Finishing the Christmas Cleaning

When I first opened my eyes this morning and turned over to look at my bedside clock, I assumed it would say 7:30 or maybe quarter of 9. Instead, it said 9:38...and I had work at 11:30! Needless to say, I did quite a bit of rushing around. After all that, work was steady-to-dead for the majority of the day. I rode to work in the rain, since I didn't really have enough time to call for a ride. It rained all day and I got wet, but oh well. I didn't think I'd sleep that long!

It might have been just as well that the weather was so bad. The rest of the afternoon was spent indoors, finally finishing the pre-holiday cleaning. I vacuumed the apartment and dusted under everything, including my collectibles and stuffed animal display that I usually only clean around. I really need to dust that stuff more often. My collectible teddy bear collection literally had cobwebs! I didn't realize it had gotten that bad.

I watched two of the three Christmas documentaries Linda sent me last year while finishing the cleaning and eating chicken soup and applesauce for dinner. I'm not normally a fan of documentaries, but those are really enjoyable, especially the British Christmas Past, since it discusses many English Christmas traditions that never made it to this side of the Atlantic, like Christmas crackers and Christmas for servants in English manor houses. I think I'll try to watch those every year while cleaning the house for Christmas and/or putting up the first decorations. I enjoy hearing about the history of one of the biggest holidays of the year as I prepare for this year's chapter.

A Clean Apartment Is a Christmas Apartment

I spent most of today working again. It was busier today than earlier in the week. I guess everyone's coming in from the malls. We had to call a lot of bakery and stock workers to the front to help. Thankfully, other than that, there were no problems and my relief was on time. I bought milk and pretzels, then headed home as fast as I could. I wanted to finish cleaning my apartment today so I could start my Christmas decorating tomorrow, but I was just able to do the windows and dress my dolls Dulcie, Samantha, and the Sailor Soldiers in their Christmas outfits. I'll try to finish up tomorrow.

It's the Holiday Season

I spent my Black Friday morning at work, where it was steady, but not really crazy. Who wants to go major food shopping the day after Thanksgiving? Um, ok, I did, but I didn't cook yesterday and a "major" shopping trip for me is $30 (and in fact, today's only came up to about $20). I also got my schedule for next week. While the upside is more hours...the downside is LOUSY hours, including only one day off (counseling day) and 7AM to 12PM on Saturday. I hate having to go to bed really early for those early days. Throws off my internal clock. I really wish I had consistent hours.

After I finished shopping, I went straight home, put everything away, changed my shirt, and made a quick run to the bank. I heard the tellers complain that it was busy earlier, but the tellers were the only people there by the time I arrived around quarter of 4.

The rest of the day was devoted to taking down the Thanksgiving decorations and cleaning the kitchen. I'll do as much cleaning as I can tomorrow and try to start putting up the Christmas decorations Sunday.

These Eagles Aren't Turkeys

Maybe all they needed was a little turkey in them. At press time, the Philadelphia Eagles are plucking the feathers off the Arizona Cardinals, 41-20. Now THAT'S what I call an early Christmas present. ;)

Thanksgiving With the Family

Happy Thanksgiving! Just gonna drop a quick note, since I'm tired and I want to watch A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving before I head for bed. I started the morning with Garfield's Thanksgiving and the only TV show I own with a Thanksgiving episode, the seventh season Perfect Strangers episode "Wild Turkey." Larry buys 58 turkeys from a farmer the day before Thanksgiving, hoping to sell them to last-minute shoppers. His scheme, pardon the pun, turns out to be a turkey. The only bird they sell all day may be the one who ate Larry's wife's wedding ring, and he and Balki actually go to the family that bought it in an attempt to get into the turkey to retrieve it. Other than some cute references to Happy Days, this one's not a huge favorite of mine. Larry and Balki were really lucky they weren't arrested for more-or-less breaking into this family's home and almost destroying their dinner!

I watched part of the Macy's Parade after Garfield. I was surprised to see a Smurf balloon. Rose later said they never really fell out of popularity, and I know they've been big in Europe since the 50s...but didn't they kind of peak in the 80s? I had to check my calender to make sure it wasn't 1985!

Rose did show up on time, for once, and with a bit of a surprise. She brought her two puppies, Kelsey the Miniature Pincher and Toby the Border Collie, with us today. Her boyfriend apparently had work, and his mother, who normally watches the dogs, was visiting relatives. Kelsey kept trying to climb into her mother's lap (ignoring the fact that she was driving), but other than that, the dogs were very good.

The rest of my family was pretty good, too. It was me, Rose, the two dogs, my sister Anny, her boyfriend Mike, her 4-year-old son Skylar, Mom, Dad, and our cousin from Virgina, Adam (the son of Mom's sister Terri, and a good friend of Anny's). Mom was the only one home when we arrived, watching the end of the parade and basting the turkey. The boys came home about twenty minutes later from a run to the closest WaWa for milk, and Anny, Mike, and Skylar arrived about a half-hour after that.

Mom and Dad live in a brand-new, just-built house in Erma, about ten or so minutes from Cape May on the mainland, across from the Cape May County Airport. It's really a lovely house. I loved her gorgeous, modern kitchen (and the top-of-the-line appliances), and her pretty sage-green master bedroom. Keefe had his own bedroom with a daybed and a work desk he made himself. Anny's boyfriend Mike laid the hard wood floors, and Mom designed the tile pattern in the downstairs bathroom and sewed or crocheted the curtains herself. (Mom's already talking about additions; I don't know if Dad's as enthusiastic, especially since they just finished the main house a few months ago.)

We played Mario Kart on the Wii and watched football until "dinner" was ready. Dinner was very early, about 2PM, but Mom had gotten the turkey in early and she knew Rose and I didn't want to stay for long. We had turkey (I had dark meat - I love dark meat), sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, ginger-glazed carrots, green bean casserole, real home-made not-boxed stuffing, cranberry sauce, pearl onions, and rolls. I ate a ton of everything but the mashed potatoes (I'm not a big fan of white potatoes).

We watched the original 1969 The Love Bug while Mom prepared coffee and tea. Love Bug is one of Skylar's favorite movies. He loves to "drive" along with Herbie, making car noises with his Pop Pop and Uncle. Skylar chased the dogs (thankfully, he never caught them) while we had chocolate chip bars, pumpkin pie, apple pie, pumpkin cheesecake, and my gingerbread cookies for dessert.

After Rose, the dogs, and I left Mom and Dad's, we stopped at Rose's best friend Colleen's house for a few hours to chat with her and her mother. Colleen has been Rose's best friend since they were in many of the same high school classes together. Colleen is sweet (she's actually eaten over for Thanksgiving several times), but tends to be a little neurotic and high-strung. She'd just come home from Thanksgiving dinner with another family when we arrived. Her mother, a postal employee, came home about an hour later. We sat back and chatted and watched The Closer Marathon on TNT. (I was surprised how much I ended up liking that show, maybe because, unlike the 500 versions of CSI, it keeps the icky stuff and science talk to a minimum.)

We made a very brief stop back at Mom and Dad's for a bag of seafood Daddy, a commercial fisherman, wanted to give Rose, then two tired girls and two even more tired pups drove home. We had a lovely chat about books (Rose reads science fiction, fantasy, and English lit classics; I prefer mysteries) and about our family (and Anny's problems with the new baby coming) on the way home.

I'm thankful I had the opportunity to spend time with my family (and that they all more-or-less behaved themselves) and to finally visit them. I'm thankful for being able to provide for myself at least a little.

Bikes, Trains, and Automobiles

Spent the majority of today at work. Work was on-and-off steady for most of the day, with no major problems. I'm thankful that I was just finishing work as the Rush Hour crowd was coming in, and they were nice enough to send one of the kids coming off their breaks in for me instead of making me wait for my relief, who is usually late anyway. I'm also thankful that everyone was in a far better mood this year than they were last Thanksgiving. I spent most of the days leading up to Thanksgiving last year tearing my hair out because the customers were being so darn obnoxious. I didn't hear so much as a peep out of anyone today.

I got calls on my cell phone and home phone from Rose when I got in. She'll be picking me up between 10 and 11AM tomorrow...which, knowing her, probably means around 11 or 12. We both have to work early on Friday, so we're not staying in Erma overnight.

I watched Planes, Trains, and Automobiles while warming up soup for dinner and making the Cinnamon Swirl Bread for the family. I hope no one minds that it sort of fell apart.

For those of you who won't be online tomorrow, I wish all of my American readers a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

Getting Ready for Thanksgiving

Spent most of today doing chores. In fact, I didn't even get half the chores done today that I wanted to. I only got to cleaning the bathroom while the laundry was in the dryer. I'd wanted to get at least the bathroom and the kitchen done today. I bought a few things at Super Fresh and Dollar Tree...and of course, forgot the reason I went to Dollar Tree, which was for a shower curtain. I put together the home-made pumpkin bread tonight before dinner. I hope no one in Erma minds that it's a little flat. I'll do the Cinnamon Swirl Bread tomorrow evening, after work.

Also did the last episode of Centennial today I'm going to watch for the time being. While The Winds of Death, on the Depression in the West, was one of the best acted and written episodes, it's not one I'm going to repeat unless I watch the entire series straight through again. The tale is a sad and, ultimately, tragic one. The scheming Wendalls encourage families to come north and start farms on arid land, using a method of farming that strips the topsoil, allowing wheat to grow. Old hands at Centennial like Hans Brumbaum know it's a bad idea, but all the new farmers see is cheap land and their good fortune...until the dust storms that plagued the Mid-West and West in the 1920s and 30s begin. The farmers find themselves unable to pay for their land and homes. The ranchers are attacked when smarty-pants breeders create a new strain of smaller bull that look nice but can't withstand the arid country. And the Mexicans who work in the larger farms want more rights and respect from the prejudiced townspeople.

I still don't know what happened to the cowboys (I imagine that breed "pretty bull" probably succumbed to disease and wiped them out), but while the Mexican story came out all right in the end...the Dust Bowl farmers, in Centennial and in real life, lost everything. The ending looked more like Rosemary's Baby than The Waltons, and it's been haunting me all day. I hope it doesn't give me nightmares.

The Bonanza episodes were more pleasant, while still giving me things to think about. I know even less about Bonanza than I do about The Wild Wild West, other than it involved a man and his sons who owned a ranch, it ran forever in the 60s, and it gave Michael Landon his start. I especially liked "The Medal," featuring a very young Dean Stockwell of Quantam Leap as a drunken man who was once a reluctant Civil War hero.

Raining In the Holidays

I ended up spending almost the entire day at work. The head cashier called me around 8:30-9AM. Did I want to come in and work around 10-10:30? No, not really, but I needed the money. I made it in around quarter of 11 and worked until 6:30. It was busy almost the entire time, and while there were no really major problems, I haven't worked an 8-hour shift in ages. I came home tired as heck and with a splitting headache, which has only somewhat subsided.

I called Mom when I got home. I forgot our usual call yesterday. She's fine. Getting ready for Thanksgiving and for the arrival of my sister Anny's new son soon. The baby is due any day now, and that includes Thanksgiving. (If she has the kid on Thanksgiving, Rose, Daddy, and I are in charge of the food. Mom will take her to the hospital, and Keefe will watch Skylar, Anny's 4-year-old son.) Dad had gone out to WaWa for ice cream, when he's not supposed to be eating ice cream. Mom says he won't eat light ice cream. No one can figure out why, since most light ice cream tastes the same as the regular stuff or better. Must be a big-guy-macho thing.

It was sunny when I went to work this morning, but it clouded up sometime in the afternoon, and by the time I made it home around quarter of 7, it was damp and a little humid (though not as bad as a week or so ago). It started pouring about a half-hour later, when I was eating scrambled eggs for dinner and watching "Centennial," and it hasn't let up since. It's supposed to be sunny and in the lower-mid 40s for Thanksgiving and the rest of the week, which is fine. That's only slightly colder than it should be for this time of year.

Fine Diner

Not a whole lot going on this Sunday. I worked in the late morning and early afternoon. It was busy all day, not surprising, given this is not only the final weekend before Thanksgiving, but the last weekend of football until December. The Eagles next play on Thanksgiving night. My relief was just barely on time, but other than that, there was no problems. I bought Celestial Seasonings "Nutcracker Sweet" Holiday Tea and baking powder and got out as fast as I could.

Miss Ellie called earlier to say that she'd hired a man to clean out the gutters, cut down branches, get the leaves out of the ivy patches, and basically do everything that neither of us could do. He did have everything done by the end of the day, and it looks great...but I wish he could have put my porch furniture back where I had it.

There wasn't much going on at Uncle Ken's. He apparently had his first round of chemotherapy this week and wasn't feeling up to major celebrations. Not to mention, the game was lousy. The Eagles eventually lost to the Baltimore Ravens 36-7 and really need to get some spark - and fan loyalty - back. I ended up having a massive California Cheeseburger at the Newton Diner on the White Horse Pike instead. The burger was thin...but it was wide, much larger than the bun, and came with lettuce, onions, green peppers, tomatoes, and olives on a toasted roll. (I didn't eat the olives. I can't stand olives.) I also had a small plate of fries I only hate half of and a thimbleful of cole slaw. Not bad, all said, and only about $8.50 with tip.

Culture Shocked

Spent the morning and much of the afternoon at work. It was on-and-off busy...but when it was busy, it was VERY busy. There were some cranky and/or annoying people, especially in the morning. One couple who couldn't speak English nearly drove me insane! I tried to explain to them that they could use different payments in the same order to get all the things they wanted, but they just didn't seem to get it. One of the managers came over and suggested they call their English-speaking daughter...and they STILL didn't buy everything!

I went straight home after work, then went back out again to make a quick run to deposit my paycheck in the ATM machine at the PNC Bank down the street from me. It had been sunny, windy, and still unusually cold for this time of year all day, and it remained so into the night. It was a lovely, brisk walk. I don't mind walking in the cold. It gets the circulation going, and it beats walking in the heat! It's supposed to jump into the upper 40s by Monday, then drop back into the 40s in time for Thanksgiving...still a little cold for this time of year, but more tolerable for people who don't handle the cold well. (And it'll make my mother happy. She can stash extra food that needs to be kept cold outside.)

Oh the Weather Outside Is Frightful...

Yes, we were in the midst of our first real snow showers since February when I woke up this morning. Much to the disappointment of every kid in the area, I'm sure, the snow wasn't around for very long. It snowed on-and-off until about mid-morning, but the snow began melting long before even that and was long gone by the time I went to work at 1:30.

I spent the morning posting our newest Monkees role play story, The Play Is The Thing. We've been working on it for weeks. It's this year's long NaNoWrite story, which is why it took so long. Unlike last year, this year, we went way over 50,000 words. Lauren will get the exact amount in a few days, but it should be more in the line of 60,000-80,000. We did a lot of writing this year, starting earlier than usual in the evening and several times, going very late in the morning. (Also helped to have had fewer distractions this year. We only skipped one night, when Lauren went to see the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular with her folks on Veteran's Day.)

Work was on-and-off steady tonight, much to my surprise. I thought it would be far busier. I guess everyone's waiting for the weekend.