GRRRRR!!

 

Grrr.

That’s my commentary on the day; Grr.

Grr for the snow that has returned to my finally melted world

Grr for the executive busting my chops over his own oversight

Grr for the cold and that groundhog’s stupid shadow

Grr.

Grr for the auditor who wrote up really stupid findings

Grr for the FDA visit that has to be just around the corner

Grr for my ever shrinking bank account

GRR.

Grr for the laundry

And Grr for the dishes

And Grr for the freezing conditions in my apartment

Grr for the projects I should have finished by now but haven’t

Grr for people who don’t listen

Grr for kids who won’t help out

GRRRRR for the traffic

Grr, Grr, Grr!!!

The Longest week EVER

Man, I can’t wait for tomorrow to be over; this has been the longest week in history. Take a three day Regulatory Accreditation audit, add in two additional sponsor audits, throw in three bad weather days where travel is a nightmare, and an eyeball that is steadily growing more and more unsteady – I’ll tell you, it takes it out of ya. I am BEAT.

But, I just have to get through tonight with the kids, and tomorrow at work, and then I’m free for a few days. Free to sleep in, free to bum around, free to do nothing or anything. Free to get a little REST.

Just… 24… hours…

Got… to hang… on…

Come on, Mags, keep it together. I know I’m just worked up because I have to battle Satan tonight when I get home…. Oh yeah, TOTALLY addicted to Guitar Hero. And here I thought I bought that Wii for my kids… HA!

I have to say it is amazing how much activity you put in to things without even realizing it. I tried bouncing soccer balls off my head for just a few minutes last night and today my whole core aches. I mean, muscles I couldn’t target if I TRIED. It’s pretty cool!

Where’s my Advil?? WHERE’S MY ADVIL PEOPLE????

It Happened….

Maybe it’s the fact that it’s almost upon us… maybe it’s the look of all the presents under the tree… maybe it’s the fact that my doctor just upped my antidepressants… but I have to admit, the Christmas Spirit has actually finally hit me. Just sauntered on up and whopped me upside the head, it did. Totally took me by surprise, too – I certainly wasn’t feeling very Christmas-y and wasn’t expecting to this year. Sure, I was putting on a brave face for the kids, but man, I sure wasn’t feeling it.

Then Saturday I went shopping with my husband, picked up the last few things I needed. He and I have been spending more time together and doing a lot of talking, and that’s been going well. We have decided to have the family Christmas together, and I feel really good about that.

Then I went home, and wrapped and wrapped… when I stood back and surveyed my little tree and all the gifts beneath it, I found myself saying a little prayer of thanks. I don’t know how I pulled it off, but I did. I did good for my kids this year, all by myself. I can’t wait to see their faces on Christmas morning when they see what’s in store.

I took a little gift upstairs to my neighbors, and was greeted with the news that their twin girls had been born Friday evening, healthy and beautiful. What an awesome Christmas gift for them! I can’t wait to see them, hold them… then hand them back….

I don’t know how it happened, or exactly when, or why. But sometime in the last few days, somehow, my heart got filled up. I had forgotten what that feels like, and I’m tearing up even as I write this, because it’s a good feeling and I don’t want it to go away. I feel like the Grinch when his heart grew two (or was it three? I can’t remember) sizes bigger all at once.

You know what? Life is good.

Magpye’s ‘Winter Sucks’ Poem

 

 

More Snow and cold

It’s getting old

I HATE the stuff

I’ve had enough

But what to do?

We’re far from through

A dozen weeks

With frosted cheeks

The icy roads

And coffs and codes

I hate it all

Yet still it falls…

Oh, the weather outside is Frightful….

 

…and it sucks.

Don’t give me no delightful fire, lights turned down low, it makes no difference, I am in no way inclined to feel happy about letting it snow, snow, snow.

Okay, yes, I have lived in Utah for the majority of my life, and yes, I should be used to it. But that doesn’t change the fact that I hate it worse than girlie exams or root canals. Snow sucks.

As you might have surmised by now, I am the Utah anomaly. I don’t ski. I don’t snowboard. Hell, I don’t even go tubing unless it’s for my sons scout troop and then I make one pass down the hill and spend the rest of the evening in the lodge passing out the hot chocolate. SNOW SUCKS.

They have this cute little option here on wordpress where you can have snowflakes falling on your blog now. WELL NOT IN THE NEST, PEOPLE! You’ll see none of that infernal white stuff in THIS blog, I assure you. No way, no how.

SNOW SUCKS!!!!

Darn Those Doldrums

Well here it is the Monday after Thanksgiving, and who isn’t depressed about being back to work? Man, I feel like I’ve been here for ten hours straight already and I STILL have two hours to go. My head is pounding, my eyelids are heavy, and I can’t concentrate on anything. Im watching my bank account quickly dwindle to nothing as I await my landlord’s knock on the door for December rent.

Yes, people, the winter doldrums have officially arrived.

Oh, they have been hanging around, loitering in the neighborhood, peeking furtively through the windows – even lounging daringly on the porch a time or two. But now they have swung the door wide open, strolled in like those cousins you don’t like to mention, and taken over all the comfy seats in the house, asking when dinner will be ready and is it something they like. And they didn’t even wipe their shoes on the way in.

I hate the winter doldrums. Hate hate hate them.

This year, I have the added fun of being separated, most likely alone on Christmas, and with very limited income to provide gifts for my three kids. I had a flash of brilliance and bought one blowout gift they will all love – a nintendo Wii – but that’s got me totally tapped out. I hope it will be enough, and I hope everyone else on my list needs a hand-crocheted scarf. Yarn, I got. Time to crochet it… well, let’s hope.

Remind me why I live here again…?

We are in a cold spell.
Not a ‘Jee, I think I’ll wear a sweater today, it’s a bit nippy’ cold spell, but a ‘Holy Jesus, I can’t feel my toes, my lips are blue, and another hamster has frozen to death’ cold spell. The kind of cold spell that makes you sing opera when you are filling up your gas tank, even when there is a complete stranger at the next pump looking at you like you’re a complete nutjob. The kind of cold that makes the snot in your nose freeze solid every time you breathe in, making your nostrils all hard and crunchy. The kind of cold that makes your dog SMELL like ice when they come in from the daily dump you have to shove them out the back door to take so they don’t sneak downstairs and do it behind the dryer (if there’s one thing worse than frozen nose-juice, it’s hot dryer-poo).
Remind me why I live in Utah again? Oh yeah, the Polygamy and winter sports. Only I’m not a fundamentalist Mormon and don’t ski, skate, snowboard or sled – although I do a great slip now and then. Usually when cool people are watching.
I have lived here almost all my life. And I have hated every…single…winter. You know, I can take the cold. NORMAL cold. 30 degrees, 40 degrees – no problem. I can deal with that.
right now, it is 11 degrees outside. That is just stupid. There is no reason for that kind of cold. I have my thermostat turned up to 75 right now and under this blanket, my nose is STILL running. STUPID!! Greatest Snow On Earth, My Ass. The holidays are over. Come on, change of seasons!
Around here, there is a saying- In Utah, we have 4 seasons: Almost Winter, Winter, Still Winter, and Construction.
I can’t wait to see the first signs – the little orange cones, the dirty men standing around holding up shovels….