May your hearts be light

"May the spirit of Christmas bring you peace,
The gladness of Christmas give you hope,
The warmth of Christmas grant you love."~Author Unknown


I went out to do a little last minute shopping today (it's the way I do Christmas). There were two incidents that threatened my holiday spirit: 1.) I held open the door for a young man who was pushing his child in a stroller and he walked by me and didn't say THANK YOU, so I shouted after him, "YOU'RE WELCOME!!!" I mean, give me a break. I was busy and could have let the door slam shut but I wanted to be kind and he couldn't even say thank you. Sometimes I can't stand people!!! and 2.) I was driving down the road and an accident had occurred and I was trying to shift into the left lane (I had my blinkers on) because the right lane was blocked and I counted 6 cars go by before anyone would allow me to merge in (everyone else pretended I was invisible!!). So much for good will among men. At that point I decided that I would head home and have my husband take me out to lunch to cheer me up but when I arrived home, he was gone--to get a haircut and buy a few presents, so I quickly ate one of those Jello pudding cups and headed back out to shop. I had better luck later in the afternoon. No more unpleasant encounters. My Christmas spirit is back intact.

I am currently trying to muster up the enthusiasm to wrap presents. Ugh. I find it such a waste of time but I know it has to be done. I also have not baked even one Christmas cookie this year (for us anyway--I did bake some a week ago for some pre-school kids). I'm not going to stress about it, though, because we have plenty to eat and that's the main thing.

I have everyone home again and it fills me with happiness. The house is alive with music, laughter and occasional bickering and I'm loving it all.

I'm going to be busy being busy the next couple of days but I wanted to wish everyone a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS.

So hum hallelujah, just off the key of reason

I had a happy evening out shopping with my daughter. We ran some errands at Walmart, Target, Old Navy and we also went to Blockbuster. I've been renting season one of Mad Men but have only been able to get the first disc so far because the other three continue to be out. I'm kind of bummed because they were all there last week and I figured I'd be able to get them any time but I've checked back three times now and they're always out! I would have bought the set somewhere if I had known it was going to be so hard to get. I'm anxious to get through season one because I can see season two on demand and catch up as soon as I'm finished with the first one. I guess I have to be patient at this point.

It was a beautiful day here today. I've got all the windows open and I have a fan blowing the cool air in and it feels so good. The other night I was at the airport waiting for my husband to get home from a flight that was delayed a number of times due to the weather and I noticed how I was about the only one sitting there in shorts and a t-shirt...how when people were coming off their planes, most of them had coats on and scarves and I had to remind myself that it's October now and probably pretty chilly in a lot of places even though most days are still very warm here. I don't like the cold much anymore now that I live in the south. I would just rather be hot than cold for some reason. I'm not sure why.

I've been writing here for over a year now and I'm happy I've been able to be consistent and not run away like I sometimes feel like doing. When I feel like things are getting too familiar, my first thought is to run away and start over somewhere else. It's hard for me to explain because it's so contradictory, but while I love getting to know others through reading their blogs, I don't really want other people to feel they know me because I don't think that my blog is a good representation of who I am. Everything that I write here is true, but it's just little bits of me and I know that I do not do a good job of showing the lighter side of me. When I write things that seem like downers, the following day I am tempted to delete my blog because I don't want the people that read here to think I'm a negative person. I don't even know why I care, but I do. It feels important to me that people know I am more than the words that I write here.

I have a sporting event to attend tomorrow and let me just say that I am going into this event already feeling like I will not be able to control myself amongst the parents. Earlier in the week the other team made a big to-do over NEEDING to play a match early. I swear I fielded over 10 phone calls trying to appease these people and when we finally agreed to a date and time (their choosing) about an hour before the girls were to play they called to say one of their girls was sick and that they couldn't play after all! OMG. Seriously, WTF, WTF, WTF? One of my biggest pet peeves is people who ask you to do a favor for them and then end up putting you out further with crap like this. This team has big time entitlement issues and HELLO, it's time someone tells them that our time is as important as theirs and I think I'm just the one to do it. I've said before that I'm nice until I get pushed too far, and then the nice me EXITS the building and the bitch takes over.

Ok...I'm off to do some reading.

Happy Saturday.

Reality

I put my phone on silent because I don't want to talk to anyone I'm related to for a while. My youngest has been out of school for exactly three hours and the shopping has begun. She just called and told me that since I broke her sunglasses (which I did, I am horrible with sunglasses for some reason...I break them, I lose them etc.), that she had found a new pair she wanted me to buy her and that they were "a little expensive." I asked what she meant by that and she answered, "$150." I'm trying not to let other people determine my moods so I took a deep breath to get my blood pressure back down and told her that no way was I buying her sunglasses for $150. She then said, "but they're marked down from $400!" OMG. I told her the answer was still no. She then whined, "well what am I going to wearrrrrrrr????" OMG. See, this is what I hate about summer vacation. She's all angry that I'm not caving in but I don't care. She can get herself a job and buy them herself and then we'll see how fast she's willing to blow money on things that are not necessary.

I've got a new pet peeve. Water bottles and gatorade bottles that have one maybe two gulps taken out of them left all over the house. I went into my daughter's room this morning and she had two water bottles side by side, each with just a few sips taken out of them. Then on her desk there was a gatorade bottle half full. I don't get it. Why take another water when you haven't finished the first one? So I've taken to writing their names on the tops of the bottles and putting them back in the refrigerator with a note not to open anything new until the other bottles are finished up. The inside of my refrigerator is turning into a memo board.

And while we're on the subject of pet peeves, I'll add this one to my list: certain people who "clean their rooms" by shifting piles of shit (clothes) from their room onto the kitchen table with a little note to "Please donate the clothes to a battered women's shelter, thanks, love T." She leaves a little postcard from the shelter with the number on it on top of the clothes. Um. WTF? Perhaps she's too busy leaving half full bottles of water and gatorade all over the house to make the call herself.

It's the little things like this that threaten to send me over the edge.

My husband cleaned the grill for me so I'm back to grilling again. For some reason the grill won't fire up when you push the ignite button so I'm back to throwing matches into the gas and hoping for the best. Each time I go out there with a plate of meat or chicken, I'm convinced I'll go up in flames. Sadly, it's the most exciting part of the day for me.