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Happy New Year!

So, got any resolutions?  I have a few perhaps, but most I’ll keep on the downlow.  I’m kind of freaked out just looking around at how the mass retailers of the world push a “new year new you” in every advertisement as if you can buy your way to happiness and peace.  Buy an elliptical machine, buy workout clothes, buy organic wheatgrass juice squeezed for you by monks at dawn…if you buy the right stuff, everything will be superduper in 2009! Right?

Nahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…I’m all for finding your motivation, and maybe the turning of a calendar page is motivation for some folks, but for most of us (myself included), all those resolutions to magically reinvent ourselves last about 10 days and then pfffffffffffffffffffffft who cares?  And you find yourself hanging clothes on your treadmill instead of walking on it, you blend Ben and Jerry’s ice cream in with your Slim Fast chocolate shake mix.

So if I can sprinkle any wisdom on you this New Year’s from my house to yours, resolve to work on the inside stuff not this superficial hooha that every SuperMegaMondoMart wants you to buy in three easy payments…be a little kinder, especially to yourself, this year.  Won’t cost ya anything out of pocket to go to bed five minutes earlier when you’re tired, to turn the ringer off on your phone Saturday mornings to eat waffles in your PJs with the kids undisturbed, to sing ridiculous songs in the shower.

Happy New Year, happy every day of the year.

the simplest things

This evening, Minime was desperate for a warm chocolate chip cookie, and there were no cookies in the house, no chocolate in the house at all (WHY IS NO ONE BRINGING ME CHOCOLATE?!?!!  WTF!?)  I was in my super comfy pj pants by 4:30 PM after a ridiculously busy day, so I was not at all interested in putting on layers of clothes to trudge around the grocery store.  I told her I’d drive her there and she could go in and purchase the cookie dough.  Minime was shocked by this suggestion for some reason and stomped off to her room.

She emerged from her room a few minutes later, shoes and coat on, apparently ready to go to the grocery store.  I drove with the chihuahua riding shotgun and let her out at the entrance, where I idled, pretending like I was going to put videos in the dropbox or something.  I realized after she’d dashed inside that she’d never gone inside the grocery store alone!  Could she handle it?

Minime returned maybe three minutes later with cookie dough in hand and a list of all the things she almost bought with my money.  She was excited over the simple idea of being in the grocery store on her own doing the shopping while I sat in the car talking to the dog.  Minime declared that grocery shopping was “so cool!” and said I should always sit in the car.  Uhhhhh, no, but I’m glad that she’s still able to be blown away by new things, by new moments to show her independence.

I get excited about…

…live bait vending machines.  I don’t need any bait in the foreseeable future, but man, I love the idea that right now at nearly midnight, I can go to the nearby bait vending machine to get night crawlers or crickets or whatever I need in a bait emergency.  That’s a beautiful thing to ponder.

I also get excited about vending machines that take credit cards—they had those in a few places in Downtown Disney, and I was pee in my pants giddy over that…because it never fails that when you’re dying, parched, miserable, you’re either five cents short of the change you need for a cold drink or the bleepin’ machine won’t take your dollar bill.  Hallelujah for those machines that will sell me an overpriced Dasani water or Diet Coke with the swipe of a card.

I also get pretty damn excited about vending machines with M&Ms in them, but that’s mostly because I can always get excited about M&Ms 24/7, even if there is no vending machine involved.

damn leaves

I just want to let everyone know that I broke not one but two f-ing rakes today working on my yard and the nearly knee deep leaf piles…and there’s still tons more to rake. 

I borrowed a seriously badass leaf blower (you know, the backpack kind so you can feel like one of the Ghostbusters), but it doesn’t make a dent in the leaf piles in the backyard that are ridiculously deep and soaking wet at the bottom…only the rake and my aching back can wrestle and wrangle those messes.  I’m not an idiot: this is not my first leaf raking effort of the season, I just want to point that out lest some smartass tell me I should’ve been raking and managing the mess all along.  It’s an ongoing saga.  Bite me.

Spent close to 5 hours today working on leaves and I’m not done, but as I worked, I did have ample time to ponder surrounding my home in some kind of netting so that the leaves can’t fall in my yard next autumn.  I also pondered having a tree service come in and remove all the trees, replacing them with plastic palm trees.  Neither the netting nor the plastic tree thing seems reasonable, so maybe I’ll come up with something else during my next 5 hour stint out there in the fun park I know as LeafLand.

booboo updates

The mole of doom: well, this week was a big week…I got to wear a bra on Tuesday! Yay!  Who knew I’d ever be excited about that?  Healing, still a smidgen on the scary side to look at, and I won’t tell you in detail about playing Operation on myself tonight and randomly yanking out sutures…but it’s on the road to recovery.  I think, though, I’m allergic to BandAids.  Is that possible?  At any rate, the bright red BandAid shaped rash is almost gone.

The hellacious sprained ankle from October soccer is wayway better, but not perfect.  If I move just so, it’s like OWWWWWW, GEEEEEEZ, CRUDDDDDDDDDDDDDD, so some little muscle or tendon inside there isn’t quite happy yet.  Still sporting an ankle brace several days a week but mucho improved.  Not limping, so that’s excellent!  Think I’m laying off soccer in favor of some other shenanigans for January—stay tuned to see what else I might get into before I return to the soccer field…because you know I will return to soccer at some point; I’ve been playing since I was 5, so I love the game, war wounds and all.

Anyhoo, thanks for all the good thoughts, everyone,  and also all the crass no-bra thoughts as well.  Kat’s on the mend!

Holiday 2009

Yep, I’m already looking ahead on my calendar to Christmas 2009 because come hell or highwater, I’m splitting town for Christmas Eve and Christmas and a few days after, too! 

Holidays with my family stress me the hell out; this year was no different and was in fact much worse than usual, underlining and highlighting the fact that I prefer to be elsewhere since I see them all year ’round anyway. 

With my office closed, it’s the perfect time for a trip that won’t be disturbed by interruptions, disruptions and requests.  Perpetually on call because of my chosen field, the December holidays are one of the few times all year long that I am largely un-nagged by my job.

Also, let’s throw in the mix that my one and only Minime has a Christmas Eve birthday, so it’s a blast to celebrate it with a little travel…otherwise, the day goes largely ignored in favor of the fact that it’s Christmas Eve and everyone’s all about carols and stockings and Santa, not Minime Day.

I don’t care where I go…in fact, the places I’ve been considering really aren’t all that far away, but they offer R&R in a cozy setting and that’s enough for me.  I’d love to leave the country, but unfortunately that’s such a peak travel time that lodging alone is more than double the usual cost…so I think it will be a US destination, but it will be somewhere other than West Ashevegas, amen.

Yes, Kat, there is a Santa Claus

It’s good to know, a relief really, that even I can still be surprised in a good way on Christmas…that I haven’t seen all there is to see, that I can’t anticipate every single move others will make and that unexpected acts of kindness can still knock me for a loop, a happy loop.

So Merry Christmas, ya’ll! 

And remember, the very best gifts of all can’t be boxed…well, unless, of course you’re Justin Timberlake on SNL…go find that holiday favorite D*ck in a Box on YouTube and laugh until you snort holiday cheeseball out your nose.

One, cut a hole in a box…

Ok, I was getting too sweet there, of course I had to mix it up with a little crass humor.  Happy holidays!  (for the fellows, you can check out My Box in a Box on YouTube, with the endearing line Britney showed the world her box, but my box is just for you.)