That Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Well, one of them, anyway! Yesterday, Darcy came by to visit for a few hours. We spent the whole time just yakking, catching up on all the topics we miss in our phone conversations, exchanging fun presents, and indulging in our annual photo session--this is the third Christmas Eve we've done this. It was so good to see her. It meant a lot to me.

We thought we'd shoot some obligatory Cute Couple pics while we were at it. One of them might make our Christmas cards next year.


At about 6, we had to kick Darcy out because I had to get up to church to rehearse with Amy and Sharon for the service, which started at 7 pm. It as a lovely service--carols interspersed with readings, some humorous and some touching, and ending with several verses of Silent Night by candlelight. We hung around for another half hour socializing over cookies.

We had minestrone soup and a few more cookies for dinner while we watched our DVD of It's a Wonderful Life, a tradition that Dad started maybe 10-15 years ago (not from my childhood). Paul & I have watched it every Christmas Eve we've been together--this is our fourth--and I love this tradition. This time we didn't have to cram packing into our schedule because we didn't have to fly anywhere today, or leave the house at all, for that matter.

We slept in as late as Mouchie would let us (about 8:30) and then enjoyed our stockings filled with clementines, shelled mixed nuts and dark Malley's chocolate foil-wrapped bells. We had a few fun little gifts from mostly family, and laughed at Mouchie as he played with the wrapping paper.

We roasted a 10-lb ham (my first ever). Wow, was that ever good. We got it yesterday morning at the West side market. It was a bone-in, non-precooked one, and super high quality. We coated it with a sugar rub with ginger, cloves, mustard and lime zest with pecan halves all over it--delicious, and not that hard. I managed to fit in a workout and we did our Christmas cards together while listening to David Sedaris's Santaland Diaries, one of our "sentimental" holiday favorites. We got to talk to Dad, Becky & Hannah, Eric, and Mom on the phone.

The rest of the evening's plans include watching A Christmas Story and packing for our trip to Houston tomorrow. Paul's family is having a huge reunion there from the 26-29th. I checked the weather and it's supposed to be in the 70s the whole time we're there! Whoo hoo!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

I Hate Being Late

Being late is one of the things that stresses me out. I've noticed that peole fall into one of two types: the Time Concious and the Time Oblivious, and I am firmly in the former camp. Other people have nightmares about being chased, falling off a cliff, or being naked in public. I have those, too, but my worst ones are about missing an important flight or being hours late for work with no way of communicating to the person waiting for me.

This morning, I woke up in the dark worrying about the Christmas packages (non-calendar stuff and kids' gifts) that I sent last Monday by Priority Mail (Guaranteed 2-3 Days Delivery Most Locations!) Surely they should have made it by Friday (yesterday), and actually should have made it by Wednesday or Thursday.

Yesterday Paul brought home a box of all nine of our calendars that had been sent to our box at the UPS Store. I had asked the company, Digi-Labs, to send them individually to the intended recipients, they emailed me back saying they said they would, but it looks like they all got sent to me. Oh well, they're here, so I won't complain.

I sent an email to you all, asking if any of you had received one individually, and since everyone who replied back said no, I wrapped them and sent them off today. There was absolutely no line at the Post Office today, as people are aware that it's Just Too Late for Christmas delivery, so there was no stress at all, and I am happy that you all will get them before New Years'.

So why the early morning stress? you ask. Well, Becky said she hadn't gotten my package for Hannah Jo, either. This is upsetting to me, because late Christmas presents for adults, especially when warned about, are really no big deal. But to a kid, it can be really disappointing. Flaky as I can sometimes be, I've never let kids down with late Christmas or birthday presents, and I don't want to start now.

I can't help but wonder what other of my Monday packages still haven't made it. I know Mom & Ron's did because she emailed me Thursday. Eric & Rusty? Alec? And it's not even my fault! Stupid Post Office.

Christmas Present Disaster

Warning to loved ones: Spoiler Alert Re: Your Christmas Gift

I was all excited that, after tracking the package all week, the calendars I had ordered were delivered today. We have a crazy weekend hosting a party tomorrow, then overnight guests Sunday, so the earliest I could lovingly wrap and mail our gifts out would be Monday, cutting it close but not so close that I would have to pay premium postage.

When Paul picked up the box and brought it home, he was suspicious of its lightness. Shouldn't 9 calendars weigh more than 1.0 pounds? I opened it--and it was only one calendar--somebody else's! I was SOOO PISSED!

No customer service contact info was in the paperwork, so I went to turn on the computer and find it online. While waiting for it to start up, I noticed the paperwork had a different order#, 2 digits away from mine, plus the rightful recipient's contact info, including email and phone number. She lives in El Cajon, CA! I was just flabbergasted that they could fail to notice the completely non-matching zip codes, at least!

So I call the number, wait on hold for a few minutes, and.........eventually get directed to an answering machine! This really didn't look good. I didn't know what else to do so I left my number along with a request to either fix it and send it overnight or give me my money back. Not trusting they would get the message, I also sent them an email.

Then I thought, hmmm, maybe Lisa in California got my calendars, and we can just send them to each other and be done with it. I should call. As it turns out, she got 10 calendars that should have gone to yet another family, in Maryland! Who, by the way, she has tried to contact via email and hasn't heard back from. Arrrrgh. Did I mention I was pissed? Ain't no way my family members and other loved ones are gonna get these in time for Christmas.

The tech guy did call back half and hour later, though, offered to reprint them and send them directly to my recipients if I just email him their addresses. So I did that and requested that they reply and confirm that they're really going to do this.

I still feel very uneasy, given that this is the beginning of the weekend, and the last weekend before Christmas, as it happens, and I won't even know they got the message until at least Monday. And if they don't get it together, your presents won't be there in time.

Cold December Health Update, or A 21-Pound Salute

It's been so freakin' cold here since Thanksgiving. In fact, it's the second coldest December ever recorded here so far. Because of the high cost of heating oil, this is the first time in my 23 years here that the room temperature settings in buildings I frequent have been cool enough that sweaters are a necessity. I have never understood the peculiar midwestern custom of cranking up the heat to 75-80 degrees, which to me is more appropriate for shorts and t-shirts than winter sweaters and layered ensembles a la L. L. Bean.

Of course we keep our house on the cool side, because we're on the frugal side. If I'm chilly, I just put on another sweater, light jacket, bathrobe, etc. and I'm fine. But even the landlord for the Cleveland School of Dance is being cheap this year, or perhaps merely negligent with heat maintenance. Usually in the past, the building is so stifling we are tempted to open windows in the middle of winter, but now it's noticably cooler. At first, I thought this was great. I could finally wear the cute sweaters I almost never wear and not be uncomfortably hot!

But every day, it's been getting colder and colder there. Today it had to be 60 or below, and my piano is right next to the drafty window. Everyone was commenting/complaining about the cold. The students were even getting silly the way you do during a crisis such as a blizzard or power outage. We felt the radiators--stone cold. It was like the heat wasn't even on! Between every single exercise I got up to jog in place or do lunges to keep warm, which helped a lot.

I have just been feeling cold all the time, and much hungrier. We've been eating things like pork with sauerkraut or barbequed ribs, plus a few Christmas cookies every single day (I made leb kuchens and gingerbread cookies last week). But (here comes the Health Update) being cold really gooses your metabolism, as it takes a lot more energy when your body is trying to keep warm. This is why our wise fellow animals fatten up all summer and fall, and by the spring have lost a third of their body weight.

I am now down a whopping 21.5 pounds in 13 weeks--that's 8.5 in the past 4 weeks alone! One more pound and I will be exactly halfway to my goal! Here are my new stats to date:

48% toward goal
Weight: -21.5 lbs
Bust: -3.25 inches
Waist: -3.75 inches
Hips: -3.25 inches
Thighs: -2.5 inches

Yay me, and still not a single day of relapsing! And cheers to Darcy, who I talked to last night--she's lost 20.5 pounds so far! We are awesome.

Also, after a 5-week rotation of my new FitPrime DVDs, I've started to do the other, more demanding set I got, the KickButts, every other day. Yes, they're harder, and I can't do all the reps yet. I don't think I overdid it today (it was a tough body-sculpting one emphasizing weights), but ask me again tomorrow. I hope I don't wake up feeling like I got run over by a truck.

The Challenges of Winter Walking

Ever since Thanksgiving, we have had bone-chillingly cold and snowy days more typical of January than of early December (technically still autumn). But have I wimped out and started taking the car to work at Case and CSA? Oh, nooooo. I am absolutely determined to keep walking 5 days a week all winter no matter how disgusting or forbidding the weather. I've decided I can walk in anything as long as I'm dressed for it.

The things I hate most about winter weather (besides it being the longest season of the year here) are as follows:

1. Sidewalks and roads with standing nasty water/slush due to poor drainage, causing me to get splashed by clueless motorists and/or coming to the realization that my boots aren't as waterproof as I thought

2. My face gets freezing numb, inspiring colorful language whan a particularly brutal blast of wind assaults me. This also causes me to involutarily hunch and cringe against the cold, therefore causing a bad-posture-induced backache.

3. Constant runny nose from the cold, or worse, nostril-cicles

4. Hat hair

My solutions to the above gripes:

1. 2 years ago I splurged and got a huge, calf-length down parka that is as bulky as a winter sleeping bag, but it's a lovely color, keeps me warm and provides a layer of protection from car splashes. Personally, I don't get the concept of short down parkas. I mean, if the wind chill's 15 below, aren't your legs and butt gonna get cold, too?

2. Last week I ordered this face mask online. Genius--it covers your nose to your neck without covering your whole head, therefore keeping your hair from being more of a disaster than it already is from your parka's hood. Sadly, the only solutions to hat hair are 1. Don't cover your head and endure the agonizing cold or 2. Give up walking outside.

This past week had wind chills in the single digits every single day. At least 3 people at work expressed disbelief that I was still walking, but your intrepid heroine was ready for it, slogging through unplowed sidewalks feeling fairy warm and comfortable, head held high. I had my mighty parka, with hood drawn tight, face mask, sunglasses against the blinding glare (it was sunny with a lot of snow on the ground), and laced-up hiking boots.

I noticed something interesting, though. Usually other pedestrians and I say hello as we pass each other, but now everybody avoided making eye contact with me, and some even looked a little freaked out as none of my actual face was visible under all the protective gear. When I got home and looked in the mirror, I could kind of see why:


I look like some sort of bloated, deranged insect. I have clearly reached the stage in life where function beats out form.