Yum! Lucky you, zip!

Today I am happy to receive a bit of perspective.

It becomes so easy to drown in our personal struggles. I am not diminishing mine or anyone else's, but I feel like today the universe tapped me on the shoulder and brought me up for air. I was reminded that, in the grand scheme of things, I'm pretty damned lucky.

A former student of mine had an (unplanned) baby her senior year. She was able to graduate, but she just found out she is pregnant again. She's 19. Her first baby is only 8 months old, and she has an on again/off again relationship with the father of her children, who himself is a drug addled teenager. They are currently off, and all her friends on FB are asking who the daddy is.

Meanwhile, for all that I may be struggling in my role as a new mom, my daughter was brought in to a stable home with two parents who love her fiercely and are doing their best to be good role models for her.

I'm on leave for a year from the high school I've taught at for three years. At school today, three students were arrested for bringing weapons to school. Seeing blood and ripped weave on the walls was fairly standard for a Friday afternoon, and I have several coworkers who have been punched, kicked, and shoved against walls trying to break up fights.

While my friends have to worry about their own safety and the safety of their students, my two biggest stressors today were trying to find a parking space at the mall and two stocking stuffers that won't fit in their stockings.

My life is awesome. Even when I think things suck, looking around with fresh eyes reminds me just how good I have it.

Well, he's in intellectual property law, trademarks and patents - working at the PTO for a couple years - so I don't think anyone here has anything to fear. :p: Thanks for all the good wishes, folks!

And the salt - yeah, I got a little carried away with the salt. Not that I bought all that stuff, I'd just never seen so many kinds before.

Lunch sounds like it was awesome, zippyt! What a great thing to happen!

And thanks for the perspective, choco - as always your comments are full of insight. :)

But Choco, do you have an iphone 99, or hot and cold running maids, or other necessities of happiness? :angel:

Seriously, good for you. A lot of people would be a lot happier if the realized how good they have it. Your baby has a huge head start.

The Christmas season is making me happy today (and generally speaking, that doesn't happen.)

It started about 9 years ago, by my recollection. There is a Christmas tree sales tent that sets up every year along an empty-ish highway that skirts the west side of the city. It kind of comes up out of nowhere around a bend, so what they would do is decorate a couple of the roadside evergreen trees just before the bend, so they could tell people to slow down and start looking when they saw the decorated trees.

But people thought the idea of decorating still-living trees was awesome. And the tradition has spread each year, so that now the entire 20-mile stretch of highway is full of decorated trees, on both sides of the road. Some have themes, like a local rock-climbing organization that decorates one way up on the cliff face each year that you couldn't get to otherwise.

Anyway, Minifobette's vision therapy is at the far opposite end of this highway from us, so every Thursday I get to drive past all the trees, and it makes me smile. It just keeps going and going, probably close to 500 trees in all. Not the greatest picture of it since I am driving at highway speeds while aiming with the camera, but this gives you an idea:

I like the tree decorations, but if they're all along the road, how do people know when to stop for the shop?

Eh, they just see it too late and make a U-turn, like they always did. :)

Sound like you got it going on Choco

like what's his name.... Albert somebody....

That's great!

That's a great idea - something that makes folk smile instead of being all wired out by the insanity that is the ***mas season. Me, I'm happy because my car AND truck (both of which I was afraid needed major repairs), turn out to be minor and easily fixable. :D

If he can swallow it, he can probably pass it.

:p:

It would take a helluva lot of extension cords for any of them to be lit, although I guess some of the tinsel-ish garlands might reflect oncoming headlights at night...

hmmm. I'll let you off the hook this time.

I'm happy today because my kid didn't get shot at school today, and neither did any of his schoolmates.

A guy who just started bowhunting our place this year heard about Merlin and actually spent a good chunk of today looking for him. Good people are good.

And since he passed it, we can deduce that he swallowed it ...

and he's totally worth it. ;)

You don't have solar powered Xmas lights over there?

I'm sure you could order something like that online for an exorbitant price, but no, I've never seen them myself. We have LED bulbs, and people think that's weird enough.

That's a good reminder, thanks, it brightens my day. :D

In the bitter-sweet department today, Benny had always watched Merlin catch Frisbees showing no desire to get involved. I figured he simply wasn't interested. Turns out he was just respecting the alpha dog. Benny is quite Frisbee mad actually. :)

That is bittersweet.

My wife is downstairs making potato latkes. I've gone through almost all of Hanukkah without having any, except for a few (literally) made by my sister.

The house smells of oil and potatoes. These are the kind that are made from a dry mix from a box, but I love them. And she's making multiple boxes at once, so that we can reheat the leftovers for days.

My only dilemma is the age old ketchup vs applesauce decision.

Tonights the last night, so this is a great way to close out Hanukkah.

BTW, when I say 'my wife' and don't use her name, it's not intended to be a lack of familiarity. The Cellar is my hobby and I try to keep her name out of it, given that I don't use an alias. Sometimes I slip up with this.

ketchup vs. applesauce??????


no no no---sour cream!

Good mom. Bask in your accomplishment.

Thank you. Although it's his accomplishment, not mine. :)

As for latkes/platski - sour cream first, last, and always!! (I learned that platski is the Ukrainian word for latkes, but I suspect it's Polish - probably all of my 'Ukrainian' is Polish. And my French is Quebecois ... I'm a linguistic mess!)

I think you can take some credit for not raising a slacker who feels everything is owed to him. We are hoping he is of the 1% of lawyers to whom the other 99% give a bad name.

I had them twice so I had applesauce and then sour cream.

Yes, he's in that one percent. His undergrad was in bioengineering and he still loves biotech. IP law is good. :)

(You can't tell I'm proud of him, can you? Thought not.)

A 5-month old puppy has finished her first week here. The 10+ yo dogs are accepting, if not enthusiastic, about her thus far. I like my kingdom peaceable.

Haircut!
Haircut!

(dunno if the Merkins do that - Brits will know what I mean)
But yes, I am pleased with it.

I just finished my fall semester's work ... submitted my last two big papers at 6:15 pm. The most challenging semester of my educational career is done. Didn't know if it would actually come together ... very happy in spite of persistent blurry vision. Tears aren't helping the vision. Oh well. They tell me it's a chemo side effect.

Congrats, ortho! Time to rest and recharge now.

Congrats, Ortho!!

FTFY

on a more serious note, congratulations! seriously!

LOL.


Emotherapy. Make your cancer cut itself out.

:lol: haha emotherapy, I love it.
Thanks everyone. It was a little emotional to finish up; there were times I really didn't think it would all come together. But it's done.

Great news Ortho! Here's hoping you can find time for a little holiday-style R&R now.

Congrats Ortho! Well done m'dear. I remember a few months ago when you were at the start of all this heavy heavy shit, and the work you still had ahead of you to get through the semester seemed a mountain to climb.

So proud of you. You are an inspiration. I know you probably don't feel like that sometimes, but it's true.

Oh and:

@ Sweetwater: puppeh pics? Pretty please?

@ Sundae: Haircut! Haircut!

Great job, Ortho!

Fabulous O! :)

Thanks so much, guys. You have all made a huge difference in how things went this fall, more than you know. You encouraged and cheered and sometimes stayed up late when I was struggling ... sent wishes and thoughts, gifts and strength, and each thing came at just the right time. I was terrified because I thought I'd be doing this alone, and I wasn't alone. Thank you.

Tomorrow is session #4. Two-thirds done with emotherapy!

And that's awesome news too! Good luck tomorrow.

Emotherapy!

Now cut that out! :lol2:

Son's FB update....


"That awesome moment when you say it's the biggest present under the tree and your mom says "for now..." "

....wait 'til he finds out might not be true... or it might... who knows... the night is young and I have plenty of cardboard...... ;)

:lol: Troll Santa!

We wrapped his goalie stick (per his request -he's already been using it for a month) but we labelled it for the other two kids. :D

I was hoping you had something up your sleeve. Good one!

It's the little things.

I think my bed is the comfiest warmest bed on earth. Piled with fuzzy blankets in my chilly abode, it's hard to get out of bed in the morning.

Tomorrow, I will set my alarm as if going to work, then pull the fuzzy blankets up around my head, and go back to sleep.

We ran out of oil in the middle of the night (I assumed the squeaky sound was squirrels in the attic) and I called the oil co. for a delivery and they were here in 20 minutes with no emergency charge tacked on.

yay, oil company!

They are a great little mom and pop outfit.

Back to school tomorrow!
Had a meeting with the Head today and am so relieved. School isn't open today as we have an inset day, so I only went in for the meeting and it only lasted 7 minutes.
Only back half-days to start, but I will earn nearly as much as when I'm full-time because I am back to covering lunchbreaks again.

Two weeks of that and I'll be back full time.
And I hope back at after-school club at that point too, if they haven't replaced me.

I have to have a brief catch-up with the Head every Monday and Friday, but although that's slightly daunting I shouldn't worry. As long as I do my job it's just an admin exercise.

I deliberately wore large baggy clothes today so no-one could see I'd lost weight. Didn't work, but then only three people saw me anyway. It will still be a surprise for the majority of the school. Question is, will they dare mention it, given I have been signed off sick for the best part of a month...?

Oh Sundae! That is such good news! I am really pleased for you! !!

Sent by thought transference.

Excellent news hon:)

That's fantastic! Congratulations.

Great news! Congratulations.

Fantastic News!


/wet blanket/ Didja learn your lesson? /wet blanket/