Thursday, November 29, 2012

Turkey Withdrawal


Woo hoo!  I have signed school papers, fed a toddler, and fixed my daughter’s hair for school all before getting out of bed.  Hyperproductive day ahead no doubt, so I’m posting:

Hahaha!  I wrote that yesterday.  No wait, two days ago.  Left it in to have a good chuckle at myself.  Ah the hubris!  Oh well.  Almost a week later, I am still recovering from the twenty-hour round-trip Thanksgiving family van voyage down south and back again.  Honestly though, I have greatly missed you, my dear invisible—possibly imaginary—audience.  J  Thanks for checking in.  Do let me know if you have any Thanksgiving stories to share yourself; I don’t want to always do all the talking here. Or you could post a really nasty comment so I can make fun of you.  J  That would be diverting.  Meanwhile, I really need to redo this blog format; all I’ve learned how to do so far is change the background really, which I need to do soon for the advent of Advent… Hmm.

I want you to know that I certainly planned on posting before this, but I ran into various obstacles the past few days, above and beyond the usual unpacking and catching up.  Often literal obstacles.  Like my three year old standing in front of me with the dreaded CandyLand game; her version is played by leaping from one treat to another, while her baby sister chews the color cards.  Ironically, this sugar-obsessed game was produced to me right after I told her she could not have her sister’s leftover birthday cake for breakfast.  Seriously Veggietales… Veggieland maybe?  Anyway.  I was a bit delayed as well by the realization that a hard-boiled egg (mercifully still shelled) was lost in my king-sized bed, a sensorial attempt to teach my toddler about ovoids.  Oh yes, and my eight year old turned… nine, completely without my permission.  This required the yearly pilgrimage to the penitence of Chuck E Cheese, where I greet the migraine with a determined smile, thinking I really REALLY need to enjoy this because they are only young once.  I almost convince myself to do this…

Other obstacles included me tangling with a cord and slamming into my beloved Shark steam mop, which I somehow managed to step on in the debacle and snap in half. I now know what my husband will be getting me for Christmas.  And while I’m on a requiem for appliances, I must have a moment of silence for my GPS, which faded away into silence before our trip south for the holiday, naturally.  I miss it greatly, and await the Cyber Monday-ordered replacement with mixed feelings.  Will this new tech relationship be as good as the first?  Remains to be seen.  I will keep an open mind, though my former GPS just knew me better, my contacts and frequent destinations, the place I call home… sniff!  

One last excuse I will mention is the health issues we’ve been having over here: my baby is entertaining some stomach issue that causes the need for diaper changes on the hour.  That and my RA—an old friend of mine—made itself known in an unique way this week by causing both of my hands to swell painfully; usually it goes for my left, but this time it showed no favoritism.  This current condition is not particularly conducive to typing.  I’m waiting for doctors to call back as I pound away here with about 65% accuracy…. Loving the backspace right now folks…

But back to our trip.  I used to love to travel.  Really.  Car, plane, boat, train.  My husband and I drove cross-country for our honeymoon for crying out loud.  (No, I don’t recommend this, but we did it.  If we got a do-over, we’d choose an all-inclusive resort at a tropical destination, which would greatly reduce the anxiety produced for a new couple driving in the dark around canyons in national parks, seeking a place to spend the night.  Fun stories though.)

I think my latest Thanksgiving trip has finally cured me of all wanderlust.  We hadn’t even made it out of the state when we found ourselves in the emergency room.  My poor coughing husband managed to badly pull/tear a muscle while driving, and during his x-ray they found out—oh, by the way—he had pneumonia.  Did that stop us?  Not us.  Armed with new prescriptions three hours later, I was driving at a nice clip between concrete barriers in a construction zone with my stiff, sore, sedated, and snoozing spouse by my side.  Screams from the back then alerted me to the fact that my three year old had successfully let herself out of her car seat and had minimal desires to return, despite the highly persuasive shouts of her older siblings, “Get back in there!!!  Aw man….Mommmm!!” 

The nearest Walmart produced a new [Pink!  It’s pink! Your FAVORITE color!] car seat for her.  And sometime around 3 AM, we made it to our destination: a cabin located—somewhat oddly—right beside the site of the Battle of Chancellorsville.  It did help me keep my complaints to a minimum recalling how much sacrifice once occurred in the area.  We spent some time in DC, which I’ve always loved… very grateful I was able to share that experience with my kids!



Though on further inspection, the Museum of Natural History is essentially a dead zoo.  Just saying.  Still, the city inspired patriotism even in my youngest it seems.



This was followed by Thanksgiving with extended family, which went okay… despite the fact that one of the family took suddenly ill, while another demonstrated more concern for the well-being of the deceased poultry than for anyone else present.  But it was Thanksgiving anyway, we said a heartfelt grace, and I got to hang out with my sisters-in-law, which for me is always a positive.  If I didn’t like them as people (which I do exceedingly) I could not help but like them for their penchant of playing mommy makeover with me.  They initiated me into Black Friday—both the late owl and early bird versions—and I have immerged, through their stunning generosity, with more clothes than I have bought in my lifetime to this point.  I buy about one article of clothing a year usually, and yes, I still wear stuff from college, but hey, I thought I was doing okay.  They did not agree.

So I’m back here, still tripping dazedly around piles of laundry to be folded.  I’m so very, very tired.  I hope you all had a good thanksgiving.  Will post again soon, but diaper duty is calling again. Ttys, TLC 

(Meditating on this one today: “In everything, give thanks.” 1 Thessalonians 5:18)

No comments:

Post a Comment