i'm still here, still at a loss for what to really say these days. I am leaving for the weekend -- conference in sunny California. I would say it will be a nice change, but i don't think i will enjoy the sun much....i will be inside listening to talks ALL DAY. But anyway i hope i can get a good night's sleep, or two.
i feel like i have totally abandoned the blogosphere, i am sorry. I will be back. I am just trying to juggle more effectively these days, and it isn't really working...
I was very depressed last semester (i really had a horrid semester), so now along with my mom i am also taking the st. john's wort/vitamin D combo. I might have said that, i am not sure what i have said here. I probably haven't said much. It does seem to be working, it is overall making me more functional. The house is cleaner, there is some food to eat (usually), the work is starting to get done, the knitting proceeds...though somehow i now have like 5 ACTIVE (yet unfinished) projects at once. That would NOT be an improvement.
I meant to make an interesting MLK's birthday post (seeing as i still have all the content from last year's post-that-never-got-written) and of course make pithy-yet-hopeful inaugural comments, but let's just say i did that, OK? I might manage the MLK post within the next month, that deserves to be posted.
I would have done so, except over the last few days, it was brutally cold here, and when that happens our furnace can't keep up & it is 60, then 57, then 54 on our first floor (at which point dh notices and says, huh, why is it so damn cold in here?) and then due to the cold the car wouldn't start and the hot water heater wouldn't work. Well, we jumped the car every morning, no big deal -- but dh tried to fix the water heater to no avail (further damaging it in the process, ahem). Then it really starts to seem like my mother's house, i tell you. No heat, no hot water, car won't start. Thank God the internet was still working, though i was too depressed to use it...
In any case, mercifully it did warm up, so the house warmed and then the water heater started to work...(though obviously we need to figure out what is wrong with it, and replace the tube dh damaged when trying to extract the thermocouple) and i tell you, a person's disposition is much sunnier when she has clean hair & underwear. Until the car can't even be jumped anymore and you have to have it towed. And fixed, to the tune of $400. And the estimates for the fixing of the hot water heater are coming in at about that much, too. Those kinds of things really ruin the mood.
Which is a long-winded way of saying, 'i've been consumed by other things, but blogging should be back in force soon. Really. Honest.'
PS: write it down before you forget it -- the boys are getting big. Today, T. was standing there with an intent look on his face, obviously concentrating on some kind of diaper-messing activity. Then he looked at me and said, clear as a bell, 'I wet!' And then refused to let me change said wet diaper, but it was very heartening that the recognition was there. And, earlier, they had gotten A's game boy and were having fun pressing the buttons randomly & making noise. Their activity made the battery cover fall off. T. tried to fix it -- he put it on several ways and it wouldn't stay, so he handed it to me. Instead of just popping it on, i was curious -- so i handed it to M. (we call him 'the engineer', because he is forever trying to figure out how things work) He looked at it, fiddled with it for a second, then snapped it together just right. Pretty good for 18 months old, eh!
Well, we are back from the planet of the rich people....we were visiting the BIL for a week (he's a plastic surgeon). Everyone around here is frightened for their jobs/houses (if they haven't lost them already) & these folks have three new cars and a movie theatre built in the basement. Okay then. I even didn't bother to compute how much our country club dinners cost them, i just ordered another glass of wine. It was seriously like visiting another planet.
The kids had a blast, though.
I also took off for 2 days & went to visit my mother (alone). My mother's house is not like another planet, it is more like Siberia. I'm not going to go into the details, they are a mess. I feel vaguely guilty for not helping more, but after that water heater incident of a few years ago, i am done. If my assistance is denied, there is not much i can do. But my mother is extremely depressed, obviously clinically depressed at this point....naturally she refuses to call or see any psychologist, counselor, or doctor who might help, preferring to cry all day alone. I tried to get her to promise to see someone, but i didn't even get that. We did agree that it might be her thyroid so she promised to see her MD, but my hope for her follow-through is not great. At least i got her on St. John's Wort and vitamin B-12, so maybe that will have some small effect.
I didn't manage to finish knitting T's Christmas stocking in time, but we managed. Next year. Nor did i finish most of the gifts i had planned to make, oh well. There's always....next year.
C. was very involved in making Nicolas' wreath this year. Come to think of it, she was last year as well. This year, we had our Christmas eve dinner, and went through our usual traditions, and then C says 'Now we have to make Nicolas's wreath.' And she turns to the Dh and explains, 'He's the baby who died.' 'I know,' said Dh gently. I think she thought he didn't know who Nicolas was? That's how she said it. Of course Dh never talks about Nicolas to her so maybe that's what she thought. Honestly sometimes you just don't know whether you should laugh or cry.
The Swarovski stocking ornament for Nicolas' wreath is new this year. I have only asked them to make one every year for the last 3 years or so (whenever i figured out the wreath thing) , so it is nice that someone finally listens to a request! (or, rather, has an incredibly obvious idea themselves. DUH.) However i did not request it to be priced at a ridiculously high $75, those theives. I started buying Swarovski stuff for Nicolas that first year, and now i am just skinned alive at that store ALL THE TIME. I tell you.
I still have all the Christmas stuff up, i would love to get it down but i am so behind at work it isn't even funny. So i guess i should go do work now, instead of blogging. I am supposed to go to a conference at the end of this month and i have yet to come up with something to talk about....
