I've been too busy stuffing my face to journal for the past few days
I didn't have quite enough PTO left to take the entire week between Christmas and New Year's off, so I'm working just today, then I'm off tomorrow and Monday. Work is always very dead for me at the end of the year, because most of what I do is generate and supply documents about our products (Kosher certificates, organic compliances, allergen labeling, etc.) to our customers. And past, say, Thanksgiving, they usually decide to put off their requests until January, probably because they'd rather have the current year as the creation date instead of the previous one.
Tomorrow afternoon while Mom is at PT Jamie wants to have a "pre-talk talk" with Rian and me--David wants nothing to do with it, because he just wants to chuck the 'rents in a nursing home and be done with them. The irony of that being is that would effectively make him homeless; I mean they'd have to sell the house, and he says he can't work any more, between his diabetes and the nerve damage in his ankle.
And then I guess we'll talk to Mom and Phil tomorrow night? Unsure, but I plan to speak as little as possible. Like I've said, with David and me, and even Rian to some extent, everything turns into an argument. That's by design, I'm sure; Mom knows if she disputes and nitpicks we'll spend all our time arguing over the details--"I wasn't in the hospital for a week, it was only 5 days!", etc.--and not get around to actually discussing whether or not she should be in charge of her financial and healthcare decisions.
Christmas went off more or less without a hitch. I woke up around 7:30 but that seemed a little early, so I read for about an hour and headed downstairs to start breakfast.
Christmas bagels were a success, although only me, Rian, David, and the 'rents wanted the works, I don't know why. Lori, Jeremy, and Jamie only wanted cream cheese, and Greg doesn't eat breakfast at all. Like many Gen Xers whose emotions don't work according to the manual, food is my love language (and I am aware that is not unique to my generation, thanks), and it's extremely frustrating to have it rejected. THIS SMOKED SALMON IS AN EXPRESSION OF MY LOVE, WHY WON'T YOU ACCEPT IT. But that's my weird thing and I try not to let other people see it.
Apparently Jeremy has a tradition in his family of wearing silly headgear on Christmas Day, and he came prepared with the Louisiana version of reindeer antlers:
Yes, those are crawfish claws. Honestly, I kind of forgot I had them on most of the time, since they didn't pinch.
I got the cookie dough scoops I wanted, and the watercolor notebooks from Jamie. Lori and Jeremy gave me a couple of the paint-by-number sets from Elle Crée. I've been going a little too hard on the watercolors for the past couple of months and those will help reset my brain. Rian gave me an Amazon gift card, and I used it to buy the filter set and carry case for my Polaroid Go, and some more film. I also got a silicone ring mold, but it's not arriving until New Year's Eve day, and the cheese ring I wanted to make for New Year's Eve has to set in the fridge overnight. Nuts. Maybe I'll just use a bundt pan. If it breaks in half coming out, it's just shredded cheese held together with mayo, basically. I can probably smush it back together?
I made my ambrosia salad before getting in the shower, while Rian "took notes". I found this very funny as ambrosia salad is just dumping stuff (cans of fruit, marshmallows, Cool Whip, etc.) in a bowl and stirring. All of the siblings developed certain personality quirks as a result of our childhoods, and Rian's is to be so meticulous about anything with multiple steps that he's unable to adapt or improvise. He once had a meltdown over making hot chocolate because he couldn't find the exact right measuring spoon mentioned on the directions printed on the box of cocoa powder. Maybe it's not such a great idea to put him in charge of the 'rents' finances.
For the snack board I had brie, stilton with mango and ginger, and a processed cheddar ball covered in slivered almonds. Guess which cheese disappeared first? I put some honey and 4 berry jam with the cheese, and crackers of course; also the Oreo truffles, glazed pecans, and the rest of the smoked salmon.
We had dinner around 4:30, and kept football games on all day, but the TV on mute, and I played Christmas music through my Divoom speaker. Unobnoxious stuff for the most part, I started with the Vince Guaraldi score for A Charlie Brown Christmas and then let the algorithm take over.
Day after Christmas I made ham and eggs for the 'rents but just had coffee and one of Jamie's potato rolls for breakfast. Rian and I were meeting Jamie and Greg, Lori and Jeremy, and a couple of Jamie's friends at Shuck's for lunch (one of them is from Lafayette so they're always there at Christmas). I wanted to try the shrimp patty burger, which I didn't used to like, but David's had it the last couple of times we got food from Shuck's and says it's improved a lot. He's right, it has a much better texture and less bread filler than it used to. I think the last time I tried it was before the current owner overhauled the menu.
Jamie wanted to go to Aromatic Infusions because she likes their day/night CBD gummies, and I needed more neuropathy balm for my legs. I also got a soap, another bag of low-dose THC gummies, and they had these weird eye masks I'd never seen before. They have a smaller version of those chemical heating disks that people put in their mittens in really cold climates. I get inflammation around my eyes when I'm stressed and/or not sleeping adequately, and I've had plenty of both recently so it's pretty bad. So I got a couple. They're single use--the heating element only works for about 30 minutes--and were only $1.99.
In the evening we just hung out, had leftovers for supper and Greg made old fashioneds. When I was about ready to fall asleep I put on some music and tried one of the eye masks. Once I got over how weird it felt--I've put cold packs on my eyes plenty of time, but never anything heated--it felt very nice. And the inflammation was almost gone in the morning, although at least part of that was getting a decent night's sleep. I'd had a gummy, so I just sipped on a single old fashioned all evening (adding lots of alcohol on top of cannabis is not a great idea, and frankly is also just a waste of cannabis because the booze will quickly overwhelm it); turns out that is a fantastically relaxing combo.
Yesterday Lori and Jeremy stopped by on their way back to NOLA and we made plans for Krewe of Muses. Mardi Gras is early next year, February 13th, so Muses is like not even 6 weeks away. In the afternoon I went to Five Below and spent the $50 gift card I got from work. Man, that place was busted. It's usually very neat, but I guess people just went through it like a hurricane the last few days before Christmas and they're still recovering. A bunch of the shelves were bare and what merchandise there was was a mess, stuff on the floor, stuff in piles, stuff in the wrong place. Still, I managed to find $50 of stationery and pet stuff and these cute Pusheen earbuds:
It is my experience that expensive earbuds break as often, if not more so, as cheap ones, so I only buy cheap ones. I mostly only use them to listen to podcasts and audiobooks, so sound quality isn't a huge concern.
I also got a lick mat for Penny, and a dog toy that looks like a piece of sushi that she went apeshit over. She was making so much noise squeaking it that Mom hid it under her blanket while they were watching the Kennedy Center Honors, and Penny spent the next couple of hours alternately pawing at the blanket and sulking.
We got pizza for dinner, and since I have no interest in watching boomer artists propped up to watch medleys of their greatest hits performed as if they've already died, I plugged my adorable new earbuds into my tablet and watched the final episodes of Murder in Boston and Slow Horses and worked on my cross stitch.
Tomorrow afternoon while Mom is at PT Jamie wants to have a "pre-talk talk" with Rian and me--David wants nothing to do with it, because he just wants to chuck the 'rents in a nursing home and be done with them. The irony of that being is that would effectively make him homeless; I mean they'd have to sell the house, and he says he can't work any more, between his diabetes and the nerve damage in his ankle.
And then I guess we'll talk to Mom and Phil tomorrow night? Unsure, but I plan to speak as little as possible. Like I've said, with David and me, and even Rian to some extent, everything turns into an argument. That's by design, I'm sure; Mom knows if she disputes and nitpicks we'll spend all our time arguing over the details--"I wasn't in the hospital for a week, it was only 5 days!", etc.--and not get around to actually discussing whether or not she should be in charge of her financial and healthcare decisions.
Christmas went off more or less without a hitch. I woke up around 7:30 but that seemed a little early, so I read for about an hour and headed downstairs to start breakfast.
Christmas bagels were a success, although only me, Rian, David, and the 'rents wanted the works, I don't know why. Lori, Jeremy, and Jamie only wanted cream cheese, and Greg doesn't eat breakfast at all. Like many Gen Xers whose emotions don't work according to the manual, food is my love language (and I am aware that is not unique to my generation, thanks), and it's extremely frustrating to have it rejected. THIS SMOKED SALMON IS AN EXPRESSION OF MY LOVE, WHY WON'T YOU ACCEPT IT. But that's my weird thing and I try not to let other people see it.
Apparently Jeremy has a tradition in his family of wearing silly headgear on Christmas Day, and he came prepared with the Louisiana version of reindeer antlers:
Yes, those are crawfish claws. Honestly, I kind of forgot I had them on most of the time, since they didn't pinch.
I got the cookie dough scoops I wanted, and the watercolor notebooks from Jamie. Lori and Jeremy gave me a couple of the paint-by-number sets from Elle Crée. I've been going a little too hard on the watercolors for the past couple of months and those will help reset my brain. Rian gave me an Amazon gift card, and I used it to buy the filter set and carry case for my Polaroid Go, and some more film. I also got a silicone ring mold, but it's not arriving until New Year's Eve day, and the cheese ring I wanted to make for New Year's Eve has to set in the fridge overnight. Nuts. Maybe I'll just use a bundt pan. If it breaks in half coming out, it's just shredded cheese held together with mayo, basically. I can probably smush it back together?
I made my ambrosia salad before getting in the shower, while Rian "took notes". I found this very funny as ambrosia salad is just dumping stuff (cans of fruit, marshmallows, Cool Whip, etc.) in a bowl and stirring. All of the siblings developed certain personality quirks as a result of our childhoods, and Rian's is to be so meticulous about anything with multiple steps that he's unable to adapt or improvise. He once had a meltdown over making hot chocolate because he couldn't find the exact right measuring spoon mentioned on the directions printed on the box of cocoa powder. Maybe it's not such a great idea to put him in charge of the 'rents' finances.
For the snack board I had brie, stilton with mango and ginger, and a processed cheddar ball covered in slivered almonds. Guess which cheese disappeared first? I put some honey and 4 berry jam with the cheese, and crackers of course; also the Oreo truffles, glazed pecans, and the rest of the smoked salmon.
We had dinner around 4:30, and kept football games on all day, but the TV on mute, and I played Christmas music through my Divoom speaker. Unobnoxious stuff for the most part, I started with the Vince Guaraldi score for A Charlie Brown Christmas and then let the algorithm take over.
Day after Christmas I made ham and eggs for the 'rents but just had coffee and one of Jamie's potato rolls for breakfast. Rian and I were meeting Jamie and Greg, Lori and Jeremy, and a couple of Jamie's friends at Shuck's for lunch (one of them is from Lafayette so they're always there at Christmas). I wanted to try the shrimp patty burger, which I didn't used to like, but David's had it the last couple of times we got food from Shuck's and says it's improved a lot. He's right, it has a much better texture and less bread filler than it used to. I think the last time I tried it was before the current owner overhauled the menu.
Jamie wanted to go to Aromatic Infusions because she likes their day/night CBD gummies, and I needed more neuropathy balm for my legs. I also got a soap, another bag of low-dose THC gummies, and they had these weird eye masks I'd never seen before. They have a smaller version of those chemical heating disks that people put in their mittens in really cold climates. I get inflammation around my eyes when I'm stressed and/or not sleeping adequately, and I've had plenty of both recently so it's pretty bad. So I got a couple. They're single use--the heating element only works for about 30 minutes--and were only $1.99.
In the evening we just hung out, had leftovers for supper and Greg made old fashioneds. When I was about ready to fall asleep I put on some music and tried one of the eye masks. Once I got over how weird it felt--I've put cold packs on my eyes plenty of time, but never anything heated--it felt very nice. And the inflammation was almost gone in the morning, although at least part of that was getting a decent night's sleep. I'd had a gummy, so I just sipped on a single old fashioned all evening (adding lots of alcohol on top of cannabis is not a great idea, and frankly is also just a waste of cannabis because the booze will quickly overwhelm it); turns out that is a fantastically relaxing combo.
Yesterday Lori and Jeremy stopped by on their way back to NOLA and we made plans for Krewe of Muses. Mardi Gras is early next year, February 13th, so Muses is like not even 6 weeks away. In the afternoon I went to Five Below and spent the $50 gift card I got from work. Man, that place was busted. It's usually very neat, but I guess people just went through it like a hurricane the last few days before Christmas and they're still recovering. A bunch of the shelves were bare and what merchandise there was was a mess, stuff on the floor, stuff in piles, stuff in the wrong place. Still, I managed to find $50 of stationery and pet stuff and these cute Pusheen earbuds:
It is my experience that expensive earbuds break as often, if not more so, as cheap ones, so I only buy cheap ones. I mostly only use them to listen to podcasts and audiobooks, so sound quality isn't a huge concern.
I also got a lick mat for Penny, and a dog toy that looks like a piece of sushi that she went apeshit over. She was making so much noise squeaking it that Mom hid it under her blanket while they were watching the Kennedy Center Honors, and Penny spent the next couple of hours alternately pawing at the blanket and sulking.
We got pizza for dinner, and since I have no interest in watching boomer artists propped up to watch medleys of their greatest hits performed as if they've already died, I plugged my adorable new earbuds into my tablet and watched the final episodes of Murder in Boston and Slow Horses and worked on my cross stitch.