I actually did another article for the site I freelance for. Read it here!
I’ve been rather productive this morn in the short amount of time that I’ve been awake. I made the appointment for my annual too. What a wonderful way to start the holidays. 
And now, I’ve gotta address envelopes so that I can get these out.
I’m going to be ambitious and try to get my cards out on December 1st. Hey, at least I’m sending cards this year….
There’s something about old friends. Here I am pictured above with my friend of 21 years, Robyn. She’s unfortunately in town due to some unforseen circumstances, and so what do you do with friends when they are visiting due to unforseen, sad circumstances? You….
A. Drive up cemetary streets backwards. I kid you not. See Exhibit A below:
This is Robyn driving up a gravity hill in Rose Hills. Check out this link on You Tube to see how weird, yet fun it is. All that Robyn did was put her mom’s car in neutral and we glided up hill. Over and over again….
B. You visit Octomom’s house! No pictures. Robyn was a chicken. But she did scream out to one of Octomom’s neighbor’s “I LIKE YOUR CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS!” (LOL…) I on the other hand have snapped so many from when she first moved in that it’s unbelievable. As Robyn said, I took her on the pseudo celebirty tour.
And we of course did other normal activities for grown women, such as hit the scrapbooking store. (BOOORING! 
) And saw pretty Christmas trees.
This tree signifies Christmas for me. And obviously for Robyn also since she wondered when it would turn on, as did I. This tree of lights sits atop a building on Whittier Boulevard that was once occupied by a bank that started this tradition. My mom would often say to my sister and I as kids as we drove by it, “Look at the pretty Christmas tree, girls!” And of course we’d ooh and aah.
And so, of course Robyn and I had to stop and take pictures of this now LED-light masterpiece. Can we say bright??? An urgent care facility now sits where the bank used to be. I of course prayed to not get the swine flu as I got out of the car with hacking people all around us. We lamented that Stat’s, which was next door to this building, has been torn down, but snapped away at the LED light masterpiece on our digital cameras.
Ahhh, the fun that two chicks in their 30s can have.
Please excuse the pity party post from the other day. I was having a horrendous flashback of stupid childhood traumatic memories fond remembrance of days that have shaped my life and made my family the happy, perfect clan that we are.
Granted, I’m not saying that I have this horrendously arrogant family. Not in the slightest. Are we human? Yes. Could we all be perfect like me? Why yes.
And I also realize that even though I am blessed with the family that I have, I realize that I have choices as an adult as to how I spend my time with them. Yes, as a Christian I need to honor my parents. I do honor them, and I continue to. I respect my family.
And I have to give up illusions that I have of having relationships with other family members who don’t care about me. And that, my dear blog readers, hurts. It hurts like hell.
I suppose it came on strong yesterday for many reasons. One being that it was a holiday. Aren’t holidays supposed to be happyhappyjoyjoy for all family members to come together and love each other?? (Note the facetious, smart-assed tone…)
It was also a quiet holiday yesterday. I spent it at my parents’ house. Just me, them and the dog. Bless my mom, she made a healthy dinner. No stuffing (Don’t think my dad didn’t comment on that one…lol), just turkey, gravy, veggies cooked in chicken broth (very good stuff!), baked yams and a dessert she made. It was very good! However, I miss the people around.
And that, my folks, is where the power of choice comes to play.
I had the choice to spend at least some of Thanksgiving with another portion of my family. And I realize now that I should have. I could have had dinner with my parents and gone over to the other family shin dig for a bit. Did I? For many reasons, no. However, I should have not worried about those other reasons. I’ve done that for too damn long.
And sometimes I need to realize that friends make family very often. The picture above is of me being silly with my dear friend Robyn this evening. I smile now thinking about the Christmases she invited me over when I just could not bear being around certain family members. A tear comes to my eye also because it meant a lot to know that someone other than family opened up their home to me to come and celebrate a great season. Friends can very often be like family. Praise God for that!
And so, I am blessed. I have choices though as to how I spend family time.
May I wisely remember that this coming month….
I wanted to look at last year’s post that I made on Thanksgiving Day, and I am so glad I did. Gosh, what a difference a year makes.
I feel pretty darned blessed that I have been employed now a little over two months. I’m starting to organize the finances a little bit better now and realize how imperative this is. I’m even thinking about contributing to my IRA again. Wow. What a difference a year makes.
Thanksgiving will be different this year. It will only be me, my parents and the dog. And that is fine. The dog will probably eat the others’ share anyway. Seriously though, it will probably be more peaceful not having to deal with the bs of being around people you really don’t want to be around-nor do they want to be around you.
I do think about family get-togethers for Thanksgiving when I was a kid though. My maternal grandparents had it in a room that they had specifically built in the back of their house in the ’80s for family dinners. My aunt and uncle and cousins lived in Northern California and drove down every single Thanksgiving (they both had parents down here, so I’m sure they felt they had to). My uncle would get off work around 6 PM (had to emphasize that one, you’ll see why in a moment), sleep for an hour or two as my aunt would finish packing up the family stuff for the trip ahead, and then they’d always call my grandparents around 8 at night to let them know they were hitting the road. At 8 at night. It always became a ritual for my mom to call Grandma then and ask when they left their house for the eight-hour drive and then say to my dad once she got off the phone, “Holy ****! They just left their house for the drive down here!” I can now see though why they developed this ritual. Less traffic travelling that late at night. (I thought about that yesterday when driving back from my weight loss class and the 55 freeway was crawling with people getting out of town.)
I always found it kind of sad that we never reciprocated this drive as often as my aunt, uncle and cousins did. One of my cousins commented on that to me about 15 years ago and she was right. It was sad that it was so one-sided. Did my aunt and uncle make the choice to make all these car trips? Yes. Should we have visited them for a few Thanksgivings? Yes. They probably would have fallen over in shock if we had. It happened though. And now, it’s just us.
So the moral of the story? (This had to end eventally… LOL…)Communicate. Tell your family members what you feel instead of being the martyr.
Maybe then you will at least want to spend Thanksgiving together.
Yesterday just got away from me, so I will post both Monday and Tuesday in this entry.
-The above photo is my jewelry of the day.
-Took out my trash. I lead an exciting life, don’t I?
-Got some incredibly bad news from an old friend of mine that just totally shocked me.
-And the day got away from me after that………….
And today’s photo…LOL….
-Talked to said friend once she and her husband hit California.
-Went to my weight loss class. Eighty-plus pounds loooost!!! We talked today about having healthy Thanksgiving food. Extra veggies in the stuffing. That Dairy Queen blizzard she talked about sounded gooood! LOL…..
-Am now officially trained at work. Been there almost two months.
I should get to bed now so that I can make my calls in the AM!
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