MIA
Hellooooooooooooooooooooo? Anyone out there? This blog has been suffering some severe neglect. I guess on the one hand, I've been really busy -- and with the holidays, perhaps a little on overload. On the other hand, I guess I just didn't have that much to say.
On my last post, my birthday, I took the day off from work, met my dad downtown for a long lunch, stopped by the mall to buy a new outfit, went to my office holiday party for about an hour, went home to pick up the husband and stepdaughter and went to dinner at Bandera. It was a really good day, but I was probably knocked out by about 10:00 p.m. The husband gave me a blue topaz (my birthstone) necklace and a pair of blue topaz earrings.
Following the birthday, work didn't slow down as much as expected once the fall recruiting season was over: interviews kept going strong and the powers that be wanted to make offers on each of the three days in December that I was out of the office. Talk about bad timing. Well, the offers went out and they were all accepted and onward and upward.
We hosted Christmas for my dad, stepmom, sister, her boyfriend, my best friend and her husband. We grilled a whole turkey on a Weber grill over coals. It came out great but earlier than expected so I was scrambling to get the sides done. It all worked out and dinner was good, I thought. I also made a chocolate cake from scratch with cream cheese frosting. I thought it was just okay. We had the big gift-opening frenzy prior to dinner and got all kinds of great stuff. I also finally bought a few things I've wanted for some time (just little odds and ends that weren't necessities) and it was nice to just do it and have it done.
We also did a pre-Christmas dinner thing w/my mom and her boyfriend -- it was a nice quiet evening. I believe I made parmesan baked chicken -- and I didn't make the dessert, but bought a nice triple chocolate mousse cake. We exchanged gifts, but my mom and I have different gift-giving philosophies. My mom likes to give a hundred little things (quantity) and I like to give just a few nice things (quality) that I think someone will like. My mom actually said she has panic attacks or something over Christmas shopping. That was a bit of a revelation for me. How do I get her to understand that I'd rather have 1 thoughtful gift telling me that the person knows me than a zillion little things that have no meaning and I now have to find a place for? I'd rather we stopped exchanging gifts than think that shopping for us causes her to go into a state of panic.
Oh, and we also went to the husband's family's (pre) Christmas gathering that they do every year. I believe the phrase I used to describe it to my father was "surpremely uncomfortable." Imagine being in a place with people you only see once a year (if you're lucky), at that event, and otherwise either barely see or speak to or simply don't see or speak to. Imagine that some of those people are in and out of jail or other trouble over the course of the year. Imagine that you actually don't put your purse down because you can't trust that someone won't rifle through it knowing they've robbed their own grandparents blind. Imagine that some of these people, even at this event, still don't utter a word to one another. Imagine that they all act like it's perfectly normal and no big deal. And imagine that several of them have kids from age 0-5 that they let run amok, completely unsupervised, and often have no idea where they are or what they are doing. THEN imagine suffering through all of this without a drop of alcohol. Yeah, none of these people drink. Well, I take that back -- none of these people will BUY drinks. We did learn the hard way that if you bring alcohol, some of them will drink it out from under you. We made that mistake once.
So yeah, we did that -- showed up 2 hours late, stayed for an hour and got the hell out. Oh, we also decided we are never going again. Because while we were there, each of us was thinking "why am I here?" and "why do I keep coming back for this?" I used to nudge the husband toward spending more time with his family. He's a bit of an exaggerator so I thought he was just being sort of overly dramatic in not wanting to be around them. I'm over it now. We've been together nearly 7 years and I'm fucking over it! Besides, I'm fairly certain those people (headed up by the MIL, no doubt) talk about me, tell each other I think I'm better than them and probably think I'm the reason the husband has what they call "the family flu." Well, to the contrary, I'm the only reason he's continued to go to these things the past several years. And I ain't pushing him to go no mo'. Nope. Done. It was actually quite liberating to hear the husband say, when we got back into the car, "we are NEVER doing this again." BUH-BYE! There was one OMG moment when the husband, itching to leave, said to no one in particular "we gotta get going, we have family (my mom and her boyfriend) coming over." His mother, without missing a beat, said "this IS your family." And the husband, also not missing a beat, said "I mean people we actually LIKE." DOH! I think that was about the end of that. What's funny is some of the husband's siblings will say privately that they don't like this or that about family gatherings but they won't say anything to their mother and they will always go unless they can think up a good excuse (like going to Seattle with a girlfriend or moving to Texas with a boyfriend) so they can remain in the mother's good graces. I'm not even sure why they worry about that -- it's not like they rely on her for anything (well, some of them, anyway). The husband just doesn't have that concern. And now, neither do I. Why the hell should I care?
So other than that, the holidays were great. We spent New Year's Eve at my best friend's and husband's place and she did this fondue appetizer and a big spaghetti feed, which was great, but dinner was served at 10:30 so it was a little weird to be feeling sleepy and eating dinner waiting for midnight (my best friend and her husband eat at weird hours, like 3 a.m. -- whenever the mood strikes)! The husband, who does not do well when he is hungry, was very patient -- I have to hand it to him. We managed to make it to midnight and actually stayed up 'til about 1:30 -- but that was it. We totally crashed when we got home. When did we get so old? Probably has something to do with having to have real jobs and bills and all that. Just takes it out of you.
And now, here we are, in 2007. I took Tuesday off and made it a 4-day weekend, and had a pretty kick-back 3-day week even though I did have three interviews between yesterday and today. I got a lot done Wednesday and today (Thursday, not so much) and I'm feeling that surge of New Year's motivation so I'm going to try and get the ball rolling on a few things before it subsides.
What else? Not much, I guess.
I'm sitting here at my desk looking at this growing pile of household batteries thinking what a pain they are. There are 7 of them now -- 6 AAs and 1 AAA. Since we aren't supposed to throw them in the trash anymore (and therefore my conscience makes me collect them until there are enough to justify a trip to Staples or Office Max or wherever to dump them off), it's just a hassle! But, them's the rules. Maybe I should get a cute little container to collect them in.
Oh, there's something else I did -- the end-of-year/new year clean-up. I went through closets and cabinets and was a little more ruthless this time about getting rid of stuff we don't use. So much perfectly good stuff, but stuff that I don't want and won't bother to try and sell. Stuff that I keep because it was a gift but I don't know what to do with. Christmas dishes I bought forever ago but that are no longer my style (used probably once), a bread machine (base model), crock pot (base model), a chopper, Christmas decorations (got rid of all of those I don't really like this time around) -- 9 bags of stuff I didn't need, dropped off at Goodwill on Tuesday. And boy were they inundated with stuff. Looks like a lot of people had the same idea. The difference, it appeared, was that the stuff I was giving away wasn't crap. It's amazing the stuff some people drop off at Goodwill that should really be going to the city dump. Who do they think wants to buy their nasty old unusuable stuff? Goodwill must make major dump runs.
Oh, we joined Netflix again and have started seeing movies. We saw that Talladega Nights/Ballad of Ricky Bobby . . . TERRIBLE. The only reason I wasn't mad that I had watched it was because I was wrapping Christmas gifts as I did it. We also saw Click with Adam Sandler. We really liked that one! I wasn't sure what it would be like, but that's probably one reason I did like it so much. The way movies get hyped, they never live up to it. I thought Click was really cute. Then, in the theater (where we hardly ever go), we went to see The Pursuit of Happyness. Really really good movie. I thought it was light on the sap factor and though I expected to cry, I only cried a little at the end. I saw Will Smith and Chris Gardner, the person whose life the movie was based on, on Oprah a while back and so I did know a little more about that one going in and thought it would be a total tear-jerker. It turned out not to be but what a story. The other movie we thought about seeing that night was We Are Marshall, but decided to save that one for another night. I just KNOW that one's gonna be a 4-hanky movie.
That's it on the movie front. That's a lot for us. We have Supersize Me coming next and though it's been out a while, we never did see it. Should be interesting.
Alrighty, then. I suppose that's enough for a catch-up blog. I'll have to check on everyone else soon.
On my last post, my birthday, I took the day off from work, met my dad downtown for a long lunch, stopped by the mall to buy a new outfit, went to my office holiday party for about an hour, went home to pick up the husband and stepdaughter and went to dinner at Bandera. It was a really good day, but I was probably knocked out by about 10:00 p.m. The husband gave me a blue topaz (my birthstone) necklace and a pair of blue topaz earrings.
Following the birthday, work didn't slow down as much as expected once the fall recruiting season was over: interviews kept going strong and the powers that be wanted to make offers on each of the three days in December that I was out of the office. Talk about bad timing. Well, the offers went out and they were all accepted and onward and upward.
We hosted Christmas for my dad, stepmom, sister, her boyfriend, my best friend and her husband. We grilled a whole turkey on a Weber grill over coals. It came out great but earlier than expected so I was scrambling to get the sides done. It all worked out and dinner was good, I thought. I also made a chocolate cake from scratch with cream cheese frosting. I thought it was just okay. We had the big gift-opening frenzy prior to dinner and got all kinds of great stuff. I also finally bought a few things I've wanted for some time (just little odds and ends that weren't necessities) and it was nice to just do it and have it done.
We also did a pre-Christmas dinner thing w/my mom and her boyfriend -- it was a nice quiet evening. I believe I made parmesan baked chicken -- and I didn't make the dessert, but bought a nice triple chocolate mousse cake. We exchanged gifts, but my mom and I have different gift-giving philosophies. My mom likes to give a hundred little things (quantity) and I like to give just a few nice things (quality) that I think someone will like. My mom actually said she has panic attacks or something over Christmas shopping. That was a bit of a revelation for me. How do I get her to understand that I'd rather have 1 thoughtful gift telling me that the person knows me than a zillion little things that have no meaning and I now have to find a place for? I'd rather we stopped exchanging gifts than think that shopping for us causes her to go into a state of panic.
Oh, and we also went to the husband's family's (pre) Christmas gathering that they do every year. I believe the phrase I used to describe it to my father was "surpremely uncomfortable." Imagine being in a place with people you only see once a year (if you're lucky), at that event, and otherwise either barely see or speak to or simply don't see or speak to. Imagine that some of those people are in and out of jail or other trouble over the course of the year. Imagine that you actually don't put your purse down because you can't trust that someone won't rifle through it knowing they've robbed their own grandparents blind. Imagine that some of these people, even at this event, still don't utter a word to one another. Imagine that they all act like it's perfectly normal and no big deal. And imagine that several of them have kids from age 0-5 that they let run amok, completely unsupervised, and often have no idea where they are or what they are doing. THEN imagine suffering through all of this without a drop of alcohol. Yeah, none of these people drink. Well, I take that back -- none of these people will BUY drinks. We did learn the hard way that if you bring alcohol, some of them will drink it out from under you. We made that mistake once.
So yeah, we did that -- showed up 2 hours late, stayed for an hour and got the hell out. Oh, we also decided we are never going again. Because while we were there, each of us was thinking "why am I here?" and "why do I keep coming back for this?" I used to nudge the husband toward spending more time with his family. He's a bit of an exaggerator so I thought he was just being sort of overly dramatic in not wanting to be around them. I'm over it now. We've been together nearly 7 years and I'm fucking over it! Besides, I'm fairly certain those people (headed up by the MIL, no doubt) talk about me, tell each other I think I'm better than them and probably think I'm the reason the husband has what they call "the family flu." Well, to the contrary, I'm the only reason he's continued to go to these things the past several years. And I ain't pushing him to go no mo'. Nope. Done. It was actually quite liberating to hear the husband say, when we got back into the car, "we are NEVER doing this again." BUH-BYE! There was one OMG moment when the husband, itching to leave, said to no one in particular "we gotta get going, we have family (my mom and her boyfriend) coming over." His mother, without missing a beat, said "this IS your family." And the husband, also not missing a beat, said "I mean people we actually LIKE." DOH! I think that was about the end of that. What's funny is some of the husband's siblings will say privately that they don't like this or that about family gatherings but they won't say anything to their mother and they will always go unless they can think up a good excuse (like going to Seattle with a girlfriend or moving to Texas with a boyfriend) so they can remain in the mother's good graces. I'm not even sure why they worry about that -- it's not like they rely on her for anything (well, some of them, anyway). The husband just doesn't have that concern. And now, neither do I. Why the hell should I care?
So other than that, the holidays were great. We spent New Year's Eve at my best friend's and husband's place and she did this fondue appetizer and a big spaghetti feed, which was great, but dinner was served at 10:30 so it was a little weird to be feeling sleepy and eating dinner waiting for midnight (my best friend and her husband eat at weird hours, like 3 a.m. -- whenever the mood strikes)! The husband, who does not do well when he is hungry, was very patient -- I have to hand it to him. We managed to make it to midnight and actually stayed up 'til about 1:30 -- but that was it. We totally crashed when we got home. When did we get so old? Probably has something to do with having to have real jobs and bills and all that. Just takes it out of you.
And now, here we are, in 2007. I took Tuesday off and made it a 4-day weekend, and had a pretty kick-back 3-day week even though I did have three interviews between yesterday and today. I got a lot done Wednesday and today (Thursday, not so much) and I'm feeling that surge of New Year's motivation so I'm going to try and get the ball rolling on a few things before it subsides.
What else? Not much, I guess.
I'm sitting here at my desk looking at this growing pile of household batteries thinking what a pain they are. There are 7 of them now -- 6 AAs and 1 AAA. Since we aren't supposed to throw them in the trash anymore (and therefore my conscience makes me collect them until there are enough to justify a trip to Staples or Office Max or wherever to dump them off), it's just a hassle! But, them's the rules. Maybe I should get a cute little container to collect them in.
Oh, there's something else I did -- the end-of-year/new year clean-up. I went through closets and cabinets and was a little more ruthless this time about getting rid of stuff we don't use. So much perfectly good stuff, but stuff that I don't want and won't bother to try and sell. Stuff that I keep because it was a gift but I don't know what to do with. Christmas dishes I bought forever ago but that are no longer my style (used probably once), a bread machine (base model), crock pot (base model), a chopper, Christmas decorations (got rid of all of those I don't really like this time around) -- 9 bags of stuff I didn't need, dropped off at Goodwill on Tuesday. And boy were they inundated with stuff. Looks like a lot of people had the same idea. The difference, it appeared, was that the stuff I was giving away wasn't crap. It's amazing the stuff some people drop off at Goodwill that should really be going to the city dump. Who do they think wants to buy their nasty old unusuable stuff? Goodwill must make major dump runs.
Oh, we joined Netflix again and have started seeing movies. We saw that Talladega Nights/Ballad of Ricky Bobby . . . TERRIBLE. The only reason I wasn't mad that I had watched it was because I was wrapping Christmas gifts as I did it. We also saw Click with Adam Sandler. We really liked that one! I wasn't sure what it would be like, but that's probably one reason I did like it so much. The way movies get hyped, they never live up to it. I thought Click was really cute. Then, in the theater (where we hardly ever go), we went to see The Pursuit of Happyness. Really really good movie. I thought it was light on the sap factor and though I expected to cry, I only cried a little at the end. I saw Will Smith and Chris Gardner, the person whose life the movie was based on, on Oprah a while back and so I did know a little more about that one going in and thought it would be a total tear-jerker. It turned out not to be but what a story. The other movie we thought about seeing that night was We Are Marshall, but decided to save that one for another night. I just KNOW that one's gonna be a 4-hanky movie.
That's it on the movie front. That's a lot for us. We have Supersize Me coming next and though it's been out a while, we never did see it. Should be interesting.
Alrighty, then. I suppose that's enough for a catch-up blog. I'll have to check on everyone else soon.
posted by PlatinumGirl at 7:36 PM
2 Comments:
Such a nice, chatty post! I am sorry I'm late with reading. I will get to the why of that soon.
The family is much like families everywhere. Just because you are related does not make you get along well.
Hug the husband for me. I'm missing mine again.
I'm glad that the holidays were good to you. I'm with you on getting rid of all the useless junk. I'm starting to realize I don't need so much crap!!!
Sorry about your husband's family. At least you guys aren't going back!
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