coexistapart's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- the meaning behind \"Mary had a little lamb!\" I'm trying to stay upbeat this morning. I got back from church around 10:15am. Big was up and running, working on various sundry projects. I went out to get a NYT because it didn't seem like he'd run get out to the stores before they ran out. I was under the impression that he was going to work on repacking his emergency relief footlockers, that have been in the guest room for ages, in addition to some final wrapping and ironing. However he opted to do this in the living room, re-watching Fred Claus that he fell asleep during yesterday. Part of it is that I've had it up to here with Christmas music, and that I already listened to the entire soundtrack of that and another movie last night. I'm ready for some peace and quiet. I prefer silence. I don't know if it's because he watches the tv extra loud, or because I have no interest in what he's watching, but I am just accustomed to--on weekends--unless you are in bed sick, or there is something noteworthy or significant, the TV just doesn't go on until the afternoon sports game (hockey, golf, football, whatever) or after 3pm. It's impossible not to come off sounding like a hypocrite: I love watching trashy tv daily (during the week) during my lunch hour, but I just can't stomach the tv when it's so bright and sunny out, when the day has a world of opportunities. TV always distracts me, prevents me from doing what I need to do. So now, because I still have 2-3 sets of cookies left to do for the boxes we are giving his coworkers (no grouching here; I HATE making cookies, but I DID commit to doing it) tonight, I'm in the den working on eBay things WHEN I did not want to turn on the computer, did not want to do normal "daily" work, do want to make Sunday (more) restful, and by extension less stressful. I'm not angry at all, it's just very much a "le sigh" situation. I come home from church in such a pleasant, optimistic mood, and it's just such culture shock to deal with the white noise of existence in 2008, most of which (TVs, movies, capitalism, et cetera) I'd be happy to better exorcise from my life. Big will be going out in a bit to run some errands, so I will get into the kitchen & have my peace and quiet then, but it is a struggle to step back and think about a good lesson I learned two (maybe three?) weeks ago: am I mentioning it for ME, for HIM, or because we actually need to work on it? In other news, yesterday was very nice...and proves just how far we've come in terms of Saturdays and errand-running. I'm the kind of personal who prefers to spread errands out, come home for lunch in the middle, or divy up errands according to a schedule of when the stores will be least busy. Given that yesterday was the last Saturday before Christmas, there was the potential for the stores to be crazy. And by "stores" I really just mean Wal-Mart. The demographic for (most) of this town, even before the recession, is such that most people do need to buy a lot of their staples at Wal-Mart to be able to afford anything. I'm still feeling the Wal-Mart buyer's remorse generally, but for some reason it seemed to be the only place with real cookie tins. Target has these holiday chinese takeaway boxes this year, and Albertson's has these weird rubber bins, so I knew at some point before the dinner tonight I would need to go to Wal-Mart...but in my mind it would be at 12:30am (they're open 24-7) when fewer people would be there. However we braved the crowds yesterday and it was fine. We also went to the Farmer's Market, which was especially happening; though it is a good place to pick up regional brik-a-brak for that relative/friend you don't what buy. We went to Bath & Body Works and got more crazy items on sale to give to Big's new daughter-in-law, and neice from his old marriage, et cetera. We actually went in and made one purchase, then came out with one of those receipts where you call, complete the survey, and then you get $10 off your next order. So I did that and then we went back in for a few other things. I returned the Obama book I bought for my cousin; it was $20.00 at Barnes & Noble, but $7.99 online at Amazon and we've got some last-minute gifts coming Wednesday...both for Big's family and for me to take to Canada. They had the cutest little ornaments in the mall. It was one of those gimicky litte stands where you have "baby's first Christmas" ornaments that you personalize with the name and year, so we got one for Big's siter Deb that stands up like a photo frame with all these little teddy bears with Santa hats sliding off their heads. I even found a little recent grad one that is now hanging off the edge of my diploma. I don't know why it was all so cute. And then we went to Sam's, where I had to resist the urge to buy clearance items to resell on eBay. I knew it was good value, but I'm trying to stay away from--at least at this point--spending more than $20 on resale inventory. And I had already purchased some good items from Pier 1. Today we are going to Big's work dinner at Great American Land & Cattle tonight near Anthony, TX. Big was so aplogetic when he mentioned it earlier in the week, but I have been crazy excited because I love this sort of thing. It will be pay your way because it's the Army (and I'm not sure I would even WANT them to pay for our holiday dinner, even if the country could afford it). Some coworkers may or may not come over for drinks after. Tomorrow and Tuesday there will be lots to do before we leave for Denver. We'll there through Saturday, when I now fly back to Toronto to spend a week up North with my aunt & uncle. I wrote about it briefly on my 7Quick Takes Friday on my public blog, but I essentially I cried about it for a couple of days last week (Wednesday & Thursday) and then Big and I just finangled it such that he would take back a couple of Christmas presents (that I supposedly won't like anyway) and the ticket will be part of Christmas. I got it at a good price, $423 US though I have some terrible connections coming back. I don't know too much what's going on, so we will have to wait and see what happens. The only other interesting development worth mentioning is that Big's ex-wife called the house on Thursday/Friday? I answered the phone without really thinking--I didn't recognize the number, and if I have the energy I try to answer all calls so we get fewer spam calls. We were cordial, I just felt bad because she didn't know what to call herself. I took a message for Big, and then of course she instantly called everyone to ask about me...which Big stupidly didn't think would happen. He was on the phone yesterday with older son, who was jocking about HIS fianceee pissing off "Big's girlfriend." Haha, funny; I'm the most tolerant partner I know, seriously. If you want to leave or cheat or find someone else, please--there's the door. You know what I'm worth. I'm always confident in that, so it was just amusing...although Big was surprised (to say the least) that people would be talking about me. As if they wouldn't be. Off to lunch now. Today might turn out not to be productive at all, which is really a circuitous (but perhaps necessary/helpful?) way of getting back to the way Sundays are SUPPOSED to be! :) I'm sure you've all figured this out by now, but I don't ever go back and spell/grammer check my entries anymore. Sorry. 11:17 a.m. - 2008-12-21 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
||||||
|
||||||