It's been
along time since I updated. Now that the last Thanksgiving dishes are
hidden away in their cabinets, and all of the leftovers are eaten, I
decided it's time to resurface. The excuses are the usual -- a combination
of busy, depressed, unmotivated, and annoyed with my part time free-lance
job. I am so relieved that the Fall book fair which I coordinate is
finally over!
Thanksgiving
is one holiday which I particularly enjoy because it's secular in nature
and no one need feel left out because they are not towing along the
acceptable religious baggage. A few years back we started doing another
art fair over the holiday weekend, so for the past four years we haven't
had Thanksgiving dinner at home. Even though we had very much enjoyed
celebrating with artist friends each year at a fabulous buffet in Cincinnati,
I always missed having this holiday with the kids. We finally abandoned
that show this year, and were looking forward to having everyone here
for Thanksgiving dinner.
We spent
the last week both getting ready for Thanksgiving, which I somehow thought
was a week later than it was, and planning for the next event in our
life --an art fair in Columbus Ohio coming up the next weekend.
The first
part of the week we made as much jewelry as we could squeeze in. On
Wednesday, when some ordered parts failed to arrive, we went shopping
for all the extraneous things we were missing for our feast like parsley,
veggies, and nuts and so on. Then we spent the rest of the day cooking
all the extras-- like cookies for the kids, (adult and grands) -- making
the stuffing and the sweet potato soufflé, the cranberry sauce
and generally preparing anything possible to do in advance.
By the
time everyone got here Thursday afternoon with their side dishes and
pies...count 'em...4 pies...I was almost to exhausted to eat....but
I managed to recover enough to do it all justice, much to my own detriment
I'm sure. Everyone left as stuffed as the turkey had once been, and
took home some leftovers, too
It was
great to be with everyone again, and we all had a grand time, only reminding
me even more that we don't do this often enough. I feel fortunate that
most of my family lives in the same metropolitan area, but even so,
we've all been so busy lately we just haven't managed to make the time
to get together much.
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Except
for going to a movie and dinner with good friends, which was also
great, we spent most of Saturday and Sunday working full steam to
get ready for Columbus. All of our parts are not here yet either.
But we have plenty to keep us busy and I'm sure we could make it on
just what we have now, but there are always those really good sellers
we feel we need to make twenty more than we really are going to sell
just to make ourselves feel like we are truly prepared....Ahhh...the
joy of production work!
Funny
thing though-- I noticed was that once I started to do the jewelry again
my attitude improved considerably. As much as I complain about doing
it, there must be something in it which makes me feel better. I never
gave it that much serious thought until this week. I've never spent
this long a time away from doing it, so it's either the space away from
it, or else it's the fact that the book fair bummed me out so much this
time, and I was totally relieved to be able to get back to doing something
familiar which did not involve interaction with lunatics as a part of
the job. It's all a lot of work...no question about it. But it's work
that is so completely familiar to me that I don't have to think much
about it at all. In that respect it can actually be relaxing, almost
meditative. Still, the "ten-thousand-and -and-oneth" ginkgo earring
really does have a way of tweaking my brain in the wrong places.
After
this is over I intend to crash, and hope to catch up with a few things,
and finally read a book or three! But then, there's the Christmas holiday,
just around the corner which I have to prepare for. But this time "Festivus"
(if you ever watched Seinfeld will you know this reference) will be
at my oldest sons' house. Thank goodness! My other son, and his intended,
will be coming in (from Bellingham, Washington) so we are all looking
forward to meeting her.
Until
then, I'll be forging ahead (pun definitely intended!)...hopefully with
a slightly better attitude, but no more updates until I return.