Birthday Christmas

I had a really nice Christmas this year. It started out with The Boy's birthday, tho, as that comes first (Dec 23.) That was not as nice. His girlfriend took him out to breakfast with his friends, and I asked if he could come back and stick around for most of the day, because his grandparents, etc., might want to call him on his birthday. He said sure.

Then he left for breakfast around noon and didn't even call until 5. I was SO mad at him. I had started getting angry around 3. I just like people to do what they say they're going to do. When he got home, I asked why he said he'd stick around and then didn't even try. He said he'd been playing monopoly and lost track of time. I said that would be a good excuse for a few hours, but not 5.

When we went to dinner at Chilis, I got back at him by telling our waitress that it was his birthday, so that they all came and sang at him and clapped at him and gave him a chocolate shake. He hates that. Ha!

I spent all evening feeling acute pangs of disappointment at how he's turned out. I keep wanting to think he's grown up and dependable now, but he keeps proving me wrong. The next morning I reminded myself that my happiness cannot depend on the actions of others, or I'll really be in trouble.

We went to D's for dinner on Christmas Eve, and it was so delicious. She made jambalaya, and I was so full that I felt sleepy in church.

The next day we opened our presents. I was surprised to get a gift from Sister #2 that I'd given her last year - a cute little Karma kit. She never even opened it! I was kindof offended at first, but then I thought that since it's karma, maybe it SHOULD come back to me! What goes around comes around. In that vein, I'm giving it back to her for her birthday.

People told us they were cutting back this year, but mostly we didn't notice it. We got some very thoughtful gifts. Not as many as some years, but at this point in our lives we don't need any more filler presents. No more Christmas decorations, no knick knacks please.

There wasn't as much clean-up afterwards, and for me, no post-present malaise.

It was great.

How about you?

Good news and bad news

The good news is I got a call from the Dr. today - it was just a cyst, not cancer.

The bad news is that I got a letter in the mail - I didn't get the job.

All in all, I'd rather have my health than the job, so it's all good.


Happy Holidays!

Holly days

Things are always busy around the holidays, so you'd think I'd be used to that by now. Last week I was involved in classes for my seasonal tax job, while at the same time attending holiday parties, mammogram appointments, and an interview for another job.

This week I shipped out our Christmas packages, and had to go for a second mammogram, and then a biopsy. Crap! It wasn't pleasant, and I hope I never have to do that again. Mostly I hope I won't have to go through this every year, as this is the second time I've had to go back for a second mammogram. I'd be more worried, but this is about the third time Kaiser has called me back because of suspect lab or xray results. The first time was the worst, as I was pregnant with The Boy and they told me I had to "come back and see if you have cancer."

So Kaiser is very careful, and that's a good thing. But meantime, I'm not really worrying about it. I'm firmly in denial and plan to stay here unless something forces me to leave.

I did have one meltdown, one Friday ago. As room rep for The Girl's 6th grade class, I'm in charge of the holiday party. For over a week I'd been trying to get a copy of an "approved" letter to send the parents. That day I'd FINALLY found the web site, but there were no letters in the place they'd told me it was! I had to go to class/interview, and it was exactly one week before the party! How was I going to get the #@#$#@ letter to the parents in time to collect enough money to cover the party???? Argh!!!!!

Luckily my dear hubby helped me out. I sat down and wrote my own #@$@ letter and gave it to him to go to the school, make copies, and give it to the teacher to give the students. Luckily, the strict office lady was in a good mood and helped him with it, and my letter passed muster. I think the most important thing was that the letter clearly stated that donations were voluntary.

So yesterday we had the party in question. Hubby helped me schlep stuff to the classroom, and that was really helpful too. I collected just enough money to buy all the toppings the Girl specified, plus a nice gift card for the teacher. ($50!) We served ice cream with an assortment of toppings, and the kids really liked it. Then the teacher turned them loose to PE to help use up all their sugar-rush energy.

Last night the girl scout troop the Girl is in helped make a Christmas party for some girls at a foster home. It seems their regular sponsor dropped out due to cutbacks or something, so the girl scouts stepped in to help out. It went really nicely.

Now I can relax for awhile, altho I still have some classes to complete for my seasonal tax job. I can take them online though, so it's not so bad. Plus I have a few presents to wrap. I don't have a lot to give this year, but I tried to give generously of whatever I do have.

Hopefully I'll get some good news before Christmas. I could sure use it.

Thanksgiving 2008

Thanksgiving this year was really nice - better than last year, when the Boy had to leave after dinner to go work. This year he was home from college a few days before the feast, and it was good to have him home. Suddenly he appreciates good food and hot showers without wearing flip flops!

As usual, I tried to see if I could cut a dish from the full traditional menu (stuffing), but the family again insisted on having everything. The Girl helps more every year. This year she made sweet potato pie all by herself and mashed potatoes too. The boy helped by washing the potatoes and emptying the dishwasher. Without complaining! This alone was a big improvement over the last few years living with him!

Our traditional feast consists of:

garlic turkey (turkey cooks in bag, roasting the garlic below it in its juices mixed with white wine)
mashed potatoes
cranberry relish (I make mine a spicy salsa, but I'm the only one who eats cranberries)
sweet potato pie (we also like the casserole with marshmallows on top)
broccoli cheese casserole (the secret is buttered pumpernickel or rye crumbs on top)
stuffing (two boxes mixed with cooked hot sausage, mushrooms, and onion)
crescent rolls
gravy (with a roasted garlic flavor, yum!)
roasted garlic (spread it on the rolls!)

I experimented with using the meat thermometer this year, and the turkey came out to be my moistest turkey ever! Now you know all my secrets!

I don't usually make any dessert, but I'd made a good batch of pumpkin cupcakes a few days before, and they were very tasty.

I'll post the recipe for them on my recipe website soon.

The next two days we had a huge yard sale. It was really a blow out of our storage unit, which we suddenly decided we can't afford anymore. I think it might be a sign of the times, because K said he saw lots of other people emptying out their units too when he was there.

I met lots of nice people and many of them asked if I'd had a store. Mostly I meant to, but never fully got around to it. Plus my Mom works at a Christmas store, and has given me highly discounted collectables for years. Time to get rid of it all!

The first family showed up early the first day and walked off with lots of bargains. They bought a BIG box of stuff I never fully looked at for $25.

Saturday even better. I sold more than I'd ever at yard sale, plus I got rid of lots of stuff. One man had me change a $100 bill, and bought $6 worth of stuff. Two ladies were buying lots of presents for their church. I got to see lots of my neighbors.

Our neighbor gave me a good idea about ebay, and I think I'll do that with the stuff I ended up keeping.

The Girl had a friend come over who visited for a few days. Her dad came to get her, and started talking about the boys who are still having problems that seem to stem from the high school's basketball team - especially the last few years. We talked about the Boy, and I think I fully realized what a blessing it was that he found something else to love instead of basketball, and that it may have saved him in the end. Saved him from the kind of problems (drugs) the other boys seem to be having.

Something to be thankful for.

I can't remember ever being this "out" of money before, and it's giving me all kinds of creative ideas. Like giving away for the holidays some of the best things I didn't sell at our yard sale. Like maybe going on the Ellen show to pick up some cool giveaways for really GREAT presents. Like giving the Boy a gift certificate for paying for his cell phone the last 5 months. That's $100 he was supposed to be paying himself!

Any other ideas?

Homecoming and Round of 32

On Friday night, The Girl went with her friends to see Twilight, the much anticipated movie extravaganza. She had a lot of fun and spent the night with her friends.

Saturday, we drove down to Cal State Univ Long Beach to see The Boy and go to the game. He was really cute, showing us around and introducing us to everyone he knew. His girlfriend was there, of course.

K had said he wanted to buy stuff for Christmas, but he forgot all about it when we were there! He kept stopping to film us instead, so I called him over and reminded him. So we looked at some shirts and he said he wanted to get one for The Boy. So I held one up and asked if he thought it would fit the Boy, and he turned around and said, "Hey Boy! Do you think this will fit you?" I couldn't believe it!

We kindof walked around until the game started, and then we went into the Pyramid. Long Beach doesn't have a football team anymore, so Homecoming is for their basketball team. The team started off badly, and at one point was down 24 points! Somehow they chipped away at the difference, and finally came back and got ahead of Weber State right before the end of the game. With seconds to go, they were still up 3 points, and a guy from Weber State team hit a 3 pointer to tie up the game! He went down on the floor and pulled back his fist, like "YEAH!"

So we went into overtime, and somehow CSULB pulled out and won. That was good, because it was their homecoming and all. It was an exciting game.

I almost forgot, one of the most exiting things about the night was that they honored some prior coaches at halftime, and especially Coach Jerry Tarkanian! He is one of our favorite coaches since he was at UNLV and they called the arena the "Shark Tank" after "Tark the Shark" Tarkanian! He looks very old now, but it was such a nice surprise to see him there!

The next day K went to work early, and I carpooled to go to the Girl's game in San Bernadino. On the way there, I heard more about girls who may be quitting the team. The coach told me a long time ago this would happen. If we were winning, everyone would be happy. But you go up a level and start losing, and parents get unhappy. IMHO most of these girls in question are not that strong anyway. They played fine when we were a bracket lower, but they never stepped up their game to the higher level. It will hurt if the best girls leave, but we're not going anywhere. The girl has been on this team since the beginning, and will stay with this coach. This is a club team that is affordable, so we'll be staying unless the whole team disbands.

The game itself couldn't have been closer. We were playing a team in the same bracket from a different area, and we seemed pretty closely matched. The first half the action was in front of OUR goal much too often. The second half, we spent more time in front of their goal, but we just couldn't score. We were tied 0-0.

So we went into the kickoff phase, which I haven't seen since my son played AYSO many years ago. One by one the 5 girls from each team took their kicks, and every kick went in for both teams. So we went to the second phase, where the second five girls kick. Our second kicker kicked it right to the goalie and they made their next kick, so that was it. We lost 6-7, but the girls seemed OK with it. They had played well and come very far (round of 32), so they seemed pretty happy in the end.

Now it's basketball season!

Tough Soccer Season

This has been a tough season for the Girl's little (U12) soccer team. Last year they placed first in their bracket, so they moved up a bracket. So all season they played tougher teams, and they tried and tried, but only won one game. They tied 3 or 4, and lost the rest.

After the game last weekend, we had to confront the Girl about her drama on the field, when she has trouble breathing and drops to the ground when she's frustrated. It never happens if they're winning. It's a lot of drama, and the coach is good about it, but it happens way too often. We felt that she needs to communicate with her coach more or something, but she needs to find a better way to handle her feelings.

Saturday they needed to beat the "worst" team in the bracket to move up a spot, but instead we gave them their first win of the season. So we ended up in the same bottom spot as this other team, and will have to move (with them) back down a bracket. To me, this is not the worst thing in the world as they'll be more likely to win, and it's definitely more fun to win.

But there are people who feel that's not the point, and the Girl sure took it pretty hard. She was crying at the end of that game.

Then Sunday League Cup started, and they played 2 games. First of all, the air quality was not good because of the fires. We played in Burbank, and at 8 am we could see a brown cloud in the valley below us. I could smell the fire in the air, so I advised the girl to hit her inhaler even tho she didn't think she needs it anymore.

Secondly, I noticed a lot of grumbling from different parents. We have 16 players now, and it's good to have a good bench, but parents don't like to see their kids on the bench. One parent said that the coach is too negative, and that her daughter hasn't improved this season. So it's the coach's fault her daughter isn't improving?

Anyway, in the first game The Girl scored! It was so exciting. But then the other team tied the score. Darn.

We came back for a game at 2, and the field was now inside the brown cloud. It was also very hot. The sky looked a bit yellow, and one mother took her daughter home. We asked the refs about it, but they'd just reffed another game, so they thought it was fine. One mother asked the refs if the girls could take a water break during the game because of the weather, but the other team said no.

Why? I don't know, but they didn't seem very nice. I think they scored first with a big kick over the goalie's head from practically midfield. Then we scored and it was tied. During the second half, I went to sit in a spot of shade under a tree at the end of the field. A man was sitting there with 3 little girls, and were just hanging out for the day watching soccer games.

I was taping the game for K, and just chatting with this man when a lady from the other team walked up to the line judge near me, and pointed at us. She told him to tell us to move, as we were with the other team and were shouting instructions to the girls.

The man got his back up about this, and said, "You're one to talk! You're over there coaching from the sideline!" Truly, I hadn't even noticed her before, but clearly he had.

I was annoyed, and told the line judge, "He isn't even WITH our team! He's just over there watching a game!" as I stomped off. During all this, the ref called a handball against the other team in front of their goal, and darned if we didn't score again!

I told the coach, "You should slow the game down! Substitute a lot! (like the other coach did to us yesterday)" He told me to take it easy, as I'd already caused enough trouble for the day. (he was kidding) I laughed and noted that I'd even gotten an innocent person in trouble! And I wasn't even trying!

Anyway, the Girl's team won, and it felt really good to win. Everyone felt a lot better.

After the game I went back over to the man, and he told me his name was Mark. He was glad our team won too.

You might remember that last year the Girl's team placed first in their bracket (which was why they moved up a level), but then lost two games the next day. They went from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows the very next day, and that felt really bad.

I think I preferred it the way it happened this year.

Language differences

Lately I've been thinking about language and how we use it. We noticed our next door neighbors seemed to be taking everything out of their house, and K remarked to them that they seemed to be doing a lot of work.

She nodded in agreement and said, "Yes, we replaced the house." I think this was a language gap, but I kindof liked it. We put everything in a new place - we replaced it!

Then I was listening to the TV news coverage when the fires broke out in Montecito.

Why do people say things in a complicated way when a simple word would do just as nicely? One man said they were going to "Effectuate" a plan, instead of just saying they would put a plan into effect. Then he said that another man had "endured the implications of this fire." when the fire had burned down his house! I thought that was a colorful, if not specific, way to put it.

Then the Fire Chief was the master of understatement. Reporters asked him to describe the character of the area for people outside California, and he said it was the "Riviera" of the area, with lots of homes in the hills. The reporter pressed on, asking if he could characterize the community, and the Chief said, "It's very nice."

By that he meant very expensive homes in an extremely expensive area near the ocean, with many homes in Spanish style motifs.