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a medley of extemporanea
You know, I remember thinking, just a few weeks ago, how I was enjoying waking up in the morning and not feeling like I couldn't possibly go to work. Following last spring and summer, that was a pleasant thing to wake up to. And then my dad got sick and I managed to fret myself into such a state that I didn't actually notice when I came down with a cold because I was already ragged from worry.
I think the cold is behind me and the Lorazepam is doing okay at helping me sleep soundly, so assuming I don't take any wrong steps I shouldn't need to use any more leave between now and the few days in January when I'm taking time off to be the deputy chief umpire at the east regional men's qualifiers. [touch wood]
Other things that will be happening before then: hmm. This week I realized I am actually shockingly unscheduled. No rehearsal last night, no class tomorrow night, I thought about it on Sunday and couldn't believe it. (GC: "I obviously won't have rehearsal on Tuesday." me: "I won't have rehearsal on Monday or class on Wednesday! Think of all the Rock Band we could play!") The only night I'm booked is tonight, Tuesday, and wouldn't you know I'm double-booked, with curling and a rehearsal for One More Concert (next Tuesday - locals, check us out, A Dickens Christmas at Strathmore, there'll be folks in costume and everything).
Next week is the One More Concert on Tuesday, and the Messiah singalong on Friday - Himself will be up on stage for it, because his choir director was invited to conduct it this year, so. (I will get into the spirit somehow. I need to be able to remind myself that a singalong isn't trying to be a performance.) And then that Sunday is Christmas, for which dinner I have been asked to cast the tiebreaking vote between Himself and his stepfather w/r/t which sort of pie his mother will make. She's only making the one, apparently, because it is known that I am going to get a Christmas pudding at that place just below White Flint whose name I can never remember, and apparently the line is drawn between two desserts for four people and three. ((I am in fact meeting his mother at Christmas dinner. I waffle between feeling utterly calm and fairly freaked out about this. When he picked me up at the airport after Thanksgiving, he told me his mother had said, jokingly, "Wait just a minute - you've met her parents but I haven't gotten to meet her? What's she doing for Christmas?" You can't really argue about whether someone was joking when the person you're talking to knows her and you don't, but I'm really prepared to concede only that she was joking specifically about Christmas, because in general I believe mothers don't joke about meeting their sons' girlfriends, and - though it does mean trotting out a cultural stereotype - Jewish mothers don't joke about meeting their forty-year-old sons' girlfriends. In any event, though, he met my parents when they were in town and I invited him to join us all for dinner, and now I'm being brought to meet his mother - it doesn't really feel analagous, does it? Who knows.))
I need to do a couple more rounds of Christmas shopping, at least one item of which will necessarily have me going to the mall unless I can find an all-purpose calendar shop closer - the wall calendar I am after has no decorations of any kind, just big boxes that can take lots of appointments on non-glossy pages that can take pencil and big numbers that a person's aging parents can see from across the room. Know for sure I can get it at Tysons. Will probably choose to just do it and not try to find the same thing elsewhere when could be there and back in the time spent searching. Also need Apple store, but going to Bethesda for dinner tomorrow so can do this (and Barnes & Noble) then. Need to have a couple more thoughts. Hrm. Oh, but presents for my brother and his family can - should! - be shipped, so not under the same deadline pressure. (Have already achieved present for Gentleman Caller. Then Sunday he said "Oh, that reminds me, I need to order your Christmas present" - I've no idea what reminded him, and he followed this statement with a big maniacal evil grin. I got him Lego Rock Band, so I'm anticipating a certain degree of imbalance. [hands]) I also need to get these New Year's cards I'm going on about sending. See previous post and leave screened comment there if you want a card.
Driving home Tuesday 27th, then back here Friday 30th, and fleeing for New Year's Eve, which looks more and more like the best idea I ever had. From here to the end of the calendar year is only a little longer. I can do it.
I think the cold is behind me and the Lorazepam is doing okay at helping me sleep soundly, so assuming I don't take any wrong steps I shouldn't need to use any more leave between now and the few days in January when I'm taking time off to be the deputy chief umpire at the east regional men's qualifiers. [touch wood]
Other things that will be happening before then: hmm. This week I realized I am actually shockingly unscheduled. No rehearsal last night, no class tomorrow night, I thought about it on Sunday and couldn't believe it. (GC: "I obviously won't have rehearsal on Tuesday." me: "I won't have rehearsal on Monday or class on Wednesday! Think of all the Rock Band we could play!") The only night I'm booked is tonight, Tuesday, and wouldn't you know I'm double-booked, with curling and a rehearsal for One More Concert (next Tuesday - locals, check us out, A Dickens Christmas at Strathmore, there'll be folks in costume and everything).
Next week is the One More Concert on Tuesday, and the Messiah singalong on Friday - Himself will be up on stage for it, because his choir director was invited to conduct it this year, so. (I will get into the spirit somehow. I need to be able to remind myself that a singalong isn't trying to be a performance.) And then that Sunday is Christmas, for which dinner I have been asked to cast the tiebreaking vote between Himself and his stepfather w/r/t which sort of pie his mother will make. She's only making the one, apparently, because it is known that I am going to get a Christmas pudding at that place just below White Flint whose name I can never remember, and apparently the line is drawn between two desserts for four people and three. ((I am in fact meeting his mother at Christmas dinner. I waffle between feeling utterly calm and fairly freaked out about this. When he picked me up at the airport after Thanksgiving, he told me his mother had said, jokingly, "Wait just a minute - you've met her parents but I haven't gotten to meet her? What's she doing for Christmas?" You can't really argue about whether someone was joking when the person you're talking to knows her and you don't, but I'm really prepared to concede only that she was joking specifically about Christmas, because in general I believe mothers don't joke about meeting their sons' girlfriends, and - though it does mean trotting out a cultural stereotype - Jewish mothers don't joke about meeting their forty-year-old sons' girlfriends. In any event, though, he met my parents when they were in town and I invited him to join us all for dinner, and now I'm being brought to meet his mother - it doesn't really feel analagous, does it? Who knows.))
I need to do a couple more rounds of Christmas shopping, at least one item of which will necessarily have me going to the mall unless I can find an all-purpose calendar shop closer - the wall calendar I am after has no decorations of any kind, just big boxes that can take lots of appointments on non-glossy pages that can take pencil and big numbers that a person's aging parents can see from across the room. Know for sure I can get it at Tysons. Will probably choose to just do it and not try to find the same thing elsewhere when could be there and back in the time spent searching. Also need Apple store, but going to Bethesda for dinner tomorrow so can do this (and Barnes & Noble) then. Need to have a couple more thoughts. Hrm. Oh, but presents for my brother and his family can - should! - be shipped, so not under the same deadline pressure. (Have already achieved present for Gentleman Caller. Then Sunday he said "Oh, that reminds me, I need to order your Christmas present" - I've no idea what reminded him, and he followed this statement with a big maniacal evil grin. I got him Lego Rock Band, so I'm anticipating a certain degree of imbalance. [hands]) I also need to get these New Year's cards I'm going on about sending. See previous post and leave screened comment there if you want a card.
Driving home Tuesday 27th, then back here Friday 30th, and fleeing for New Year's Eve, which looks more and more like the best idea I ever had. From here to the end of the calendar year is only a little longer. I can do it.