One Less Lonely Person In The World

I received a phone call from my sister Rose while making whole-wheat pancakes this morning. Rose finally said she was going down to visit my folks for a few hours on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning; did I want to come? Yes, I did. I'll talk to Bruce and Ken, but if this year is anything like last year, they probably won't do anything until the afternoon, and I really can't take Boxing Day off. I don't want to go through the "losing my holiday pay" thing again like in early July. I REALLY need the money; Christmas shopping and normal expenses wiped out my meager paycheck from last week, and I have a larger-than-normal phone bill this month thanks to setting up the Internet.

So, it sounds like I'll spend Christmas Eve in Cape May and Christmas afternoon here again. I don't mind so much this time. I'm determined not to feel lonely again. After all, I have friends - Lauren and Amanda, Linda and James, Tina and Rita and Cheri, Erica and my co-workers and the librarians at the Haddon Township Library, Miss Ellie and Miss Nancy and the neighbors, both sides of the family, not to mention Miles, Mary, Clarence, and Rosie. They know me, and they love me. Just because they're not here doesn't mean they love me any less. I still wish they were all here, that SOMEBODY could be here, but I know they care.

I'll figure something out. Maybe I'll volunteer in a soup kitchen, or find out what local restaurants are open on Christmas Day and treat myself to an extravagant dinner, or hop a bus to Deptford or Cherry Hill and go to the movies (I'm dying to see Enchanted), or go window shopping in Philadelphia.

I volunteered at the library this afternoon. I finished off the true crime section and did the college and school books. Boy, did THAT section need it. The Haddon Township Library is between two large public schools and not far from one of the bigger local Catholic schools. I often seen teens hanging out on the computers or browsing the DVDs after school. They must have all been trying to figure out what colleges to go to and how to ace the SATs.

The librarians gave me a sweet bookmark and a "volunteer" notepad. Pat called it "just a small token," but it was more perfect than they realized. The teddy bear notepad on my fridge is on it's last page, and I keep forgetting to buy a new one. Thanks, ladies!

I made quick stops at AC Moore to complete my Christmas shopping (just need to get a few gifts for friends' pets and my sister's cat - animals deserve to have Christmas, too) and to Super Fresh for granola bars and hot oat bran cereal. Super Fresh has a far better selection of low-fat, low-carb, healthy foods than the Acme...but in many cases, their prices aren't as good, which is why I prefer to only buy what IS cheaper or the Acme doesn't have. (It was the same deal with the one in North Wildwood.) I thought of grabbing a slice of pizza from Nick and Joe's for a very late lunch, but I didn't like the look of the weather, so I headed home.

I spent the rest of the day wrapping presents, doing pilates, finishing off the minestrone soup from the other night, and watching Voyagers! episodes. I started with one of Linda's favorites, "The Trial Of Phineas Bogg," which probably wasn't a great idea as it turned out be a clip show episode. It's an excellent example of one, though, one of the best I've ever seen, and introduces the nasty rogue Voyager lawyer Drake.

I did a couple of other episodes as well. My favorites were Worlds Apart (Jeff is accidentally separated from Bogg and escapes with a malfunctioning Omni to Menlo Park and Thomas Edison, who is on the verge of inventing the light bulb - hey, I always appreciate people who help a famous New Jerseyan!) and the spooky Halloween episode Agents of Satan, where the boys land in the Salem Witch Trials and help Harry Houdini make one of his famous escapes, too. Wish I'd watched the Pearl Harbor-themed Sneak Attack last week for Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.

(MacGyver fans will find Sneak Attack to be rather interesting, as it features Dana Alcar as a Pearl Harbor base commander.)