SNOW DAY! SNOW DAY!

Well, we didn't get much snow, just a whole lot of ice and sleet and slush, but anytime the phone rings at 4:30am and the voice on the other end tells me that school is closed, well, I'm happy!

Here’s a Stream Of Consciousness I’ve been accumulating over the last few days. (Notice how one topic ties in somehow with the next? I’m like that girl from Ferris Bueller lately! “Um, he's sick. My best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with the girl who saw Ferris pass out at 31 Flavors last night. I guess it's pretty serious.”)

• The hips I thought were a fairly new revelation, apparently are not. Aim posted a picture on her site that shows I’ve had hips for years. It’s funny. In my head, my body is similar to that of Naomi Watts. This makes it ultimately disappointing when I try on clothes/outfits which would look great on her/me, only to look in the mirror and see a hippy, chubby, not-so-tall looking person staring back. (Not to mention the outfit doesn’t look all that great on someone who doesn’t look like Naomi Watts.)

• I have read all the links on Sgt Ron Long’s website (www.278medic.blogspot.com) and all the subject matter is so “adult” compared to the link to my site involving large hips, single-dom, whiney injured high-schoolers and my friends and family. Well, maybe I fall in line more with the Sixth Avenue Skatepark side of life and less with the FOX News side.

• Speaking of Sgt. Long’s site, how fun is Christmas around children?!?!? It really does just bring all the magic of the holidays back watching it through the eyes of a child. Watching them get all excited about Santa coming, decorating, baking cookies and then Christmas morning watching them tear into their gifts that “Santa” left!

• Christmas shopping is more fun if you know what you want to get people. While the “not knowing” definitely means I get to be out in the Christmas-y atmosphere longer, it begins to get a little frustrating after awhile. This is especially true when you buy one or two presents for you and one for someone else. Sometimes, I’ve even bought stuff more me and nothing for anyone else. Ugh!

• I really am in a Christmas mood this year. I hope this keeps up. It’s hard to sustain a mood like this for an entire month. I’m trying though. I refuse to let the insane shoppers, bad traffic, hard-to-find parking and overplayed Christmas carols ruin my festive mood. For this, I drink a lot of Starbuck with their cute holiday cup holders and wear my new Christmas t-shirts! ? Hopefully, the novelties won’t wear off.

• Doesn’t it seem like Christmas card writing is either too early or too late. I never seem to be able to find the perfect Christmas letter/card writing time. I do my grandparents Christmas letter every year and it always seems too early to start writing it. Then, before you know it, I’m rushing to get them mailed before Christmas actually occurs.

• I was doing my grandparents’ Christmas letter today and realized I don’t know my family all that well. For my immediate family (mom, dad, Jill), I could tell you lots of stories, some great things about them personally, but probably wouldn’t be too good at questions like “name their favorite color”. I might get a lot of Jill’s right because she’s always in on those stupid surveys I send through email. Occasionally, I’ve answered them for her better than she answered them for her. My mom, I’d just be guessing on a lot of them and may come pretty close (she hates being predictable and swears she isn’t, but she really is.). Dad, well, I really have no idea what his favorite of most of that stuff is. Maybe I could coerce him into doing the stupid email surveys I send out! ? As for my mom’s side of the family (which I’m really pretty close with, given I can hardly tell you anything detailed or emotional about them), I’m clueless. It’s sad when you feel close to them, yet can’t tell you much about them as people at all!

• I love my grandparents. Somehow, just talking to them always makes me smile. They really are the sweetest people. Thinking about a life without them makes me so sad. I know they won’t live forever, I’m just hoping to make the most of the time I have left with them, however long that might be.

• Speaking of sweet people, keep my Aunt Lois in your thoughts and prayers as she began her chemo on Monday. She has to have 4 rounds in 3 months (or is it 3 rounds in 4 months, I can’t remember). She is struggling with it, as I’m sure I would. My mom is really sad and really misses her. (My mom told my aunt – her best friend whom we call aunt, not her sister-that she wasn’t going to bug her, and would give her space to fight through this, but my aunt could call her anytime to talk about anything. They talk once every couple of weeks instead of once or twice a week for hours, like they used to.)

• I got my mom the best birthday present. I’m so excited! It’s going to kill me to wait another week before I give it to her. Just so as not to tempt myself, I wraped it as soon as I got it today! (I'll fill ya'll in AFTER next week when I give to to her.)

• CONGRATS JEREMY!!!!!! I’m guessing I can blab all over, since you are now blabbing to everyone! ? My favorite blonde man and his wife will be having a little Jeremy or Jeremyina sometime around June! YEAH! Move back East, so I can visit him/her more often!!!!!! :) :) (See Jerm?!?!? If I can’t contain my excitement and not shout from the rooftops that you and Annette are having a baby, how will I ever wait 3 months if I ever get pregnant?!?!?!?!?!?!?)

Finally, I hope you all are full of Christmas Spirit (not spirits AJ, save that for later! :) ) and enjoying the season. There's a few people I'd like to add to my "Keep in your thoughts" list - The family of the 6 year-old killed in Chicago by the SW plane that skidded off the runway; my next-door neighbor, Pete, an Air Force pilot who is going to Iraq shortly after the holidays; our basketball coach's son's family (he has twins with renal reflux who need surgery, his 2 year-old might have it to and thus need surgery and his wife with a heart issue they discovered while she was pregnant. His company got bought out and he lost his job. The insurance they have expired the 1st of this month. COBRA is an option, but it's going to stretch their finances until he finds another job; another basketball coach who had an emergency appendectomy and severe complications following; a volunteer coach whose mother is struggling through dialysis and other issues; Brad (who I will not be sharing with his wife, Amy, in case you all have missed the exchanges from a previous reply-to-post) as he continues to recover from his bypass surgery and, not to be left out, my ice-scooping elbow (so as not to be confused with Tennis Elbow or Golf elbow, as I have been doing none of those things...but it's essentially the same ailment)injury, as well as my other "I live in an 80 year-old's body" ailments in the hope I will soon resemble a normal 30 year-old...at least in body and spirit! :) (Can I throw in thoughts of a 6 foot Abercrombie model with a big heart, a good sense of humor and who thinks I'm wonderful? If it's not too much to ask.... ;) :) )


MERRY DECEMBER 9th EVERYONE!!!!!