... that, after the surgery, I'd have an uncanny resemblance to a washed-up prize fighter! Well, okay, it's not really that bad, but whew! looking at myself in the mirror this morning took my breath away! I feel far better than I look, is all I'm saying. Actually, my jaw is rather swollen, so I think I'm doing a fabulous job of imitating Marlon Brando, playing the Godfather! (If I do say so myself...) I'm told the swelling should go down in a few more days. However, right now, it's pretty astonishing! And, combined with the bruising, I am quite a sight!
I was awake during the surgery (just local painkillers -- Lidocaine?), and that was a bloody weird experience, let me tell you. I felt pressure and heard things going on, but felt nothing. And, thank goodness the doctor didn't offer me a mirror so I could see what was going on. Even I would have been grossed out by that! (And it takes a lot to get me grossed out...)
Anyway, I am still kind of woozy, due to the lovely pain meds, and keep falling sleep here on the sofa. I guess my body needs it, so what the heck... I am ambulatory, and with it enough to make myself tea, and eat oatmeal, so it's all good.
Nothing much to report from here at the moment. I feel myself drifting away again... More later!
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Random Musings
Nothing special going on, but I am practicing discipline, and writing something for this blog as often as I can. Right now [Note: written Saturday night], I’m sitting in a hotel room in Marin County, cooling my heels, having forgotten to bring a book or a magazine to read, while my husband surfs the Net and the TV is blah-blah’ing away. (Those who know me well will find this -- not having a book handy -- pretty ironic, given the sheer deluge of reading material strewn through my house...) I blame it on our usual last-minute packing. Both the spousal unit and I are absolutely awful about packing ahead of time for any trip -- be it overnight or three weeks. We wait until the very last minute. We apparently think we get extra points if we leave it until within the hour before we absolutely positively need to leave the house! This, of course, often leads to astonishing lapses in terms of what we did not pack. (There was one business trip where I totally forgot to pack outer clothes -- I did remember pajamas and underwear, but that was it... Thank goodness there was a shopping center across the road from the hotel, and they had a Target store there...) (Don’t ask...)
I will say, however, that this time we DID remember to pack our swim suits, as I had the foresight to actually check out the on-site amenities for this hotel when I made the reservation. (We had not stayed here previously -- the hotel we usually stay at when we’re up this way was fully booked tonight.) Lo and behold, they have a jacuzzi/whirlpool. We love to get in a hot jacuzzi, and just soak... (Our favorite is in Hawaii, where all the jacuzzis are outdoors, and you can lay in the water and look up at the stars... I’m feeling the aloha spirit just writing about it!) Anyway, the jacuzzi at this hotel is indoors, thanks be, as it’s really quite nippy out tonight. It was nice, and very relaxing. There were a couple of pre-teen girls hopping about, cute as buttons, with a very much long-suffering older sister who was roped into watching them, and a lady who was there by herself, attempting to read in peace. (What? Read in a jacuzzi? Hmmm...)
There is cable TV in the room (of course), but the choices appear to be either NASCAR or Fox News. I kid you not. The remote is on the fritz, to add insult to injury. So, I’m taking the opportunity to write. I’d surf the Net, but there’s no wireless access in the room, just hard-line access, and the spouse is on the computer (we, of course, each brought our own laptop) (we are SO VERY SiliValley...), checking out eBay, seeing if there is some fabulous deal on car bits or god-only-knows-what. Oops, he just finished, and let me check my email and CNN and the New York Times. Same stuff, different day... All is disaster...
Now, it’s not as though I didn’t have books to bring with me, of course. I actually picked up three used books in one of the charity shops in the UK; they are from the series written by Alexander McCall Smith, about Precious Ramotswe, the proprietor of Botswana's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. (The first book was “The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency”, which I absolutely loved.) I started one of the books yesterday, started to get quite into it, had planned on bringing it with me, and of course it is sitting on my bed at home, waiting for me.
However, I’m quite pleasantly sleepy now, after the jacuzzi, and a very nice dinner. (Note, please, that I was good and did not have any wine or alcohol either last night -- during our usual “Friday night out at the Elephant Bar” -- or this evening... It really is making me irritable, by the way...)
Tomorrow, we’re off to Infineon Raceway (formerly known as Sears Point Raceway), to attend a race, put on by a vintage and classic car racing group that the husband used to be active in. It should be fun. We brought one of our many picnic baskets, folding chairs, and a little folding table. We also remembered to bring our hats, heavy jackets and sunscreen. Yep, I’m pretty sure we have all that. We certainly packed enough crap... [Note: Day at the raceway was wonderful; the weather was gorgeous, the cars were fast -- and noisy! -- we ran into some friends, and generally just kicked back and hung out.]
This afternoon [Note: on Saturday], we attended a play in San Francisco. It was “Rock and Roll” by Tom Stoppard. The spousal unit LOVES, absolutely LOVES, Tom Stoppard’s work. This was in return for his agreeing to go see “Spamalot” when we were in London. (In retrospect, we should have tried to get tickets to “Ivanov” when we were in London -- Richard Branagh was doing it -- but, oh well...) Anyway, the play was OK. I’m not a huge Tom Stoppard fan -- I think he’s a tad too precious, and it kind of puts my teeth on edge. But the performances were excellent, and the play kept my interest. The music they played during the scene transitions was, however, far too loud. (What is it with theatres and movie houses, blasting music? Do they think we’ve all gone deaf from too many rock concerts in our misspent youths?) The play is all about the Prague Spring and the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia, and Vaclev Havel, and the role of the Plastic People of the Underground in the whole dissident movement. I cannot imagine how folks who have no background whatsoever in terms of knowing something about those events would understand the play. (Oh, you could follow the action, I guess, but you wouldn’t “get it”, I think.) Luckily, we had some time in our seats before the play started to read the program, which was excellent by the way, and it helped me immensely to understand what was going on. I, of course, would have edited the script (!), to include a little more background on one of the main characters, and delete one of the (to my mind) ancillary plot lines... But, unfortunately, Mr. Stoppard has not asked for my help!
I also have some other books I want to read; three about Marie Antoinette (I’m not sure why that particular theme presented itself), one about the nature of marriage and spousal relationships (written by an Indian woman), a mystery novel by Ellis Peters (one of the Cadfael novels) (I don’t think I’ve read this one), and one or two more that I can’t remember off the top of my head. There’s also the latest Oprah magazine (one of my guilty pleasures), and a couple of other magazines that hit the door recently.
Unfortunately, part of the surgery that I’m having on Monday is on my eyelids, and I’m told that I really won’t be able to read much (if at all) for a few (or more than a few) days. Oh, goodie. What the heck am I supposed to do, then, pray tell? Zone out on painkillers and listen to CNN? the Food Channel? BBC America? Daytime TV is pretty dismal. And, right now, one can either listen to all the ranting and raving on the upcoming election (and I am sick to death of all the negative BS that’s going on) or the doom-and-gloom talking heads blabbering away about the economic crisis. It’s enough to turn me to MTV, for goodness sakes! (Well, no, not really, but close.) I can, I suppose, turn on NPR and listen to that for hours at a time.
I really hope that my recovery time is relatively short. I don’t “do” just sitting around very well, unless I’m really really sick or really really sedated... Or both... It is possible, I gather, to be up and about and relatively healed up in 10 days, which would be lovely. But one never knows. I’ve been really quite good about following all the pre-op guidelines, so I hope it all pays off. I read a bunch of online comments about the procedure last night, and some of them sounded pretty scary; however, for the most part, the women who had the procedure were quite happy with their decision, and felt it was worth the money. Let’s hope I can write a positive comment at the end of my recovery!
Well, I think that’s about it. I could go on and on, but I don’t want everyone’s eyes to roll back in their heads as they plow through my rambling. I’ll pull out the play program, and re-read it... Might make a bit more sense, now that I’ve seen the play. Or not.
I hope all of you are doing well out there, and enjoying the lovely autumn weather. (Of course October in California can be fire and/or earthquake season, for reasons that are unknown... But it’s still lovely...)
Cheers!
I will say, however, that this time we DID remember to pack our swim suits, as I had the foresight to actually check out the on-site amenities for this hotel when I made the reservation. (We had not stayed here previously -- the hotel we usually stay at when we’re up this way was fully booked tonight.) Lo and behold, they have a jacuzzi/whirlpool. We love to get in a hot jacuzzi, and just soak... (Our favorite is in Hawaii, where all the jacuzzis are outdoors, and you can lay in the water and look up at the stars... I’m feeling the aloha spirit just writing about it!) Anyway, the jacuzzi at this hotel is indoors, thanks be, as it’s really quite nippy out tonight. It was nice, and very relaxing. There were a couple of pre-teen girls hopping about, cute as buttons, with a very much long-suffering older sister who was roped into watching them, and a lady who was there by herself, attempting to read in peace. (What? Read in a jacuzzi? Hmmm...)
There is cable TV in the room (of course), but the choices appear to be either NASCAR or Fox News. I kid you not. The remote is on the fritz, to add insult to injury. So, I’m taking the opportunity to write. I’d surf the Net, but there’s no wireless access in the room, just hard-line access, and the spouse is on the computer (we, of course, each brought our own laptop) (we are SO VERY SiliValley...), checking out eBay, seeing if there is some fabulous deal on car bits or god-only-knows-what. Oops, he just finished, and let me check my email and CNN and the New York Times. Same stuff, different day... All is disaster...
Now, it’s not as though I didn’t have books to bring with me, of course. I actually picked up three used books in one of the charity shops in the UK; they are from the series written by Alexander McCall Smith, about Precious Ramotswe, the proprietor of Botswana's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. (The first book was “The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency”, which I absolutely loved.) I started one of the books yesterday, started to get quite into it, had planned on bringing it with me, and of course it is sitting on my bed at home, waiting for me.
However, I’m quite pleasantly sleepy now, after the jacuzzi, and a very nice dinner. (Note, please, that I was good and did not have any wine or alcohol either last night -- during our usual “Friday night out at the Elephant Bar” -- or this evening... It really is making me irritable, by the way...)
Tomorrow, we’re off to Infineon Raceway (formerly known as Sears Point Raceway), to attend a race, put on by a vintage and classic car racing group that the husband used to be active in. It should be fun. We brought one of our many picnic baskets, folding chairs, and a little folding table. We also remembered to bring our hats, heavy jackets and sunscreen. Yep, I’m pretty sure we have all that. We certainly packed enough crap... [Note: Day at the raceway was wonderful; the weather was gorgeous, the cars were fast -- and noisy! -- we ran into some friends, and generally just kicked back and hung out.]
This afternoon [Note: on Saturday], we attended a play in San Francisco. It was “Rock and Roll” by Tom Stoppard. The spousal unit LOVES, absolutely LOVES, Tom Stoppard’s work. This was in return for his agreeing to go see “Spamalot” when we were in London. (In retrospect, we should have tried to get tickets to “Ivanov” when we were in London -- Richard Branagh was doing it -- but, oh well...) Anyway, the play was OK. I’m not a huge Tom Stoppard fan -- I think he’s a tad too precious, and it kind of puts my teeth on edge. But the performances were excellent, and the play kept my interest. The music they played during the scene transitions was, however, far too loud. (What is it with theatres and movie houses, blasting music? Do they think we’ve all gone deaf from too many rock concerts in our misspent youths?) The play is all about the Prague Spring and the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia, and Vaclev Havel, and the role of the Plastic People of the Underground in the whole dissident movement. I cannot imagine how folks who have no background whatsoever in terms of knowing something about those events would understand the play. (Oh, you could follow the action, I guess, but you wouldn’t “get it”, I think.) Luckily, we had some time in our seats before the play started to read the program, which was excellent by the way, and it helped me immensely to understand what was going on. I, of course, would have edited the script (!), to include a little more background on one of the main characters, and delete one of the (to my mind) ancillary plot lines... But, unfortunately, Mr. Stoppard has not asked for my help!
I also have some other books I want to read; three about Marie Antoinette (I’m not sure why that particular theme presented itself), one about the nature of marriage and spousal relationships (written by an Indian woman), a mystery novel by Ellis Peters (one of the Cadfael novels) (I don’t think I’ve read this one), and one or two more that I can’t remember off the top of my head. There’s also the latest Oprah magazine (one of my guilty pleasures), and a couple of other magazines that hit the door recently.
Unfortunately, part of the surgery that I’m having on Monday is on my eyelids, and I’m told that I really won’t be able to read much (if at all) for a few (or more than a few) days. Oh, goodie. What the heck am I supposed to do, then, pray tell? Zone out on painkillers and listen to CNN? the Food Channel? BBC America? Daytime TV is pretty dismal. And, right now, one can either listen to all the ranting and raving on the upcoming election (and I am sick to death of all the negative BS that’s going on) or the doom-and-gloom talking heads blabbering away about the economic crisis. It’s enough to turn me to MTV, for goodness sakes! (Well, no, not really, but close.) I can, I suppose, turn on NPR and listen to that for hours at a time.
I really hope that my recovery time is relatively short. I don’t “do” just sitting around very well, unless I’m really really sick or really really sedated... Or both... It is possible, I gather, to be up and about and relatively healed up in 10 days, which would be lovely. But one never knows. I’ve been really quite good about following all the pre-op guidelines, so I hope it all pays off. I read a bunch of online comments about the procedure last night, and some of them sounded pretty scary; however, for the most part, the women who had the procedure were quite happy with their decision, and felt it was worth the money. Let’s hope I can write a positive comment at the end of my recovery!
Well, I think that’s about it. I could go on and on, but I don’t want everyone’s eyes to roll back in their heads as they plow through my rambling. I’ll pull out the play program, and re-read it... Might make a bit more sense, now that I’ve seen the play. Or not.
I hope all of you are doing well out there, and enjoying the lovely autumn weather. (Of course October in California can be fire and/or earthquake season, for reasons that are unknown... But it’s still lovely...)
Cheers!
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Okay, Okay...
So, I have not been as diligent as I might have been about blogging, it's true... And I can't say why, or point to anything or any incident in particular... I know I have been terribly tired lately (no doubt a side effect of being sans caffeine and alcohol...), and spend way too much time just sitting around, staring aimlessly into space! And, well, doing a bit of sewing. I am working on my table runner project (and yes I swear I will post a photo of it at some point), and actually finished (!!) a dress yesterday. (I'm not wild about the way it looks on me, but I think it's fixable.)
But, one of the things I still do is cruise all my favorite blogs from other contributors to the blogsphere. One of my favorites is Ann Steeves' blog, Gorgeous Things (http://gorgeousthings.blogspot.com/). Last week, she had a link to a cute quiz (http://www.tomorrowland.us/tlm/). I took it, and the test results pronounced that I am a "mandarin". This means:
"You're an intellectual, and you've worked hard to get where you are now. You're a strong believer in education, and you think many of the world's problems could be solved if people were more informed and more rational. You have no tolerance for sloppy or lazy thinking. It frustrates you when people who are ignorant or dishonest rise to positions of power. You believe that people can make a difference in the world, and you're determined to try."
Hmmm... I am really a sucker for these online quizzes... Time-wasters, often, but amusing. Luckily I am not currently working at a full-time job, so I am not diddling around on the company's time... NOT that I ever did that when I was working at The Company, no, nope, never. Really.
On other fronts, I must say that this is just about my favorite time of year. There's still nice warmth during the day, but the evenings are cool, and there is a hint of change in the air. I think the "change" part is what I like, since I also adore the Spring weather. The promise of something new is exhilarating. Growing up Back East, at this time of year we were looking forward to Halloween. Many years, it was bitterly cold at the end of October, and often rainy (I don't recall snow on any Halloween). In fact, I do recall one year when the weather was so ugly, we just trick-or-treated inside our apartment building. For all of you suburb-dwellers, I have to tell you that it was a very weird experience. That was the year, as I recall, that I had a gypsy costume, which I dearly loved. In our neighborhood, where we live now, we simply don't get too many children coming by. It could be due, in part, to cultural issues (many folks in our neighborhood come from other countries, where Halloween simply isn't part of their experience), or maybe there simply aren't too many kids left -- I know the contemporaries of my children (who are now 24 and 21, respectively) have all left the area, and not too many of them had younger siblings (who would in any event probably be too old by now to get into trick-or-treating). However, I do know that the elementary schools in our area are filled to bursting, so who knows. I think one of my favorite trick-or-treat experiences was about five years ago, when a teenager came to our door, and announced his costume was a hairball (as in, yes, that thing the cat chokes up, usually on the carpet)... Cracked me up!
Well, this turned into a ramble... Sorry about that! Time to go and get ready to go smack the tennis ball with the husband. It really is good exercise, despite my very very sorry performance the past few times we've gone. I think it's because I didn't sign up for lessons this session (missed the deadline as we were out of the country on our travels, and when we got back, I found the class was full -- rats!). Those lessons really do help. Ah, well, next session. And I'm actually contemplating signing up for private lessons, but not willing at this point to lay out the money. Particularly now, if you get my drift.
Hope you all are enjoying yourselves, whatever it is you're doing. Cheers!
But, one of the things I still do is cruise all my favorite blogs from other contributors to the blogsphere. One of my favorites is Ann Steeves' blog, Gorgeous Things (http://gorgeousthings.blogspot.com/). Last week, she had a link to a cute quiz (http://www.tomorrowland.us/tlm/). I took it, and the test results pronounced that I am a "mandarin". This means:
"You're an intellectual, and you've worked hard to get where you are now. You're a strong believer in education, and you think many of the world's problems could be solved if people were more informed and more rational. You have no tolerance for sloppy or lazy thinking. It frustrates you when people who are ignorant or dishonest rise to positions of power. You believe that people can make a difference in the world, and you're determined to try."
Hmmm... I am really a sucker for these online quizzes... Time-wasters, often, but amusing. Luckily I am not currently working at a full-time job, so I am not diddling around on the company's time... NOT that I ever did that when I was working at The Company, no, nope, never. Really.
On other fronts, I must say that this is just about my favorite time of year. There's still nice warmth during the day, but the evenings are cool, and there is a hint of change in the air. I think the "change" part is what I like, since I also adore the Spring weather. The promise of something new is exhilarating. Growing up Back East, at this time of year we were looking forward to Halloween. Many years, it was bitterly cold at the end of October, and often rainy (I don't recall snow on any Halloween). In fact, I do recall one year when the weather was so ugly, we just trick-or-treated inside our apartment building. For all of you suburb-dwellers, I have to tell you that it was a very weird experience. That was the year, as I recall, that I had a gypsy costume, which I dearly loved. In our neighborhood, where we live now, we simply don't get too many children coming by. It could be due, in part, to cultural issues (many folks in our neighborhood come from other countries, where Halloween simply isn't part of their experience), or maybe there simply aren't too many kids left -- I know the contemporaries of my children (who are now 24 and 21, respectively) have all left the area, and not too many of them had younger siblings (who would in any event probably be too old by now to get into trick-or-treating). However, I do know that the elementary schools in our area are filled to bursting, so who knows. I think one of my favorite trick-or-treat experiences was about five years ago, when a teenager came to our door, and announced his costume was a hairball (as in, yes, that thing the cat chokes up, usually on the carpet)... Cracked me up!
Well, this turned into a ramble... Sorry about that! Time to go and get ready to go smack the tennis ball with the husband. It really is good exercise, despite my very very sorry performance the past few times we've gone. I think it's because I didn't sign up for lessons this session (missed the deadline as we were out of the country on our travels, and when we got back, I found the class was full -- rats!). Those lessons really do help. Ah, well, next session. And I'm actually contemplating signing up for private lessons, but not willing at this point to lay out the money. Particularly now, if you get my drift.
Hope you all are enjoying yourselves, whatever it is you're doing. Cheers!
Friday, October 3, 2008
Well, Shoot...
So, I'm having some elective surgery on the 13th (a little over a week from now), and I love my doctor. However, he has some very strict views on what a patient needs to do, pre- and post-surgery, to be a true "partner" in the process... Including (god help me) abstaining from caffeine and alcohol for two weeks before and two weeks after surgery. I never thought of myself as an addict, but going cold turkey this past week -- no morning tea, decaf/nonfat lattes ("why bothers"), and no wine or Cosmos -- yikes! This has been eye opening!
I mean, I had to watch the Vice President Debate last night sans wine! I had the sip-and-sew ladies over to the house for the event, and the three of them (one was absent) finished off a bottle and a half (well, maybe a bottle and two-thirds) of wine -- I drank fizzy water with a shot of bitters in it (a "mocktail")... Just not the same...
And, not having my bracing cuppa in the morning is even more irritating. Who knew I was so . . . attached . . . to my lovely Scottish high-octane tea bags? Hmmm.... I am drinking, instead, some lovely verbena herbal tea that I bought in Paris on a trip there a couple of years ago... with a bit of clover honey in it... Doesn't compare at all to my witches' brew, but it's not bad. I've also taken to "doing coffee" with the spouse in the early afternoons, having a small "why bother" at Peet's... (For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, in some circles a nonfat, decaf coffee drink is called a "why bother"... Hey, I think it's funny...)
I'm taking extra Vitamin C, extra multi-vitamin pills, and being more religious about taking my calcium supplements. I am eschewing fats (for the most part), and trying to eat raw when I can. (Lenore, thanks so much for the very yummy tomatoes last night... I could live on those!) However, tonight, my husband called from work, let me know he'd be done far earlier than he originally thought, and said, hey, let's meet at the Elephant Bar for our "usual" Friday night drink-and-munchies episode. (He has a foo-foo tropical drink, I have a Cosmo, we both have an appetizer, and finish up by splitting a chocolate lava cake with vanilla ice cream.) I totally blame him for the fact that I fell off the wagon, and had a Cosmo... Shoot... I could kick myself... Should have had a lemonade... Oh, well, back on the straight and narrow tomorrow. I swear. And, if it takes me a bit longer than it ought to, to recover from the surgery, I will at least know that the Cosmo tonight was way good...
(Well, hey, at least I posted tonight...)
Hope you all have wonderful things planned for the weekend!
I mean, I had to watch the Vice President Debate last night sans wine! I had the sip-and-sew ladies over to the house for the event, and the three of them (one was absent) finished off a bottle and a half (well, maybe a bottle and two-thirds) of wine -- I drank fizzy water with a shot of bitters in it (a "mocktail")... Just not the same...
And, not having my bracing cuppa in the morning is even more irritating. Who knew I was so . . . attached . . . to my lovely Scottish high-octane tea bags? Hmmm.... I am drinking, instead, some lovely verbena herbal tea that I bought in Paris on a trip there a couple of years ago... with a bit of clover honey in it... Doesn't compare at all to my witches' brew, but it's not bad. I've also taken to "doing coffee" with the spouse in the early afternoons, having a small "why bother" at Peet's... (For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, in some circles a nonfat, decaf coffee drink is called a "why bother"... Hey, I think it's funny...)
I'm taking extra Vitamin C, extra multi-vitamin pills, and being more religious about taking my calcium supplements. I am eschewing fats (for the most part), and trying to eat raw when I can. (Lenore, thanks so much for the very yummy tomatoes last night... I could live on those!) However, tonight, my husband called from work, let me know he'd be done far earlier than he originally thought, and said, hey, let's meet at the Elephant Bar for our "usual" Friday night drink-and-munchies episode. (He has a foo-foo tropical drink, I have a Cosmo, we both have an appetizer, and finish up by splitting a chocolate lava cake with vanilla ice cream.) I totally blame him for the fact that I fell off the wagon, and had a Cosmo... Shoot... I could kick myself... Should have had a lemonade... Oh, well, back on the straight and narrow tomorrow. I swear. And, if it takes me a bit longer than it ought to, to recover from the surgery, I will at least know that the Cosmo tonight was way good...
(Well, hey, at least I posted tonight...)
Hope you all have wonderful things planned for the weekend!
Thursday, October 2, 2008
As Requested
And, I really have been having annoying issues with trying to upload photos to this blog. So, I have now officially thrown up my hands, and posted them on flickr.com... Here's the URL for my photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/elinorina/
Please take a look and let me know what you think. The photos from our vacation in England are in the folder cleverly titled "Travel"... I'm working on a longer post with some reflections on the trip, which I'll try and get up in the next day or so.
And, yes, I know I haven't been good about blogging every day (as I was advised to do), but I plead sheer lethargy... er, no, that's not what I meant to say... I'm really busy, I swear! Really! I know I'm busy...
Please take a look and let me know what you think. The photos from our vacation in England are in the folder cleverly titled "Travel"... I'm working on a longer post with some reflections on the trip, which I'll try and get up in the next day or so.
And, yes, I know I haven't been good about blogging every day (as I was advised to do), but I plead sheer lethargy... er, no, that's not what I meant to say... I'm really busy, I swear! Really! I know I'm busy...
Nooooooo!!!!!
Really, nooooo!!! I walked into Long's Drugs on Tuesday -- yes, September 30th -- and . . . Christmas crap!!! Already!!! Give me a break!!! What happened to Halloween? Thanksgiving? The High Holidays? (Well, okay, there's probably not a lot of call for Rosh Hashana stuff in this community, but hey...)
I mean, just seeing the Christmas crapola already up and displayed whipped me up but good! I know that the herd mentality is alive and well, and everyone is running around screeching that the American consumer might not spend deliriously this Holiday season and life as we know it will just suck. I have, for many years, been highly irritated with the fixation and focus on Christmas spending as the driver for contemporary American economy. It just bugs me no end. I mean, this is NOT a sustainable economic model, people. Plus, it really puts an unsavory twist on the holiday, at least for me. Please bear with me while I descend into a rant...
Growing up, my family didn't have a lot of money, but I never, ever felt short-changed at Christmas. But, we didn't go hog-wild nutso crazy, either. In fact, we didn't even put up our Christmas tree until Christmas Eve! I remember when I first moved to California, and saw people putting up Christmas trees on Thanksgiving... It was as odd to me as the Christmas I spent in India -- and THAT was odd! I mean, where's the mystery if your tree is lurking around for a whole month before Christmas morning! I cannot tell you the thrill it was to wake up on Christmas morning, and poof! magically, gifts had appeared under the tree. We'd usually put up the tree early in the day on Christmas Eve, but no decorations were put on until the evening, after dinner. (Sometimes, we'd cheat and put the lights on early, but that was being extraordinarily daring...) I recall some years, my friends from school would come over (they were all Jewish), and help decorate the tree. It was magic. And, the tree only stayed up until Epiphany (January 6th), and then it was all taken down and the decorations put away until the following year. And, by the way, we had REAL trees! The smell was heavenly... The tree would often be bought a week or more ahead of time, and would be put out on the fire escape to stay fresh. Sometimes, if I was feeling wild and crazy, I'd open the window and touch the tree, as it lay in wait... sometimes covered with snow!
I have to tell you that Christmas these days just doesn't have the same . . . pop . . . as it did when I was little. And, I'm sorry, but starting to flog Christmas tchochkas before October is just ridiculous.
OK, sorry for the rant... But it really did whip me up.
I mean, just seeing the Christmas crapola already up and displayed whipped me up but good! I know that the herd mentality is alive and well, and everyone is running around screeching that the American consumer might not spend deliriously this Holiday season and life as we know it will just suck. I have, for many years, been highly irritated with the fixation and focus on Christmas spending as the driver for contemporary American economy. It just bugs me no end. I mean, this is NOT a sustainable economic model, people. Plus, it really puts an unsavory twist on the holiday, at least for me. Please bear with me while I descend into a rant...
Growing up, my family didn't have a lot of money, but I never, ever felt short-changed at Christmas. But, we didn't go hog-wild nutso crazy, either. In fact, we didn't even put up our Christmas tree until Christmas Eve! I remember when I first moved to California, and saw people putting up Christmas trees on Thanksgiving... It was as odd to me as the Christmas I spent in India -- and THAT was odd! I mean, where's the mystery if your tree is lurking around for a whole month before Christmas morning! I cannot tell you the thrill it was to wake up on Christmas morning, and poof! magically, gifts had appeared under the tree. We'd usually put up the tree early in the day on Christmas Eve, but no decorations were put on until the evening, after dinner. (Sometimes, we'd cheat and put the lights on early, but that was being extraordinarily daring...) I recall some years, my friends from school would come over (they were all Jewish), and help decorate the tree. It was magic. And, the tree only stayed up until Epiphany (January 6th), and then it was all taken down and the decorations put away until the following year. And, by the way, we had REAL trees! The smell was heavenly... The tree would often be bought a week or more ahead of time, and would be put out on the fire escape to stay fresh. Sometimes, if I was feeling wild and crazy, I'd open the window and touch the tree, as it lay in wait... sometimes covered with snow!
I have to tell you that Christmas these days just doesn't have the same . . . pop . . . as it did when I was little. And, I'm sorry, but starting to flog Christmas tchochkas before October is just ridiculous.
OK, sorry for the rant... But it really did whip me up.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Home Again, Home Again...
Oy, what a trip! But it was GREAT!!! I have to say this was one of my all-time best vacations, ever... The flight home (about 10 hours nonstop from London to San Francisco) felt like a short hop, compared to those flights back and forth to Asia that I've been doing the past year or so. And I'm not even going to whine about the two infants, three rows in front of me, who took turns howling for the ENTIRE flight! I felt so sorry for their parents, I really did... Been there, done that... And, one of the infants was just about a year old -- old enough to get himself righteously worked up to the point where nothing, no nothing, was going to pacify him. I would have bet five bucks that, at some point, either or both of the little ones would have tuckered themselves out from crying, and fell asleep. Well, if they did, it wasn't for very long.
I will post more later, and include some of the photos that both I and the spousal unit took. But, for now, it's back to Load #6 of laundry... All the stuff from the Asia trip, plus all the stuff from this trip. How did we manage to dirty so many pieces of clothing?
Cheers!
I will post more later, and include some of the photos that both I and the spousal unit took. But, for now, it's back to Load #6 of laundry... All the stuff from the Asia trip, plus all the stuff from this trip. How did we manage to dirty so many pieces of clothing?
Cheers!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
