Now Playing -
"Little Mysteries" - Rickie Lee Jones.
Now Eating -
a candy cane.
Now Feeling -
craving the five-day break I'm about to get!
Now Tweeting
- Melanie
Ah, the last Friday Five of the year�
1. What was your biggest accomplishment this year? I�d have to say going back to Theatre Three and getting to do some really good work there. I�m really glad to be back.
2. What was your biggest disappointment? Not getting to play Marian in The Music Man. A blessing in disguise, since I thought the production was awful and I wouldn�t have been able to do the shows I did at Theatre Three.
3. What do you hope the new year brings? The sale of my mother-in-law�s house, my parents� continued health, and a resolution on their part to get their affairs in order, continued happiness with my husband, wealth (HAH!), and good health.
4. Will you be making any New Year's resolutions? If yes, what will they be? To save more money and pay down some debt, to de-clutter my home and, by extension, my life, and to get to the gym and get in shape.
5. What are your plans for New Year's Eve? Oh, same as last year�shooting champagne corks off of my friends� deck, high above Long Island Sound. Solo, alas, as Huz has a gig. But I�ll see him later. ;-)
So Christmukkah has come and gone. Hanuklaus was bery bery good to me this year, and as a result I will have much making up to do come Valentine�s Day. Here I was, trying not to overspend, and Huz (who admittedly and unfortunately went shopping without A Plan�and you simply cannot go Christmas shopping for your SO without A Plan) went absolutely nuts. Three books (including the A Mighty Wind songbook, which is definitely coming to my voice lesson on Friday!), four DVDs, two bottles of scent, socks (frivolous and practical), gloves (which we�d had to return last year and hadn�t replaced) and of course, jewelry. A very neat comedy/tragedy mask charm. There may actually be more, it�s all a blur. He is a fine husband, indeed.
I got an assortment of gift certificates and gift cards as well, from caroling and as gifts. I love those things. Well, except for the Maul gift card with its strange anthropomorphized instructions: �Please allow me to introduce myself, I�m a Gift Card of wealth and taste�.� You get the drift. This obnoxious thing starts deducting $2.50 a month from itself after seven months of (non)use. And merchants have no way of knowing the balance on your card - that is your responsibility. So if you have a balance on it that�s less than the amount of the item you�re purchasing, you have to use another form of payment first, and run out the card on the balance for the item. Pretend that makes sense. Let�s just say the days of �go to the Customer Service kiosk and get a piece of paper that�s legal tender anywhere in the Maul� are long gone, my friend. (Not that I don�t appreciate it, E., but I have to write about something here! And what better during this festive season than Gift Card Bureaucracy?)
So as usual we ran ourselves ragged this past week, and Huz is feeling slightly under the weather. Too much time with other people�s kids, go figure. Christmas Day was�interesting. We were at Huz�s cousins. For some reason, I felt a little removed from the festivities. There was a much greater representation from Huz�s cousin�s wife�s side than in years past. Not that I don�t like them, but there were fewer people to talk to who actually know me by name. I did get to see the second-newest baby cousin, Julia, who�s a little doll. In fact, I spent more time with the kids than with the adults. Huz�s uncle has begun showing his age. He�ll be 79 next month. The elders all have the gift of the gab, as in repeating stories everyone by now knows verbatim, and he�s no exception. However, it gets a bit tiresome when every conversation is turned back into an anecdote about him. He also said some none-too-prudent things about some guests easily within their range of hearing � there goes that Sophia Petrillo loss of censoring mechanism. And at one point, I was standing in the kitchen with Huz, the uncle and Huz�s cousin (his son/the host) when Unc said to me, �So! I hear you�re making good money now!�
�Who�d you hear this from?�
�Your husband�he tells me you�re making around fifty thousand now!�
When I picked my jaw up off the floor, I said to him, �P., I�m not even making half that!� I have no idea what he thought he was talking about, but I was almost glad I dropped that little bombshell within earshot of his $100K+-a-year-earning son. Yeah, let �em know how poor we really are. ::rolls eyes::
The other friend-related festivities were fun, though. Both Elmos, Chicken Dance and Limbo, were a big hit with the twins Christmas Eve. And on Boxing Day there were apple pancakes and bacon that ranged from flaccid to cancer-causing for brunch and then Chinese take-out that evening, which seems to be becoming a tradition. We crashed on Saturday, and got together with my parents on Sunday.
In the spirit of �clearing house and getting rid of shit I no longer need,� Mom and I spent some time in my old bedroom. I went through boxes and sneezed my head off while she watched, and we talked. Much of her side of the conversation consisted of �Do you ever take Allegra? Do you want an Allegra? We have Allegra! Take an Allegra!!� in response to my frenzied sneezing. But at one point (I honestly don�t remember the context) she asked, �You really don�t want to have kids, do you?� Without rancor, without sadness. And I answered her as I answer everyone, that I�m still really not sure. And that the way our life is right now, and for the foreseeable future, it is just not an option. That we simply could not afford it. That people always say, �Oh, you find a way�� (Mom: �Your father says that.�), but if that �way� involved us starving to feed our child, that wouldn�t be very practical, now would it? That I believe Huz would be a wonderful father, but I�m not sure if I would be a good mother (�You�ve always been afraid of having children.�) That there were issues pertaining to my medical history. �Oh, you can�t think like that!� And I told her about a friend who had an autistic child at age 40, and during her second pregnancy she found out her child had Down�s Syndrome, and made the incredibly difficult choice to terminate her pregnancy. And once again, how Huz�s sister found out during her last pregnancy that she�s a carrier for CF. There are issues. And yes, I would love to give my parents grandchildren. I see how hard it is on my mom not seeing her great-nieces very often, since they�re the closest thing to grandkids she has. But I just don�t know if it�s ever gonna happen.
Meh. End of �It Seems To Me I�ve Heard That Song Before.� Have a Happy New Year everyone, and let�s make it a damn sight better than the old.
Cheers,
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a very fine cat indeed - Friday, Jan. 17, 2014
happy new year! - Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013
this is where i am - Saturday, Jun. 30, 2012
this is how it is - Friday, Feb. 24, 2012
a very late last year's wrap-up - Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012
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