Lots of stuff to do! I went to Wegman's for some holiday greenery for Dad's grave. (Friday would have been his birthday, and I traditionally visit around this time every year.) Then I drove to Bowie with those, then had a big lunch, then drove back to Columbia and did all the shopping for the next day's Christmas party. Eventually I got home and put stuff away then got around to baking chocolate chip cookies, a double batch. When all that was done, I wrote a blog post and went the heck to bed.
I read a lot of Doctor Sleep this weekend, Stephen King's sequel to The Shining. So far, I love it. I'm not sure it was needed, and the tone shift between the two is enormous. There are things I'm noticing as King ages - dialects sound age-inappropriate because when he writes for a 40-year-old in 2013, it shouldn't sound quite like a 40-year-old sounded in 1978. I'm more or less the same age as Dan Torrance, the little boy from the Overlook Hotel who grows up to be the protagonist of this book, so it's interesting watching the old King tropes hooked onto a new generation. But his voice and his perspective are still very lovely.
Saturday: still didn't have to get up at a specific time! So nice! And I didn't even take a walk. I did meet up with Lars at 11 a.m. to go get a Christmas tree. A few years ago I decided to stop toughing it out and admit I need help getting the damn tree. I can get one, and even carry it from my car up to my apartment by myself...but putting it in the stand is a 2-person job. So he helped, and the tree got set up, and it was awesome. Then he went off to meet Pam and Astrid coming home from her parents' and I stayed in to clean! And tidy. I got the place well-prepared for the party, then started some cooking tasks. At last, with the ham in a low-temp oven for two hours, I got a shower. And then I wrote the world's shortest blog post to cover the last day of the challenge, and then it was tree-trimming time! Oh, I put the lights on before the party started too. Smart idea! Lots of people came and there was tons of food and much merriment, plus a trimmed tree, and of course the traditional singing of "(Let's Have) A Patrick Swayze Christmas" and "Merry Christmas, If That's Okay." Jack and Kim were the last to leave a bit after midnight, then I cleaned up and went to bed way too late, plus I got so chilled I had to draw a hot bath at like 2 a.m. to warm up enough to go to sleep. Dang.
Bed after 2 a.m. meant nowhere near enough sleep Sunday night, alas. I'd gotten so much the other days! I got up around 8:45 which was NOT enough time to get to church at 10 (only one service this weekend), but I was only like 10 minutes late. Service was lovely, then I stayed afterward for the orientation meeting for our week staffing the Warm Welcome Shelter at our interfaith center (next week). From there I went down to Laurel for brunch with a bunch of folks I'd just seen the night before, hilariously. Then we all went back to Telf and Gene's for Telf's tree-trimming party. Hurrah! That's like three Christmas trees trimmed this weekend! I gave up by about 5 p.m. because I was just too tired. I went home and had a light snack (it was a big brunch!) and mainly sat around watching TV and chilling with the cats, who were real troopers with all the party people being around on Saturday. Ah yes, this is Naomi's first Christmas with me, and she is...awfully interested in the tree. Not in the sense that there's any danger it will come down, she's not trying to climb it. But she does like batting at the lower limbs and ornaments, and she's fond of trying to burrow underneath the tree skirt. I can see in a week or two the bottom two feet of my tree will be totally nude, as I migrate the lights and ornaments out of her way.
Anyway then a bath then bed. I did two loads of laundry yesterday too. The problem with reading a book I'm really into before bed is, my brain doesn't get sleepy enough. It wants to keep reading! I got maybe 7 hours' last night and I'm dragging today. And taking way too much time to post here, heh.
I suppose calling it an "extra long" weekend implies "longer than anticipated," but mostly it wasn't. On Wednesday I was in the middle of something when I happened to look at my watch and notice it was just after 4 p.m. "Ah well," I said to myself, returning to work, "no early dismissal today." Then a minute later, when the clock on my computer (sometimes I look at my watch, sometimes the computer, what can I say?!) read 4:03 p.m., my boss came over the intercom to tell us the office was closing at 4:00. ...Thanks? Now plenty of people could just close up shop and go home, but I have end-of-day (and end-of-week) things I need to do, so I couldn't. I started on them right away, though, and managed to get finished up by 4:30.
It was raining/wet snowing most of the afternoon, including the drive home, but it wasn't cold enough to stick to anything. I still avoided main roads because: wet weather + day before Thanksgiving. I was still home before 5 p.m., ahh.
That night, I didn't do anything in particular. Clearly I wrote a blog post at some point or other. Also I'm pretty sure I went to bed early. I didn't have to bake or prepare anything, because we had a very minimal Thanksgiving planned.
Every other year, my brother's family goes down to Florida to spend Thanksgiving at my sister-in-law's mother's condo down there. Two years ago, the first time they were away since both my father and my SiL's father had passed away (2009 and 2010), I admit to having had some trepidation. Prior to 2009, when my brother's half of the family was away, my mother and father and I would still do a tiny turkey dinner together for Thanksgiving. 2011 was the first year since Dad had passed away that the whole family wasn't in town, so Mom and I decided to go to a restaurant. I felt strange about this somehow, although it makes perfect sense. Small families, families with mixed dietary needs/tastes, people who just plain don't want to cook all day (and then some): it's a good option! Anyway, I loved it in 2011 and I loved it this year. I do like to cook but it stresses Mom out. Cooking a big meal for two of us just didn't seem worth it, and the food at Victoria Gastro Pub is better than what I'd put together at any rate! Mom came to my place around 12:30ish, came in and said hi to the kitties and made a quick pit stop, then we turned around and went to the restaurant for our 1:15 reservations. It was busy but not very crowded, and we were seated right away. Everyone was friendly and happy, and I made a point to personally thank every person who dealt with us (waitstaff, people who bused the table, host/esses, etc.) for working on Thanksgiving. Again, I know that restaurants are providing an actual very useful service on Thanksgiving, and that they are open shorter hours so staff can still spend time with family, but I appreciate people working on Thanksgiving regardless. It is only necessary for a few jobs, and I've worked some of those jobs before, and it can be tough. (Don't get me started on the recent trend of retail stores opening on Thanksgiving itself - bleah.)
Mom and I had a lovely meal and a nice talk and didn't rush through it, and we were done by about 3:00. I drove us back to my place and then she drove home. As for me, I'd had a full day. I'd gotten up in the morning and taken a nice long walk (didn't write about that earlier, heh), then had the big meal of the day. It was 3:30 p.m. and I had nothing to do. I thought about starting to do party prep but instead I just made myself relax. I did sit down to write a blog post that got a bit long and rambling. I didn't really eat dinner, just noshed a bit. And - wonder of wonders - this year the old MST3K "Turkey Day" tradition continued online! There was a website set up where six episodes would stream, and Joel Hodgson introduced them all. It. Was. Fantastic. In college, I worked a security job that was 24/7/365, and I often volunteered to work on Thanksgiving. For one thing, my family was tiny and it was pretty easy just to schedule our dinner around whenever I was working. For another, my parents didn't have cable, so if I wanted to watch MST3K, I had to do it at work or at a friend's house. So on Thursday, after I wrote and while I snacked and ambled around and eventually just lay on the couch, I watched the end of "Cave Dwellers" and all of "Final Sacrifice" and part of "Mitchell" and it was FANTASTIC. Then I went the heck to bed.
Another day of not getting up to an alarm! I got so much sleep this weekend, I nearly wept with happiness. I got up on Friday and took another long walk. Then I got home, ate breakfast, showered, and headed out. Lots of stuff to do! I went to Wegman's for some holiday greenery for Dad's grave. (Friday would have been his birthday, and I traditionally visit around this time every year.) Then I drove to Bowie with those, then had a big lunch, then drove back to Columbia and did all the shopping for the next day's Christmas party. Eventually I got home and put stuff away then got around to baking chocolate chip cookies, a double batch. When all that was done, I wrote a blog post and went the heck to bed.
I read a lot of Doctor Sleep this weekend, Stephen King's sequel to The Shining. So far, I love it. I'm not sure it was needed, and the tone shift between the two is enormous. There are things I'm noticing as King ages - dialects sound age-inappropriate because when he writes for a 40-year-old in 2013, it shouldn't sound quite like a 40-year-old sounded in 1978. I'm more or less the same age as Dan Torrance, the little boy from the Overlook Hotel who grows up to be the protagonist of this book, so it's interesting watching the old King tropes hooked onto a new generation. But his voice and his perspective are still very lovely.
Saturday: still didn't have to get up at a specific time! So nice! And I didn't even take a walk. I did meet up with Lars at 11 a.m. to go get a Christmas tree. A few years ago I decided to stop toughing it out and admit I need help getting the damn tree. I can get one, and even carry it from my car up to my apartment by myself...but putting it in the stand is a 2-person job. So he helped, and the tree got set up, and it was awesome. Then he went off to meet Pam and Astrid coming home from her parents' and I stayed in to clean! And tidy. I got the place well-prepared for the party, then started some cooking tasks. At last, with the ham in a low-temp oven for two hours, I got a shower. And then I wrote the world's shortest blog post to cover the last day of the challenge, and then it was tree-trimming time! Oh, I put the lights on before the party started too. Smart idea! Lots of people came and there was tons of food and much merriment, plus a trimmed tree, and of course the traditional singing of "(Let's Have) A Patrick Swayze Christmas" and "Merry Christmas, If That's Okay." Jack and Kim were the last to leave a bit after midnight, then I cleaned up and went to bed way too late, plus I got so chilled I had to draw a hot bath at like 2 a.m. to warm up enough to go to sleep. Dang.
Bed after 2 a.m. meant nowhere near enough sleep Sunday night, alas. I'd gotten so much the other days! I got up around 8:45 which was NOT enough time to get to church at 10 (only one service this weekend), but I was only like 10 minutes late. Service was lovely, then I stayed afterward for the orientation meeting for our week staffing the Warm Welcome Shelter at our interfaith center (next week). From there I went down to Laurel for brunch with a bunch of folks I'd just seen the night before, hilariously. Then we all went back to Telf and Gene's for Telf's tree-trimming party. Hurrah! That's like three Christmas trees trimmed this weekend! I gave up by about 5 p.m. because I was just too tired. I went home and had a light snack (it was a big brunch!) and mainly sat around watching TV and chilling with the cats, who were real troopers with all the party people being around on Saturday. Ah yes, this is Naomi's first Christmas with me, and she is...awfully interested in the tree. Not in the sense that there's any danger it will come down, she's not trying to climb it. But she does like batting at the lower limbs and ornaments, and she's fond of trying to burrow underneath the tree skirt. I can see in a week or two the bottom two feet of my tree will be totally nude, as I migrate the lights and ornaments out of her way.
Anyway then a bath then bed. I did two loads of laundry yesterday too. The problem with reading a book I'm really into before bed is, my brain doesn't get sleepy enough. It wants to keep reading! I got maybe 7 hours' last night and I'm dragging today. And taking way too much time to post here, heh.