Hey -

Just a short note to say I'm sorry that your year is turning out this way.  Tough to deal with, I'm sure.  With any luck you will get a few snow days in there and not have to take your personal days.

Our holiday was actually very good, despite the insanity of my brother his wife. They did not spend the holiday with us but did have dinner with my parents one night. The rest of us had a perfectly wonderful time without them.

Today is J's birthday, but JJ has his football banquet tonight, so it's not much of a celebration.  He's leaving for a trip tomorrow morning and will be gone until Thursday, when we have a FD dinner to go to.  Maybe this weekend I'll throw something together for him with the hood.

I will call you tomorrow or Wednesday if you'll be available to chat.  Glad to hear you had a good Thanksgiving and hope to hear your voice soon.

Love,
A

Surival Mode

How sad is that, Amanda? One day back to work after four days off and already I'm getting in survival mode...agreeing only to take one day at a time, looking forward to next Monday off as my personal day, and not opposed to taking  a sick day or two should snow days not materialize between now and Christmas. This year is kicking my ass like no other has, or at least in my recent memory.

Thank goodness for those aforementioned days off and a very nice Thanksgiving to rejuvenate me for now.

Glad your Thanksgiving was nice too. Looking forward to hearing more.

Love, Barb

Getting Festive

Hi, Amanda.

I've got cranberry bread in the oven and I just lit my pumpkin spice candle. Later tonight I may sample the cranberry vodka I made last night to see how it's coming along...or maybe I'll have a pumpkin pie martini instead. I did buy that cinnamon vodka, by the way, and it does make the martini just that little bit better. Now it goes to eleven...

I was supposed to go out with my friend K tonight, but decided--since I'm living in squalor and have leftovers in the fridge, and a case of wine at home, and I'm going out for lunch tomorrow--that going out tonight was probably ill-advised. Yeah, I would have had fun, but I was feeling overwhelmed and like I had way too much to do, so I cancelled. Now, while my bread bakes I'm writing, and when it's ready I'll clean up a little around here so that when I get home tomorrow night I can say aahhh, and not ugh.

I'm really looking forward to kicking off the long weekend with a grown up lunch with my friend C after our half-day, and then to four glorious days without school. Yay. I'm having Thanksgiving with my family at my cousin's, which should be fun, although we'll be missing D madly. I know I'll be tying one on, so plan on staying overnight (and bringing bagels for breakfast the next morning), and the rest of the weekend is wide open for recovering--so what the heck.

Sorry to hear about your brother's antics, but am glad you and your parents are a united front against his divisiveness. I hope you're enjoying your parents' company and ready for a relaxing Thanksgiving.

Give me a call if you feel like it. Until then Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours and BLU.

Lots of love,
Barb

Why We Drink at the Holidays

Whooosh! is right.  Already a week has passed since you wrote, and I was thinking it had only been a couple of days.

It's been kind of a weird week around here. Football is over, so our nights are very quiet. I'm not complaining about it; it's quite nice to come home after work, put on my slippers, and know that I don't have to leave the house again until tomorrow.  I can undertake baking projects without being interrupted. I can cook real dinners. I can drink wine :)

My parents are coming up for Thanksgiving and I am looking forward to that.  Unfortunately, my crazy brother and his crazy wife have decided to turn it into yet another Jerry Springer episode by declining my invitation to Thanksgiving dinner.  The first email I got was a simple "No thanks".  This, while confusing, was just fine with me, considering I really don't care what the hell they do.  But no, two days later he sent me a four-page email "explaining" his first email.  It was four pages of all the things that my parents, his girlfriend and I have done wrong, leading him to this awful place in his life.  He went on to say that he's just fine now, feeling good.  Seriously, B, it went on for four pages of self-centered, blame placing, immature drama about how they're moving because I'm not nice to them. How it's my fault they weren't invited to T's Halloween party (huh?!) and how much that hurt their feelings. And then, how they don't feel welcome in my home so they're going to blow off their entire family and not come to Thanksgiving.

What the f*** ever, bro.  I couldn't even imagine how to respond, so I didn't.  Then today, he sent an email to my parents inviting them to his house instead.  My dad was beside himself with anger and isn't going to respond either.

I'm so tired of it all, but in the end I'm just so sad.  I have no idea what goes on his messed up head and I have no control over his choices, but it makes me sad to think that he is going to alienate even his parents, at this point in their lives. I can only imagine how hard this is for them.

Anyway, it's been weighing on my mind so much over the past few days that I really need to get out of this mire and get on with my own life.  I can't get sucked into his weird drama, and I'm never going to make sense of any of it.

So, my folks, and their friends who live out on the Sound, are coming for the day.  With the crap going on with my brother, I haven't even worried about M being there too, possibly with the dumb-as-dirt new girlfriend.  Yet.


Aaaahhhh.....the holidays with family.

Gotta love it.

xoxo
A

Whhooosh!

Hey, there, A.

In case you're wondering, that's how time is flying by. WOW.

We got back to school on Monday after a week off; kids joined us on Wednesday, after seven days off. These past couple of days have been strange and exhausting to say the least--catching up on all that time off and getting them back on track isn't easy. We will have school tomorrow (they took back our Veteran's Day holiday), but then it's the weekend. I'm hoping next week will feel more normal, but then we're onto Thanksgiving. Crazy how fast this year is going by.

C and I went out for a drink and some wings after work yesterday (we congratulated ourselves for teaching a whole day--haha!) and she broke down crying...feeling some of the same frustrations I am feeling, or have felt in the past. This teaching thing gets tougher and tougher as we go along, and deciding to leave and reinvent yourself is even more daunting a task than teaching, I'm afraid. Every once in a while the reality of it comes to a head, like for me after the incident with my Napolean principal, and for C after just a bunch of crap all at once. I'm still focused on changing the script in my head, and being open to the possibility of other possibilities; now I'm trying now to get C there, too.

Hope all is well with you this week. It was nice catching up with you on Sunday. Glad to hear JJ's team won!

Love,
Barb

Same Old Same Old

Dear B,

It was great to hear your voice the other day and I'm sorry I took up most of the call with my raving about Chicago.  I have to tell you, though, that I absolutely fell in love. I can't believe I've never been there.  I feel like I could go a couple of times a year and still be just as enamored.  Of course, I haven't been to Boston in forever so I'd probably feel the same way about that.  Next summer, right?

I've had kind of a crazy week with Boosters (why did I join the Board?) and football (still!) and trying to get a bunch of stuff done around the house/yard before the weather turns horrible and I have my annual Silpada party on the 11th. Tonight it was raining so hard and sideways that football ended early; when we picked up JJ he was soaked to the bone and freezing.  Poor kid! So dinner was a little late tonight due to a long, hot bath.

J is leaving for Pullman on Friday night to attend a retirement party for one of his old cronies there.  JJ's team made the playoffs so they have their first game Sunday and are practicing like maniacs this week.  He's still got himself in hot water with missing work, though, so he's grounded every other minute of the day.  Argh!

Not much else going on here other than work. I'm still kind of hating my job, but looking for something different is just so daunting.  I feel like I have it so good where I'm at with the perfect hours, location and daily job tasks; I just hate my management and the way the company is run.  I need to just suck it up and get over it, I think. I really do have it good, overall.

For instance, because of my job, I can afford to get a coffee every morning on the way to work. But you know what?  Today, it came in a red cup.  Normally, that's one of my favorite warm and fuzzy moments of the entire year,  but today I was a little pissed off.  Really, Howard? Before Thanksgiving?? Then I went to Target and all the Christmas stuff was out and it just made me sad.  I felt like boycotting every place in town that thinks it's ok to start the insanity the day after Halloween.  WTF.

Ok - off to bed. I hope all is well with you as you enjoy this week off ... or not??

Love you,
A

P.S. Did I mention I bought a new car last weekend? Car payments and gas on the Really Cool Car were killing me.  I officially entered middle age and bought a Prius V.

Totally. Love. It. :)

I put JJ in the picture as a frame of reference.  Otherwise it looked like a minivan, which it absolutely is not.