Just A Few Things

Yesterday my niece Jamie turned 9. I started blogging right around the time she was born - one of my first blog posts was about her birth. I didn't migrate my blog from AOL when they closed down the journals. I wish I had some of those early blog posts. I'm glad to not have some of them. Life goes on.

Two nights after Jamie was born I spent New Year's Eve with Purple Michael at the apartment of some friends of his. Michael was house sitting. It was the calmest and quietest of NYE's - I'm not sure we even had wine. We had dinner at Boston Market - rotisserie chicken - and snacked on a bunch of appetizers on into the New Year. We watched old movies. I'm serious, very quiet evening. It's poignant to me because there were several really great conversations we had that night that have always stuck with me and one of them was talking about Jamie's birth.

We (collectively, as a family) had a hectic weekend as we moved my parents up here full time. They have a renter in their house in Riverdale and she ended up needing to move in earlier than they had expected so things were expedited and more rushed than they had expected. I always believe in cosmic timing and that everything happens precisely when it's meant to happen. Either way, there were three of my four brothers assisting and my two nephews, Cory and Matthew who are 16 and 14 along with Austin on the moving crew up here. If we were ever to start a family industry it would not be moving. None of us has really great upper body strength. But it was memorable. That's the timing thing. There is still another load of stuff there STILL and that may be moved tomorrow.

Since I can lift practically nothing heavier than air, my job was animal control and if there is another load tomorrow that will be the role I play then. I was rather weary/weepy Saturday from fatigue and pain from having morphed into full time doggie duty (as opposed to doggie doodie, although they both stink) immediately after our holiday merry making marathon. Our Merry-thon. Sorry. I was just trying it out. Anyways... I didn't sleep Friday night and Saturday just felt so overwhelming with all the moving and people carrying heavy stuff while I watched and I still had dog sitting duty until Sunday afternoon. Yesterday afternoon when my parents got home - still weird to say that - I came down to the Whine Cellar and crashed. I slept 12 hours last night. Today I have felt much closer to my usual subpar self and haven't had nearly as much pain as usual.

I have two really poignant potential posts brewing about the fact that my parents have moved out of the house they have lived in for 37 years and the fact that tomorrow is my dad's last day of work after working for the same company for 46 1/2 years. I say they're brewing but the truth is, they may never make it to the keyboard. It's hard for a gypsy like me to even wrap my mind around such things. We'll see.

I have three new articles of clothing in transit from zulily - leggings, maxi skirt and big hoodie. I may wear all three at the same time. My current style is somewhere between "homeless" and "Duggar Family reject". I asked for fuzzy socks for Christmas and got an embarrassing number of them. I told my nieces they could expect me to pick them up from school wearing nothing but fuzzy socks - I actually meant that I wasn't going to wear SHOES - but it came across as if I was taking up residence at the nudist colony down the street. I'll just say that from the ankles down, I am STYLIN'!

Old Flame messaged that he had some time off and wanted to come visit. I told him he was welcome whenever, just give me enough notice that I can shave my legs. He won't come. He's been trying to get up this way since July. It's partly my fault since I never answer the phone and honestly just don't get too excited about things. Not much happens around here.

I'm excited about the Winter Olympics.

I'm watching Hollywood Game Night - which is really, really funny.

I've been binge-watching Downton Abbey.

We had eggs, bacon, grits and biscuits for dinner. Me and Austin have been mostly just eating Christmas leftovers for the past week. This was a nice change. And Pop cooked which was even better.

My mom got all her Christmas stuff put away today. Mine hasn't moved. I promised my body I wouldn't ask anything of it for 48 hours post-dog sitting. Since my trees are purple and pink I'm just packing away the Christmas specific stuff and leaving the trees and lights.

I got a Christmas card all the way from Australia! Thanks Wendy! It totally made my day.

And Little Kitty has just come to sit under my left arm. I'm through typing. Happy Monday!

Love and hugs!