So it is Christmas Eve at last. It always seems to sneak up on me, this year I managed to get around to ordering cards, I ordered 40, and they were almost all sent out before I even had time to stock up for the people I left off the list this year who might still be sending to us. I am really very disorganized in my holiday card mailings, I once had a computer file with all the names and addresses in label format, but that was multiple computer crashes and wiped-out hard drives ago, and I never recreated it.
Now what I do is go through my old address book, which has more names crossed out due to relocation, death, or other disassociation than it has actual entries. After I have exhausted all possibilities, I move on to school directories. Then, if all else fails. I break out the swim team directory. But this is imperfect, and I miss a lot of listings. So far I have gotten two cards from people I left out and one from someone I knew I had forgotten but thought I might as well wait to see if I had any cards left. Now I am all out of cards. But it's too late for those "oops" cards anyway. Although I put one in the box at the post office just today. At least it will be postmarked before Christmas.
However, it would appear that I am better organized or spirited than most of our card-peers, as the congregation of cards on the piano seems to shrink every year. So either we fall out of favor more and more each year or this electronic age is just taking its toll on the exchange of tidings. We didn't even get one from the Doll this year!
Anyway, speaking of the Doll, I suppose we will see her tonight. I think we will have to go out for dinner, as my agoraphobia kicks into high gear around the holidays. This morning I spent two hours at Firestone waiting for an oil change, then went to the bank and the gas station. I had to practice deep breathing every time I entered the highway. On my way home, I tried to stop at Acme, but there wasn't a spot to be had, so I continued on. People were driving like idiots anyway, one guy was turned into a lane when he decided he'd do better in the next, and he suddenly veered his car back into the lane he had just turned out of, which was by then occupied by my Explorer. I had had enough when he did that, so I came home.
I don't know if the Doll will want to drive tonight anyway - but I'm sure she will get herself to church. (Last year we went to her church and some sick woman coughed on Brian and got him deathly ill for New Years, not going near there this year. I remember doping him up with advil and cough medicine to take him to the New Years Eve party and then having to leave him and Kevin home from the Mummers parade because of the sickness.) So as long as she is out, she'll probably be happier to go somewhere on a plowed and salted road. Our neighborhood was plowed, but the sheet of flattened snow hasn't completely gone away. I don't find it slippery at all, but it is hard and bumpy, and I haven't driven the Honda yet. It still has a mountain of snow on its roof.
My three days in the class I worked in passed fairly uneventfully although it is exhausting. I do hope that I can find something permanent by fall. Of course, now I have a trip booked in April, and I will want time off in the summer too. So maybe it is best if I just can stay busy with the subbing until fall and then find something right when school starts up again. But I'll see. Hopefully it will all work out. I got my final paycheck of the year yesterday and although it was close, it was less for 2009 than the final 2008 total. So I will see what the new year brings in terms of work. I'm going to have to take more jobs and be less selective, but I always say that. I also applied to be a sub secretary and didn't receive so much as a call for an interview (again.) I guess I should give up on this district and expand my search elsewhere. I feel a little paranoid, as if something is going on of which I should be aware.
And in other news, the bad holiday weather has been pushed back to tomorrow night, so hopefully we can make our trek to Philadelphia before it strikes. This was the reason I wanted to get the oil changed in the Explorer, I think I missed at least one 3,000 mile change and I drove it to Boston and all over NJ not too long ago. So it's all oiled up and gassed up, and ready to go. Then, after Christmas, Megan leaves for the training trip in PA. They will be gone for three nights, returning n New Years' Eve. I told her she could have friends here this year, and she says that she is. So we'll have our dinner out early and then come home and just try to stay awake!
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