Category Archives: Love/Loathe

January 20, 2011 · 11:48 pm

Love & Loathe – Week of 01/16

Loathe:

* Tug’s attitude this week toward his cat, Snug. Snug had his teeth cleaned on Monday, so he went under anesthesia, spent the day at the vet’s office, and that night isolated for his safety. Now Tug is acting like he hates him, growling and hissing at him when he gets within eyesight. Poor Snuggy — he’s the one who should have been traumatized, not Tug. Speaking of irrational behavior, did you notice the full moon this week?

* Troubling or frustrating things that cause fear. We’re keeping it general this week.

Love:

* Grocery stores with bins. Bins with dried beans, bins with coffee beans, bins with different types of granola, bins with trail mix, bins with banana chips, bins with chocolate covered cranberries, bins with bulk items that I can buy as much or as little as I want. Bin heaven!

* Banana chips. Have I mentioned our current addiction to banana chips? It’s been going on for 2-3 months now, so it might be an addiction that’s gonna stay around for awhile.

* Snug snuggle time. Since Tug has been ~~angry, bitter and abusive~~ turning Snug away, Snug has been turning to me for love. Which I find to be very sweet, but also funny because the entire time Snug spends on my lap, Tug spends staring at him on my lap, growling. Jealous much?

* MLK week. Everyone was reminding me to remember MLK this week. I was sitting on the couch watching the Lakers game, glanced over to the other side of the screen to check the score, and there, big as an elephant, just above the score, was yet another reminder. So that night I went and bought some.

* Inspiration in the least expected places — like a traffic jam on the freeway today.

One Last Thing:

I had my first raw dairy convert this week. A lady at work was talking about how milk made her sick and she couldn’t have ice cream or any of that stuff. I asked her if she’d ever tried raw milk. She had no idea what I meant. So, I explained how the pasteurization process kills all the good bacteria that most people need for proper digestion of dairy. Something like 90% of people who think they’re lactose intolerant are actually “pasteurization process” intolerant. Milk straight from the cow, from a clean dairy, bypasses all that nonsense.

She expressed a strong interest in trying “real” milk but was afraid of it “not working” and then having to deal with the side effects. Oh, how well I understood (and remembered) that feeling from my sojourn into raw milk back in 2006.

We emailed back and forth a couple times, she was planning out her weekend to factor in any “downtime” and making the most of her possible malaise to annoy her husband. Ha!

As it happened, I was replenishing my inventory of raw milk, so I bought an extra jug and gave it to her. She tried it last night and emailed me this morning in absolute thankfulness. She’d daringly tried some last night and, to her surprise, she was miraculously OK! *happy sigh*

I love that my aunt encouraged me to try raw milk four years ago. I desperately love my raw milk. And I really, really love it when a small gift turns into a bigger blessing because of what it means to someone.

12 Comments

Filed under Kid Substitutes, Love/Loathe

January 16, 2011 · 4:42 pm

Love & Loathe – Week of 01/09

Loathe:

* When pets become high maintenance… like my fish seem to have become lately. The time and emotional burden drains me, I feel as if my priorities are all screwed up. Which, in turn, is making me evaluate whether or not I want to continue keeping them. Tony is encouraging me to keep them, but try to emotionally distance myself a bit from them. He has a point and I handled it pretty well when the albino female died abruptly last week from the fungus. But there’s still the drain of my time and I’m not sure how to get around that.

* Excel sheet misery. Honestly, people, look at the thing in “print preview” mode before you send it to someone and FIX IT so it’s printable. It really grinds to have to reformat something with 2 minutes to spare before a meeting in which the sheet is to be used.

* Scary pedestrian intersections. There’s this intersection by my work where it’s impossible to see pedestrians during early afternoon hours. The sun is squarely in driver’s faces when attempting to turn left, and the corner where pedestrians step from is heavily shaded. I know now, but the first time when I learned it, I nearly hit someone in the crosswalk. I was horrified! Since then, I’ve seen several other drivers do the same thing, with closer calls than what happened to me. I wish there was a way to warn the pedestrians.

* People who go into a public restroom and continue to talk on their cell phones.

Love:

* Crock pot cooking. I love being able to throw a 3 or 4 pound hunk of meat in the thing, a few potatoes, some veggies, leave for the day, and when I get home the house smells great and dinner is ready. So easy! Best of all, the meat is always so moist, it nearly falls apart just from looking at it.

* Having wonderful friends. I sure don’t deserve the friends that I have, but then there’s no repaying the gift of grace, is there? Two things make me mention this.

First, the HOA situation I mentioned last week, which I let stress me out beyond reason? Well, one of my lawyer friends said he’ll make a call to see if he can settle the “misunderstanding” without it escalating further. HOA law is generally kind of scuzzy law, and is so far beneath the type of law he normally practices, I feel incredibly humbled that he cares enough about me to try to resolve it for me.

Second, you guys are so amazing. I don’t know why I even doubted sharing with you a portion of my struggles. Thank you for sharing back.

One Last Thing:

We just got back from the mountains. When we visited our friends at our favorite breakfast place, Tony mentioned that he’s on a diet. The cook, Charlie, looked at him and said in disbelief, “A diet?” In a tone of voice that clearly said, why the heck are you in MY restaurant if you’re on a diet? A place that’s known for their enormous pancakes.

We got our seats at the counter and were talking about various things, all the things you talk about in a small town, shooting the breeze I believe it’s called. We had our orders in and Charlie was talking and cooking, and he turned away from the grill to get something and Tony glanced over and said, “Hey. What is that?” Charlie replied, “Nothing. Nothing at all.” And resumed his position in front of the grill, blocking what Tony had seen.

A few minutes later, with a mischievous grin on his face, Charlie placed this in front of Tony, and the entire restaurant busted out laughing. I do believe this takes the record for the smallest breakfast ever served in that restaurant… one month after the record of the largest pancake ever served.

Charlie demonstrates the size of the last pancake he created for us.

The real breakfast, served a couple minutes after the laughter subsided…

We went into town after breakfast and visited our favorite candy store, where they handmake fudge and all kinds of concoctions in there. They always have “trial” candy, and this time they had dark chocolate covered cheerios. Oh, the bliss.

We also always visit the local KMart and I found a couple pairs of jeans in my size. I tried them on and the black jeans looked fine, I thought, but the other pair I didn’t care for and couldn’t figure out why. I normally don’t involve Tony in my clothes buying decisions, but I called him over for his opinion and asked him if the black jeans made my butt look big. I love asking him that, by the way. He shook his head and said, “No, it just looks like your butt.” There might have been a bit of a leer, too, but I can’t remember for certain.

I said, “OK, let me go try the other ones on and show you.” I went in the dressing room and did the switch, came out and showed him. He was shaking his head negatively and said, “No, I don’t like those at all on you. It’s the color of the border threading. It’s just all wrong.” Basically reinforced my decision, but gave me a valid reason for it.

Grateful for an honest husband, I just had to shake my head at how weird it is that jeans from the same manufacturer, the same same size and cut, the only difference being the color, can look so vastly different on the same body.

Although a bit sad that our “free” internet access up there has disappeared, I was grateful to spend the evening watching movies together, eating popcorn and drinking hot chocolate.
The frozen lake…

It was … perfect. Exactly what we needed.

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Filed under Love/Loathe

January 8, 2011 · 11:03 pm

Love & Loathe – 01/06/11 (Late)

Loathe:

* I’m at an age now where I feel as if conversations with my elders should start with, “Now they’re still alive, right?” For example, I sent a Christmas card to former neighbors of mine, of whom I am quite fond. They’re getting on in years, I know, but the letter I received in response from Mr. K sharing that his wife had passed on mid-2010 just made me so very sad. Something tells me this age thing isn’t going to get any better.

* Got a letter in the mail today from a real, live attorney who represents my HOA. Apparently, they felt the conversation I had with their painting vendor last month, wherein I expressed how upset I was about them screwing up my plants and stomping our Christmas decorations, was threatening. They want money to pay for a different vendor to paint our house. There’s so much that’s wrong with this, I don’t even know where to start, except it wasn’t a good ending to my Saturday.

* Knee high nylons that fall down. While I dislike getting to work and tugging my knee highs up, it does make me think of my Grandmas and I love thinking about my Grandmas, but I’m not sure I’m ready to follow in their footsteps quite this early in my life.

Love:

* My latest snack of banana chips and vanilla yogurt. The banana chips add an interesting crunch to the yogurt. There’s a way to make yogurt out of raw milk and I’m thinking that I may need to investigate doing so given the “distress” I’ve been having as a result of my foray in the pasteurized dairy products.

* Cuties. Whoever came up with the marketing ploy of fun, cute little stickers on the outside of Clementine oranges? Genius. Pure genius. Everyone wants a sticker for positive reinforcement, right? Well, I do.

* Our vet who saved Slasher. I took my two boys (Tug and Snug) in last night and she was soooooo good with them. Even though Tug was yowling and hissing and wiggling all around. I’m not thrilled that I need to spend extra $$ on Snug, who has inflamed gums and a bit of infection. So, he gets a dental cleaning under anesthesia. Ugh. All in all, though, it might be a good thing, because everyone knows dental problems are the gateway to a lot of other health problems. Since bacteria on the teeth, among other things, compromises the immune system, it also increases vulnerability to catching upper respiratory infections. Let’s hope it helps him.

* Four day work weeks, just finished the third 4-day work week in a row.

One Last Thing:

Sometimes it seems as if we’re all carrying such heavy loads every day. I know for me, it has certainly felt that way. I go a couple of days feeling as if I’ve just gotten a handle on it, and then something else happens and I’m left with a tottering load. I’m looking up at this big pile of concerns teeter-tottering over my head and, above it all, I’m not seeing the One who can truly help me carry it.

I know a lot of people are struggling with their relationship with God these days. I confess: I am, too. I also confess that even when I’m not struggling with my relationship with God, it’s difficult for me to give my concerns to God because I want to be in control.

It’s so hard for me to accept, that more often than not, there’s not one single thing I can do to change the outcome of situations. So I do all this work and research, trying to figure out a way to change things, and time goes by and absolutely nothing changes, except that I wasted a bunch of time researching and thinking about stuff. I wonder why I bother, why I even try at all. Which then, why don’t I give it to God in the first place? Is He really my last resort?

Lately, I find myself wondering why I even bother praying. It seems as if His answer to my prayers these days is always a big, fat “NO.” Which makes me ask myself how it is that all I’m praying for, the desires of my heart, are so misaligned with His will for me and my life.

I find myself searching for hope and joy, thankful for the love that’s in my life, but overall feeling confused, conflicted, overwhelmed and just tired of it all lately… and I’ll probably regret hitting the “publish” button right now. But here I go, being brave and baring my heart.

Please be gentle.

24 Comments

Filed under I own a Home, Life Encompasses Me, Love/Loathe, Sometimes Thinking Exhausts Me, We're all searching for something

December 30, 2010 · 6:44 pm

Love & Loathe – 12/30/10

Loathe:

* Seasonal gym crowders. They’ll start showing up next week and either thinning up and sticking to it (yay!), or thinning out to return next January (boo!), by February. Please, if “getting in shape” is on your resolution list, stick to it! It’s so worth it. Don’t be a seasonal statistic.

Love:

* Theme parks without crowds. I read, horrified, that Disneyland closed twice this week due to reaching maximum capacity. Hard to believe how few people were there when we went last week (4 popular rides in the 2 hours we were there, walked right on 3 of them and a 5 minute wait for 1), and how many people “maximum capacity” might be (2 hour waits for each of the rides we rode) in a place so big. Disneyland on a day like that does not sound like the happiest place on earth to me.

* Well placed encouragement. Fish Whisperer says my female cichlid is well on her way to being better and commended me on doing a great job. I’m not usually needy for praise (yes, I am!!) but sometimes, like in this situation, I had been feeling very discouraged and overwhelmed, and his encouragement meant a lot to me.

* Snug is feeling better. I came home last night and he was out from his self-isolation, weaving himself around the kitchen table legs. I scratched his ears a bit, which he leaned into, and then I went upstairs to change clothes. (Back story: For the last couple days, I had been storing a special bowl of food in my rolltop desk that I would bring out and feed him from to keep his sick face out of the “public” food bowl.) When I went upstairs, Tony said he started hearing weird clinking noises and he couldn’t figure out where they were coming from — you see, I had forgotten to close my desk, and Snug took it upon himself to hop up there and feed himself. Snug had been so sick, I wasn’t even certain he had known where I was hiding it. Obviously, he had noticed. Even funnier, there had only been about four morsels of food left in that bowl. Tony pointed out succinctly, “Not anymore…”

* Holiday euphoria. I love the relaxed and easy attitude that everyone has at work when a short work week is book-ended by 4 day weekends. I really wish it could be like that throughout the year. I’ll miss it next week…

* Unused sick time and cool bosses. Both of my bosses told me to leave early, but I fully intended to work my full day today. Then I discovered that I had two hours of unused sick time leftover for this year. Sick time is a “use it or lose it” deal. So, I gave them a heads-up, finished up my work, and after 6 hours on the clock told them that I suddenly felt unwell. They both laughed and encouraged me to please “take care” of myself.

* Facing a 4-day weekend. I love this moment right now and wish I could stop time just to hold this anticipation in my hands a bit longer.

One Last Thing:

It’s been quite a year here in the House of JammieJ. When I looked down the binoculars last January toward the end of this year, I saw something completely different. In fact, those pretty pictures I saw in my binoculars turned into an upside down kaleidoscope with pieces everywhere. Several times throughout the year.

Hope and joy have actually been pretty difficult for me to hold onto this year, which eased open the doors of depression and anger. Oddly, last night driving home from work, I felt something that I’m vaguely thinking might be… hope. Hope that next year will be different for us. The cynic in me is standing back, arms crossed, with a bit of a nasty weathered smile splitting its face, trying to stamp it out like wineries do to their grapes. But sometimes the cynic is wrong and, sometimes, through the stomping comes the greatest juice that an oenophile has ever tasted.

That’s what I’m hoping 2011 will be for all of us.

Tony somehow scored free tickets to the Lakers game tomorrow night. Assuming that they’re legitimate (they should be, but I’m always suspicious of free), looks like we’ll be trying to touch the back of Kobe’s head on New Year’s eve. If you watch the game, look for us. We’ll be the two goofheads wearing purple jerseys in honor of our team. I’m sure you’ll recognize us!

With that, I wish you a Happy New Year!

24 Comments

Filed under Love/Loathe

December 23, 2010 · 10:57 pm

Love & Loathe — 12/23/10

Loathe:

* She has some blue spots in her soft black eyes, standard for her age, or so I’m told. She’s my eldest female cichlid. I noted that she was acting oddly last week and when I did my tank change on Sunday, she had a dark spot on her side so I moved her into the hospital tank. I’m told by Fish Whisperer that it’s an extremely aggressive, highly contagious fungus. I’m medicating her, but it’s progressed to a horrible looking injury. I may lose her and, if the other fish contract it, well… (sigh)

Love:

* The people I work with were very kind in their generosity to me this Christmas. I am touched and humbled… I had no expectations of that. In addition to his “gift” generosity, one of my bosses also baked me a loaf of pumpkin bread. It is spectacularly delicious!

* My company made that “extra day off” rumor come true. It was nice to be able to run errands and take care of stuff today, like getting fish tank supplies and then doing a 70% water change in the big tank to boost the other fishies immune systems.

* Golden Spoon was the yogurt place involved in my debit card fiasco a couple weeks ago. To try and help me out, when I called her that afternoon she refunded the $2 charge on my debit card. When I gave her the new card number, she refused to charge it, said it was no big deal. Today I stopped and gave them extra money. I know the amount involved wasn’t that much money, but their kindness meant a lot to me that day.

* We went to Disneyland last night. I was chilly and wet, I had a pulled muscle in my upper thigh, Tony’s shoes were slipping, and yet we had the absolute best time. There were barely any people there. We saw the fireworks from behind the castle (I had a case of severe swivel head trying to see them all), we rode four of our favorite rides, sang along with the Christmas songs they were playing and just laughed and laughed with each other. Going was so worth it.

* I had steak gumbo in a bread bowl for the first time last night at Disneyland. First time for any kind of gumbo, truth be told. It was so good. Tony had clam chowder. It was a perfect warmer from the inside-out for the chilly, breath-seeing weather we were walking around in.
Look at the steam coming off of that!

Tony’s clam chowder…

* My new cookie dough scooper. It plops the perfect amount out every time and I don’t have to get my fingers or hands in the dough. I bought it at Target for $3. Best $3 self-gift ever. Even funnier, after I’d picked mine up I overheard a couple wandering the kitchen accessories aisle looking for one. I walked over, handed them mine, walked back over to the seasonal aisle and picked up another one. Totally cool moment.

One Last Thing:

One of the vendors at work arranged to have a canister of pistachios sent to me. It shipped straight from the pistachio company, with the FedEx label bearing the name of the guy who shipped it and the company information.

I amused myself with thoughts of what that guy’s official title might be… Shipper of Pistachios? Germack Culinary Nut Sender? Or, how about simply “The Nut Sender”… the latter is generic enough that I’m thinking the guy wouldn’t have very many nutty co-workers, and how handy would that be?

Here’s hoping you have a Merry Christmas, filled with all the fun nuts you can handle!

18 Comments

Filed under Best Husband, Love/Loathe

December 18, 2010 · 10:38 am

Love & Loathe – 12/16/10 (late)

It was dinner with friends the night of the 16th that kept me from you, My People. I know you don’t begrudge me that enjoyment, but I wasn’t here and I know you missed me. I did think of you, and I’m here now. Does that make it better?

Let’s find out what’s going on in my life this week, shall we?

Loathe:

* The bank saga continued from last week with a climax of me memorizing the PIN to the ATM card, but then forgetting the ATM card in the ATM machine. Then I ordered a new ATM card, at the cost of $10 (which I can’t get them to waive). I think I’m just going to give up and go back to my online money control. All this hard cash stuff is apparently over my head.

* Our homeowners association determined that December would be a good month to have the homes in our community powerwashed and painted, and have roofing repairs done. So we came home one day to find that they had disconnected all my plants in my back yard from their irrigation lines, moved them away from the house, tromped all over our Christmas decorations on the ground (busting the blowers and stakes) and powerwashed a few of the decorations on our house (shorting one of them out). Put another mark on the Impotent Fury chalkboard.

* I’m really, really having a tough time finding the Christmas spirit this year. I’m angry with God for several reasons, and it’s admittedly tough to have the Christmas spirit when I have an “F/U” attitude toward the Reason for the Season. I’m working on processing this, and maybe someday I’ll share, but this whole vendor thing is just the cherry on top.

Love:

* Every Friday, my company has breakfast brought in for their employees. I don’t know what kind of bagel this is, and I’m not much of a bagel fan, but I love this bagel. They don’t always bring it in, but it’s the only kind I’ll eat.

* The rain. It’s raining now and I’m hoping it will rain nonstop for the next three weeks. That would keep those painters and roofers away from my plants and our Christmas decorations. I guess a gun would, too, but that might land me in jail.

* Tony found these in Walmart. I think they are just adorable and they have Santa hats with jingle bells! The soap inside of them is really nice, too.

* Kindle for PC for free. No one told me you don’t have to have a Kindle in order to read Kindle books! I am so thrilled! I downloaded the Kindle for PC app on my netbook, and now I can read any offered Kindle book in electronic format without having yet another electronic device to find a plug for its charger or lug along when I go places. Or pay shipping on ordered books and have to wait. Or pay exorbitant prices at the snooty bookstores around here. I love, love, love this!

One Last Thing:

While we were out on the 16th, our friend’s brother pulled out his wallet and told us that he had made it. Out of duct tape. Oh, I know, all duct tape jokes aside, look at this thing and the detail that went into it.

And think about how sticky duct tape is, and then imagine making pockets for credit cards, identification cards, cash, etc. He said it takes him about an hour to turn one out and he can customize them to whatever needs a person has.

Me? If I tried to make one of those, I’m thinking I’d be stuck to the ATM machine, along with my ATM card, crying until they took me away to a loony bin.

23 Comments

Filed under Love/Loathe

December 9, 2010 · 10:12 pm

Love & Loathe – 12/09/10

Loathe:

* Banks that are too big for their britches, which is kind of how I feel about Chase right now. They gobbled up WAMU, which is one of three banks I’ve been with for years and years. Now I’m in the throes of disillusionment with them. I sense a change a’coming…

* Companies who insidiously raise their prices every few months by a couple dollars. Cox Internet, I’m looking at you right now. Internet was $38 a month and now it’s $41? Surely there’s a cheaper high-speed option or am I stuck with them since they have the unfair monopoly on this geographical area?

* Blue credit and debit cards. I got my new credit card in the mail, since the old one expired, and they changed the card’s color to blue. The same exact blue of all the other credit cards I have. My card is PLATINUM level, and has been platinum colored to match the level for all the years I’ve had this card. Why are they changing it to BLUE? (See “One Last Thing” below as to why this is such a big deal to me.)

* I woke up with a sore throat this morning. Why, oh why does getting sick always, always, always coincide with my period?

Love:

* There’s a rumor that we may get another day off around Christmas at my company. A morale booster type of thing. I gotta say, just the rumor of it is already boosting my morale.

* Tony fixed the drains in our bathroom sinks tonight… the stopper came out of mine about a year ago. The stopper came out of his two nights ago. Also, he found a better hair filter for the bathtub drain. I love having good drains.

* The lady who trims my hair. She is such a perfectionist. She takes extra time to ensure that my hair is even and that I’m happy with it. I love people who take pride in their work.

* My company is switching health insurance companies come the first of the year. In reviewing the new benefits plan, I’m thinking this actually might work out in my favor. Not totally, you understand, but enough to make me perk up a little bit.

One Last Thing:

You wouldn’t think the color of a credit card would matter much, but you would be thinking wrong. See, yesterday at lunch, not being used to the new BLUE card, I gave two vendors the wrong BLUE card, which triggered an insane domino effect of events.

The “wrong blue card” is connected to an account that we’re closing out. My simple error overdrew that account by $22. I was notified immediately via email, so I called the vendors and requested that they cancel and recharge the correct card (which they did), but the refunds didn’t show up right away.

So after work I went to the ATM to draw cash out of one of my other accounts which I cleverly intended to deposit into the overdrawn account. Except I never use my debit card for that other account, and they change the PIN on that card every time they send me a new one (which they also did a few months ago… a blue one) so I didn’t know my PIN.

So… I’m standing there at the ATM, befuddled as to why the PIN I thought was correct isn’t working and *TADA* my period hit with a vengeance and, in two seconds flat, flooded through the protection I was wearing. Oh, but it gets better.

So I go home and ask Tony if he can spot me some dough until today. He kindly said “sure,” because he’s the kind of guy that would give me the moon even if he didn’t have it to give. So, I then temporarily transferred funds from Tony’s account and the account I screwed up was then fine.

EXCEPT a charge he’d made three days ago hadn’t cleared his account, wasn’t in the pending area at all, but it cleared this morning, and that overdrew HIS account. So today he went and made a deposit from another account to cover my $22 error and the resulting $34 NSF fee.

I was on the verge of tears for a bit there last night, but now as I’m typing this out I’m sitting here laughing at the ridiculousness of it all.

Imagine, if you will, being the customer service rep at the bank and getting my call today wherein I explained all of this and then ended it with a plaintive, “All I wanted was a hair trim and a yogurt and look what I did.” Needless to say, she credited the $34 back. At that point, I’m not sure if she felt sorry for me, or if she was just afraid of what would happen to her if she contributed to the endless list of stuff that followed my simple color error.

Karma, you know.

19 Comments

Filed under He Fixes Things, Health/Endo, Love/Loathe, Sometimes I have to laugh

December 2, 2010 · 8:07 pm

Love & Loathe — 12/02/10

Loathe:

* This headache that I’ve had since Monday night. It’s one of those lingering ones that hangs out at varying levels of intensity. I think it’s sinus related, because food, hydration, sleep or pain meds don’t cure it. Also, I have a weird mental reaction to headaches in that I convince myself it must be because of dehydration, so I overhydrate. which means that I do lots of peeing while having a headache. Aren’t you glad you know that about me?

* Everyone at work has a cold in various stages. What on earth did you people do? Spend Thanksgiving with a bunch of sick people? And how am I supposed to stay healthy when all of y’all are haawwwing all over my work space?

Love:

* Productivity, even while being off my feet. Christmas cards got written and held for mailing until the 1st of December (thankyouverymuch!). I got pictures downloaded off my SD card (but not uploaded to the Internet). I reformatted and reloaded my primary flash drive (had a corruption problem). Oh, and let’s not forget about reading the first 4 Harry Potter books.

* Weirdly uncrowded theater. We had a date afternoon on Sunday and went and saw the new Harry Potter movie. Initially we were gonna go to the 3:15pm showing, but opened the theater door and stared, horrified, at all the people wedged in there, elbow-to-elbow. Went to the 3:45pm showing instead, and there were maybe 20 people in there. So I stretched out across four seats and watched the movie as if I were at home in my living room.

* We had a fancy meeting yesterday at work. For the fancy meeting, fancy food was ordered. This concoction is a chocolate chip covered strawberry. Have you ever seen such a thing before?

One Last Thing:
Christmas decorations are showing up… I saw this one on top of a high-rise building when I was leaving work last night. It gave me a moment of happy. Obviously. Because I took this picture to share with you.

We’ll be digging our decorations out this weekend. I’m half excited and half terrified… I’m fairly certain the stuff multiplies during the year while it’s hiding under the stairs, because there’s always more stuff than what I remembered having.

Maybe someday, we’ll do scaled back Christmas decorating … when meeting neighbors for the first time (still happens, even after 5 years here) the first question is, “Which house do you live in?” And when I say, “The house that gets over-decorated for Christmas,” they always reply, “Oh, we love that house! That’s you??”

So, yeah, scaled back decorating? Ha. Right.

20 Comments

Filed under Love/Loathe, We Love to Decorate

November 24, 2010 · 9:49 pm

Love & Loathe — 11/24/10 (early)

I find myself in an odd place this Thanksgiving. I had to take a couple days off from work to have a minor surgery, and my doctor has ordered me out of commission for the next few days to recover… which means I’m unable to attend dinner with the family tomorrow. I’ve given my ~~slave~~ husband orders to bring me home some turkey and stuffing. Really, out of all the bounty prepared, those are my favorite things of it all — turkey and stuffing. Not even the desserts compare. I know, you’re gasping in shock right now!

The meds they have me on make me quite sleepy, so my wish for naps and resting has been granted in a very big way. Which is why I’m writing now, because I may very well be sleeping tomorrow away. Huzzah!
How much of my yesterday was spent, note Tug’s possessive paw on my chin?

Since it’s Thanksgiving, instead of writing loves and loathes, I’ll just share some of the things that I’m thankful for this year.

* I’m incredibly thankful for having a wonderful husband in my life. He is sensitive, thoughtful, intuitive, responsive, responsible, loving and attentive. He makes me feel cared about, loved and safe, He is also prone to fits of goofyness, and his lack of self-consciousness is not only an inspiration to me, it’s also something that garners spontaneous laughter that just bubbles right out of my soul. I love this man that I’m married to so very much.

* My close friends. I’ve said it before, but it’s so very true: Having a support system in place is critical to get through the highs and lows of life. Isolating myself, even though that’s usually my natural instinct, is the exact wrong thing to do. For those of you who have offered words of wisdom, or support, or “just the right thing at the right time” — you are more appreciated by me than I could ever express.

* Having a job. Every day I wonder why I am where I am. I wonder why they seem to like me so much. I never, ever take for granted that I have somewhere to go every day and that I get a pay check. I do like my pay check. I always try to start the day like it’s a new job, that there will be new things to learn and expect the unexpected. When I have that attitude, I find it’s much easier to take the changes that seem to come at such a rapid fire pace.

* The basics of life. Having a home to live in with appliances that work, in a safe neighborhood, with (for the most part) great neighbors. Pets that are healthy and some that are working their way back to health. A car that is fun to drive and reliable. Beautiful plants in my back yard that I nurture and they, in return, give me so much joy.

* My health. This is something that I’ve not always had and I’m so pleased that, for the most part, I’m healthier than I’ve ever been in my life. I attribute it to two things — first, I found an exercise that I love to do. When I take my weekly day off from swimming, I miss it sooooo badly and can’t wait to get back in the pool the next day. Second, raw milk. Seriously. Unpasteurized milk has so many health benefits. (Link to read if interested.)

* Doctors that I respect and trust almost implicitly. I will never, ever stop asking questions, not after all I’ve been through with incompetent doctors, but the doctors I have now are either one step ahead of me and answer my questions before I ask them, or patiently answer my questions, and sometimes have changed the course of treatment to meet my requests… which means the respect is mutual. To finally have excellent doctors is a huge blessing.

* Fun socks. I know, this is so silly after all the Big, Serious, Deep things I’ve listed. But wearing fun or crazy socks under a conservative business suit is a fun little spot of happy in my day. Today? Cornucopias. Tomorrow? Turkeys.

With that, I wish each of you a very Happy Thanksgiving, filled with all the people and food that you love. If you’re in a part of the world where Thanksgiving isn’t celebrated tomorrow, I still wish you lots of food and time with loved ones.

Lots of love,
Jammie J.

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Filed under Health/Endo, I feel Glad, I have Family, I have Friends, Love/Loathe, Sometimes I Sleep

November 18, 2010 · 6:40 pm

Love & Loathe — 11/18/10

Loathe:

* Being tired. (Long explanation: With Slasher having been so ill, we’ve isolated him in the upstairs bathroom. His day starts early, since Tony gives him a thousand meds before he leaves for work. Maybe I exaggerate, but I had no idea one could actually give a cat that many medications at one time. Anyway, my hormones have been whacked out, so I’m not tired when I should go to bed and I’m sleeping so lightly that I hear the neighbor’s dog’s flea’s farts three houses away. Giving a cat meds at 4:30am is much louder than a flea farting. And then I’m not able to go back to sleep.)

Love:

* When companies send a survey form asking how they did. I don’t know if they will actually read my response and take measures to improve their service, but I spent time filling one out for the 1st overnight facility where we took Slasher. That place gave us such a horrible experience… maybe they’re good with the critters, but they were horrible with the humans.

* It’s one week until Thanksgiving. I’m really looking forward to getting some rest.

* I finally figured out where to park my car to get shade at work during the afternoon. I had it wired during the summer, but this winter shift messed it all up for me. It’s the little things, people.

* Buy one, get one free deals… especially when related to pomegranates.

* Baking cookies. I made some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, and some banana chocolate chip cookies. Both types turned out soft, moist and incredibly delicious. I predict I shall be making these cookies all winter long!

One Last Thing:

Every year when the baking bug strikes me, and I start making things with pumpkin in them, I’m always surprised by our little girl kitty. She magically appears in the kitchen, quietly watching. Then when I approach the trash can with the empty pumpkin can, she bursts into pleading meows. The first year she hovered around while we were carving our Halloween pumpkins, and swooped in every time we turned our back for the pumpkin guts. Thankfully, she doesn’t do that anymore, but I love that she now waits for the leftover pumpkin in the can.