"That tracks" Holiday Weekend Recap

Hello and welcome to your Monday folks!  I hope you had a lovely time with your families with lots of gratitude for the people surrounding your tables and those you were able to call/text with.  I did a lot of the work beforehand but as always life likes to throw some obstacles in there like it's the first season of Wipeout.  I cooked myself into hobbletown the night before finishing with grandma's noodles which I was in no mood to make but I got through it.  It also didn't help my website crapped the bed and I had to spend 3 hours fixing it when I was supposed to be doing food prep and potentially getting downstairs to paint the pantries (which are smelling more toxic by the day.)

Thanksgiving morning, we started with our Covid era tradition of my light pumpkin pie but this time we had it in bed and watched the CBS coverage of the parade about 9:30am while recording both.  When we got to 'halftime' we refueled with apple pie and proceeded with our bed rotting until 12:40pm.  I mean why not, everything was made!  Oh.  You silly little minion.  We came down so I could cut Grandma's egg noodles...that I left out on the counter overnight...and we were out of eggs.  So the Mr ran to the store while I mixed the dry ingredients because nothing says fun like doing something you kind of dread twice.  I got everything in the oven while he was at the store but no real sense of timing on any of it.  When it was time to pull everything out, the mashed potatoes turned into some gluten ball when I've made them this way forever without issue.  Thankfully, I had 1/2 cup of instant mashed potatoes left from the immediate post death era so I slightly beefed them back up.  It was all just irritating but this explains why most women who are hosting are snappy, irritated and/or drunk when everyone shows up, even if you're only hosting two.  We watched a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving while we ate our Thanksgiving linner on Mom's pumpkin placemats.  Then we were too full to move but did anyway by walking our almost 3 miles at the park at dusk.  

It was miserable as the inclines felt like we were going to yak.  We felt a little better by the 4th lap which was nice.  I saw another 2023 Hallmark movie...dead parents.  Eff off...OJ trial on Court TV it is.  At least I was going to be seeing my friend who flew up from the south for a s'more sesh in the park at the fireplace shelter.  I was so proud of us because we got everything loaded so all I needed to do was heat up the water and put it in the thermos and the Mr would join us after he got off work.  We really lucked out because her brother said he'd bring her over which meant I didn't have to waste 40 minutes going to and fro and could get the shelter all set up the way I wanted.  Woo hoo!

The next morning, I was running on about 4 hours sleep but nothing a shower couldn't fix.  I check my email and see a note from my friend saying "livid."  She's sick.  That tracks with how the weekend is shaping up.  She came in and her niece had been sick who now passed it on to her sister in law hacking up a lung and now 2 days later, she has the creeping crud.  So there went our gathering we'd been looking forward to.  😞  It just figured we finally got our crap together to be all loaded (and I mean LOADED) and ready to go to be on top of things and I should've known when I heard a mysterious universe chuckle in the wind it wouldn't happen.  We chatted for 45 minutes on the phone and I told her I would drop off the gift I got her and something I made for her brother on the door handle.  We loaded up Mom's wreath that I made for her grave since they live close to there and we got moving after the Mr got off work.  I dropped off her gift and we chatted from a good 20 ft away.  She said her brother was also starting to feel sick too.  The flu is rampant in her parts and she said she was feeling slightly off the day she left but thought it was her usual sinus issues so I have a feeling despite getting the flu shot, that might be what she has unless it's Covid from work.  Tis the season to spin the wheel o' sickness.  

Then we went to the cemetery to install Mom's wreath at her and grandma's grave.  (How the hell did I just type that sentence!?)   

(Protecting Mom's privacy but I made ornaments with memories and sealed them to hopefully be weather proof and used the poinsettias she bought but never got to use.)

It was bittersweet but I hope it helps anyone who goes to visit, if they do.  Then we went on our 3 miler and my legs are so shot between the constant walking and the cook fest.  We lounged a little then decided screw it, we'd have our leftovers for dinner but we'd already walked so it was pretty much watching the latest episode of Project Fear and trying not to fall asleep.  I taped a bunch of episodes of Bedtime Stories with Ryan (Reynolds) and I swear every time they put me to sleep!  I always wake up with him saying the sheep are asleep, am I?  Apparently I was sir.  They even purposely have low whisper commercials and no big flashing ones that basically make it impossible for someone like me to fall asleep to them without a pillow covering my eyes.  Then I was up for a while so I journaled to Mom since it had been a little while because I felt like every entry was the same.  Eventually I fell asleep but getting to sleep before 3am is a major victory.

Saturday was upon us and the last game of the season for the Mr's team so I knew there'd be 4 hours I'd be bored and should probably do something productive.  Should being the operative word.  You know what did get done?  Me only getting TWO of the four obscenely priced mugs from Williams Sonoma I reluctantly splurged on when I saw they weren't going on sale for Black Friday.  The two I did get were embarrassingly small and no way would it hold what we are used to drinking out of mugs.  I didn't have it in me to call because I knew I was going to just lose it crying.  We got a refund for the two we didn't receive after the Mr patiently dealt with the moron who was making it way harder than it needed to be.  I ordered two other mugs I was originally eyeing that I knew were on sale at Macy's so I scheduled those for pickup Sunday.  We drove to Mom's favorite donut shop on a whim they were still open because I got a strong craving out of nowhere and despite not answering their phone, they were open.  The Mr and I had a long weepy talk on the way over.  I saw this meme the other day that said "the holidays don't show us the empty chair, they magnify them."  Accurate.  We're in magnification stage and if we didn't feel her absence before, all we have lost but more importantly can never have again is just rubbed in your face with every Christmas song, gleeful family oriented commercial, the 6th Hallmark movie you've recorded with another dead parent even when it's not pertinent to the story.  The loss of Mom and the loss of what can never be the year we were supposed to finally get together is suffocating all over again.  We are eating to fill the void and despite walking three miles almost daily, it's not enough to out walk the crutches I have built in to our diets like packaged lunches because I can't be bothered with something that takes brain power to put together.  It's a shit show over here and I just have to watch people share pics with their families and pretend it doesn't gut me.  Pretend that every opportunity I ever had over my lifetime that I put off or turned down spending time with Mom because I had something else planned doesn't shred me into a thousand pieces now.  Knowing that the presents from her under our tree this Christmas Eve wrapped in her paper and paid for with her money, will only be there because we chose them for her.  

Sunday we had coffee in bed after the Mr picked up groceries and watched some DVR stuff.  We went down and finished up our noodles and turkey then I got to work on those god forsaken pantries.  I got the Dixie Belle Boss white primer I bought which is supposed to work some kind of miracle that shellac doesn't ready to roll.  I do know the outside I treated with the clear doesn't smell so that's at least encouraging.  I coated the inside twice while the Mr cut the eucaboard for the new backs instead of the cheap ass one that came with it.  I'll have to give it two days before we can determine if this works or not and if it does, I'm going to have to use some poly on the shelves so it doesn't scratch off as things are moved in and out of it over time.  I swear they won't be done until Christmas.  Such a pain in my butt...our butts because it's taking over our workout space.

The Mr was kind enough to put up the tree.  I will fluff the gaps when I get a chance and then we'll decorate at some point.  I've got my annual check up today and the Mr is going with me since medical settings are still very triggering to me right now.  I will be having her check my prolactin levels in the regular blood test in which she tells me my blood is high fructose corn syrup.  I'm not going to go my whole life with a treatable prolactin issue that gives me a brain tumor like Mom had and no doctor gave a crap enough to treat when they knew about it 40 YEARS ago!  I'll be getting some shots too so just call me your friendly(ish) neighborhood pincushion.

That about wraps up our long weekend.

How was your holiday?  Do you remember how to do your job?  😂

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