After The Ball

I suppose the above title would be more appropriate to use after New Year's celebrations are all completed, but for me, just thought it worked for the way I'm feeling today. Tired, disgusted, depressed - sure as hell no euphoric feelings one might have after the "ball" is over with but well, ok - that's just me today.

I haven't seen my son since yesterday morning when he left to go shopping with hi s sister although I did talk to him a little while ago to see if he plans to dine with us this evening. His plans for the afternoon are to help a guy from here in town move into his house with him and then, yes most likely, he'll be down for supper. Making a fancy meal - yeah, right! Fancy meals are NEVER a part of my cooking vocabulary! Right now, I've got a mixture of dried northern beans and dried limas cooking/soaking - with pieces of onion, celery, carrots and ham mixed in and later, I will make up the homemade noodle/dumplings and cook them up in the broth, add that to the bean mixture, pour the broth over the top of that and bake it for about an hour, till most of the liquid is absorbed then into the dumplings. The kids like it, it's not really difficult to make and will use up the ham that is left that my daughter brought up Sunday night for supper.

I got a new book for Christmas - by David Sedaris - an author whose works I really enjoy. This book is titled "Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim" and I hope to dig into it soon in hopes his humor will lift me out of the depths of whatever blue funk this is I find myself swimming in of late. My kids have given me two other books by Mr. Sedaris over the past two Christmases and I have enjoyed them both very much, so cross your fingers and hope this works!

Sitting atop my printer right now is another gift I received - an 8x10 photo of my beautiful little grandson - Kurtis - taken the same day that we had the kids Christmas pictures done over at K-Mart but Mandy had never shown me this particular proof so I was quite surprised by it. He's seated, leaning sort of against a snowman, holding a (phony, of course) snowball in his had and the smile on his face, the devilment look in his eyes, is just absolutely priceless! Just so cute, he is in the photo - just like he is so special and such a cutie in real life too!

I also got a little flower pot candle that says "Grandma" on it and under that is written "God couldn't be everywhere, So he made Grandmas." Nice thought and I just wish I could really be the kind of Grandma that is being depicted in that candle.

The other present I got is something you, my readers, will no doubt benefit from now and again. It's a day calendar of "Bushisims" - quotes of George Bush's best and brightest "mispeaks" and I love it. Anyone who knows me even half way well knows GWB is not one of my favorite persons - definitely doesn't now nor ever will make my list of people I'd like to meet someday, that's for sure! But this thing is so great, these lovely little quotes, that I plan to try to remember to include at least one of these gems each time I make a posting - heck, maybe even will zap a couple of them in here when I come across some that are sooooo good, I just won't be able to control myself!

At least, it helps to lift my spirits slightly, gives me a little bit of my sense of humor again, so that has to be a good thing, right?

Just for an example and to get you started thinking about the New Year ahead too, here's two excerpts now.

January 1, 2007 - "If I'm the president, we're going to have emergency-room care, we're going to have gag orders." (St. Louis, Missouri; October 18,2000)

January 2, 2007 - "We;ve had a great weekend here in the Land of the Enchanted." (Albuquerque, New Mexico; May 12, 2003 - New Mexico's state nickname is "Land of Enchantment."

Those are the first two entries in this little calendar and I have to confess I especially love the latter one - for Jan. 2nd! WHo else but GWB would/could make a comment like that and NOT get ripped to shreds for mixing up the word "enchanted" for Enchantment? You gotta love this thing, just gotta!

Well, the afternoon ritual of trying to get Miss Maya to take a nap has begun. Actually, it started about 1:30 and it is now about 3:15 and still going on - with no success as yet! Currently, the discussion - which amounts to Maya making some comment (many of which we don't yet understand of her vocabulary) and it usually is some word that she seems to feel will change the direction of where her actions are supposed to be going right now. She's good at that art form for a three-year-old. Often, the words are things like "Poop?" or "Tow Mater?" - both of which she has found can be used as signals - at times - that she is in need of some better smelling clothing apparel - sometimes, not all times though - one must remember that part. Then there is the standard "No Okay." she gives us too meaning she doesn't want to do this and it is not okay by her standards. Well, too bad, so sad my dear child, but you're going to have to accept the fact, hopefully sooner than later, that you DON'T rule this household! In that respect, she is really being a very slow learner, I must add!

Well, we have now graduated from the playpen to sitting in Gram's lap -another ploy of hers but it beats the heck out of the loud screeches that were coming from her prior to this move. Now, I think she and I will migrate to my room, to my bed, and lay down there.

Who knows, maybe we will both get lucky and manage to squeeze in a short nap - after which we will - hopefully - both feel much better, both of us more fit for human consumption.

It could happen!