2007 meme

I just found this in my drafts that I never published. Teaches me to check my drafts more often and finsh things ;-)


1. Where did you begin 2007? I think I was at home. I might have been at my parents, but I can't remember when we left to come home.

2. Did you have to go to the hospital? No.

3. Did you have any encounters with the police? None with law enforcement, but yes I did have an encounter with The Police. ;-)

4. Where did you go on vacation? No big vacations this year, but a lot of long weekends. San Antonio with the August Moms. Old Stirbridge Village a couple times. Pittsburgh for a 5 days to see the in-laws. Boston for a weekend with the Fly Guy to see The Police at Fenway.

5. What did you purchase that was over $500? We remodeled our living room, so I don't think any one item was over $500 but the whole project was well over $500 seeing that I spent $400 on lighting alone.

6. Did you know anybody who got married? Nope

7. What sporting events did you attend? some Sea Dogs games and my first Red Sox game in about 20 + years.

8. What concerts/shows did you go to? Saw The Police at Fenway....can you already tell that was a highlight of my year. ;-)

9. Where do you live now? same place I have for years

10. Describe your birthday: I don't remember my birthday this year...which is a very good thing....bad things seem to happen on or around my birthday, so having one I can't remember is sometimes a nice thing. :-)

11. What’s the one thing you thought you would never do, but did in 2007? Saw The Police in concert. I had long ago given up that they would ever get together and go on tour. (see it was a highlight of my year)

12. What’s something you learned about yourself? How important reading is to my life.

13. Any new additions to your family? My brother's wife had a baby so I finally have a niece.

14. What was your best month? July

15. What music will you remember 2007 by? The Police ;-)

16. Made new friends? yes several I love my Masters swim team, I am always meeting new people.

17. Favorite night out? Well I should say the night of The Police concert...it was my favorite night out, but I also had some great parties and stuff with my swim team that I really have enjoyed. Plus Fly Guy and I have subscription tickets to the local theater so we go out about once a month and I wouldn't get rid of that for anything it the world. I look forward to those nights out.

18. Any regrets? None, but I try to live my life with no regrets, no matter how bad things are.

19. What do you want to change in 2008? Maybe get a real job with benefits and such.

20. Overall, how would you rate this year? from 1 to 10...ten being the best this was an eight.

21. Other than home, where did you spend most of your time? A horse girl's school.

22. Change your hairstyle? No

23. Buy a new car? I didn't but Fly Guy did.

24. Any car accidents? No.

25. How old did you turn this year? 37

26. Do you have a New Year’s resolution? none

27. Do anything embarrassing? can't think of anything off the top of my head

28. Be honest - did you watch American Idol? no I have never watched it and I wouldn't know anyone who had been on it even if they came right up to me and said hi.

29. Start a new hobby? I became a swim official

30. Will you be happy to see 2007 go? no

31. Been naughty or nice? a little bit of both....I believe in all things in moderation ;-)

Christmas Questions

I stole these questions from the other August Moms. ;-)

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? I use wrapping paper. Though I have plenty of gift bags on hand for Fly Guy to use. ;-)

2. Real or artificial tree? Is this a question? Of course a real one. I live in Maine for Pete's Sake where there is a Christmas Tree farm in nearly every town.

3. When do you put up the tree?

Normally the weekend after the first complete week in December

4. When do you take the tree down? New Years Day

5. Do you like Eggnog? One cup a season is good

6. Favorite Gift you received as a child? a My Friend Mandy doll

7. Do you have a nativity scene? yes a Fisher Price nativity scene, but we keep it out all year round...maybe now the girls are older I will put it away during the year....I will have to talk to them about it

8. Hardest person to buy for? I am not sure. I think my Sister-in-law is the hardest because I don't know her as well as I should

9. Easiest person to buy for? Horse Girl

10. Worst Christmas gift ever received? some of the sweaters my mother has gotten me....LL Bean rules they take back anything they have sold even if it has been monogrammed. ;-)

11. Christmas Cards…Snail mail or E-mail? snail mail, but I haven't gotten them out yet

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Nester the Long Eared Donkey...not really a movie, but a TV special

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? In August most years

14. Have you ever ‘recycled’ a Christmas present? yes.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Seafood newburg

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? colored and clear...the clear blinks if I can get it to work. I used to be all clear lights non-blinking, but after 9/11 I needed something wild and crazy and I haven't turned back.

17. Favorite Christmas Song? Such a Night by Aaron Neville

18. Travel at Christmas or Stay Home? stay home for the most part...we drive a cross town to see my parents, but that is still home because we don't need to stay there or stay at a hotel.

19. Can you name Santa’s Reindeer? yes and there is often a debate in our household is Olive a reindeer...so is there 9 or 10 reindeer.

20. Do you have an Angel or a Star on top of your tree? Angel

21. Open the Presents Christmas Eve or Morning? Both....Christmas Eve we exchange presents with my brother and his family, Christmas morning we open presents to each other and Christmas afternoon we go to my parents and open presents over there

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? people do something charitable during this time of the year and feel that covers them in being a pain in the butt and selfish the rest of the year

23. Shopping…Mall or on-line? both

24. Do you decorate outside for Christmas or just inside (or at all?) normally with are both inside and outside, but with my lack of time this year I barely got the tree up, since we are now doing 100% hydro electricity and it is quite a bit more expensive, we decided not to do window lights. I would have put lights outside, but we got too much snow too early and I refuse to put lights on a tree that already has snow on it, because the snow is prettier then the lights ever could be.

25. Favorite Christmas cookie? Filled cookies that my Great Grandmother used to make and now my mother makes once and awhile.

26. Do you own Christmasy clothing or jewelry? Yes working for the toy fund I have a couple sweaters

27. Do you believe in Santa? yes...I work with many people who have Santa in their heart all the year. There is a man I know who traveled to New Orleans after Katrina and helped people, he went to California to fight the wild fires, he packs toys for kids in need. He is 75+ years old and he is the personification of Santa to me. He gives and gives. I also know a couple who travels around the country in their RV and they stop places and build for Habitat for Humanity and do work for Churches and do charitable work feeding the hungry....they also pack toys for kids in need. They also are Santa.

28. Favorite ornament: Mice made out of corn husks. Growing up my parents had a corn husk mouse selling candied apples and now I have a set of corn husk mice dress in Victorian outfits ice skating. I have loved all these corn husk mice.

Update covering the last two months

The toy fund season is over. We were able to give nearly 8000 needy kids toys this year, so it was a rewarding, but crazy holiday season. We had so many new applicants because of heating oil prices being sky high, it was a choice between oil and toys for very many families. I didn't get my house 100% decorated. I didn't get my collection of Santas out until Christmas eve. I still haven't sent out my Christmas cards and this year is the first year I have done real Christmas cards rather then Holiday Peace cards. I wonder how late is too late to send them out?

Other things that happened during these two months is November 1st I was hurt by a student at my school job. My shoulder has been in constant pain until two weeks ago. Since it was a Worker's Comp case the school sent me to this Dr. that deals injuries that are school workers comp stuff. I ended up hating the Doctor. He never took X-rays. He didn't take my depression seriously. Because of him being that way I never told him about my PTSD acting up because of being restrained in the way the student restrained me. He would give me medication without telling me why he was doing it. Because of my history of attempted drug overdoses I steer clear of drugs unless I know 100% why I am taking them. He had this view of that was his job and I shouldn't be bothered with it. At my last appointment with him he told me that he "knew my personality" and that I must work harder to get better and he said that I would need 3 PT appointments a week. Well I went to the PT appointment and the physical therapist thought he was crazy since she didn't know of a person working harder to get better then I was.

Well the worker's comp people called me and asked me how things were going. I let the flood gates out and told her everything and how awful the Doctor was and how I felt he was trying to pad his bill. (The physical therapist I was going to was on his staff.) So the workers comp person checked with the school to see if it was ok for me to switch Doctors. I got into a new place. She spent 3 hours with me at my first appointment talking about my depression and PTSD. She took X-rays. We talked about the options. What drugs might be good for me. We decided to go with a cortisone shot right then and there. I feeling my normal self within a day or so and a week and a half later I am cleared as all better.

So this makes me even more angry about the first Doctor. He drags out my treatment for nearly two months...I am in pain 24 hours a day. I can't swim and I need to swim to make sure I don't start getting depressed. The pain was making me feel awful. So a good part of these last two months I have been feeling depressed between the pain and not being able to swim. But I couldn't let the depression get to me too much because I needed to get toys to the kids who need them. I ended up calling Fly Guy in tears a few times because I wanted to crawl up in a ball and hide from the world and from the toy fund. Once I was no longer in pain things turned around fairly quickly.

Other stuff that is going on. Horse Girl is reading more and more. The Scottish Rite Dyslexia Learning Center has been doing an amazing job. She has been able to read some subtitles on movies and things like that. She has come a long a lot faster then we ever dreamed possible. So there is a lot of excitement in this house because of that. She is also showing how good she is with math. She just loves school and her teacher is one of the top teachers I have met in my lifetime. The scary thing this is her first year teaching....what will she be like when she get more experience. She is going to be much more then amazing.....I don't think that there is a word for how good she will be.

History Girl is doing well. She has close friends which she didn't have last year. Moving to a bigger school helped with that a lot. She is finding school very boring and isn't working hard at all. We have decided to bribe her with money for grade. I am never quite sure about that, but Fly Guy said that it is what worked for him and he and History Girl are a lot a like when it comes to school. He says in the real world people get paid for performance so History Girl should be paid for performance. I figured it can't hurt. History Girl and I go head to head often about her schooling, because she is so gifted and she doesn't use it....so more or less I have decided to let Fly Guy handle History Girl and I will deal with Horse Girl since she is more like me and I understand her needs and figuring out her needs sometimes frustrate Fly Guy. So it is divide and conquer.

I have to say History Girl is very person to know and I have to say I am pleased that she is my kid. She figured out the Santa Claus myth and rather come to us and talk to us about it. She created a word puzzle telling us she knew and left it by her stocking. Fly Guy figured out the word puzzle and then we invited her down and told her she could now join the elf club. We talked about things we did to make the myth even more real for her. She seemed to appreciate the effort we put into it and she also seemed happy to be on the other end of things this year and help be an elf for her sister. We talked about how Santa is in people's hearts and stuff like that and how she should protect the people who still believe. She was willing to take up all those responsibilities.

Also on a Christmas note....having seen my grandmother two days in a row. I would like same rights we give pets and if life is just sucking please just put me out of my misery. My grandmother is just a shell of the person she was. Physically she is healthy for the most part, but she doesn't know who any of her family is. She didn't know what Christmas was, she vaguely knew some Christmas songs. If she can't remember songs 100% then she is truly gone. My grandmother has sung all her life at her church and with Sweet Adelines...singing was the biggest thing in her life and the fact she couldn't remember the words to songs she has sung her whole life, to me means that she is really gone and is just a shell of who she was.

I am sure I am missing things that happened the last two months, but that was the over view of it all.

I hope everyone had a great holiday season and will have a great New Year. I am glad to be back even though my house is still a mess, but I will get around to that sooner or later. ;-)

The Badger

Ok I have been wanting to write about this for awhile, but I haven't had time to sit down lately and write.
Just before Thanksgiving our garbage disposal broke and needed to be replace. I knew the brand I wanted because it has been the brand my family has used for generations and they last a long time and do a great job. One of the model names I was researching was called "Badger." I knew I had to buy it because it reminded me of one of my favorite songs when I was a teenager..."The Badger Song" by Dead Milkmen. So I just had to get that model. Now I am sure the garbage disposal company didn't name the garbage disposal Badger to get ageing punk rock listening people to by their product, but that is what happened in this case.