Good-bye 2017, Hello 2018

1.1.18
I realized today that I haven't opened this blog since before Thanksgiving and I felt like the month of December never happened. So, here we go again, overdue. Of course, I have other things to do today so I can't sit down and make a complete entry so I'll do what I've done for what seems like a long time; write a little bit for a few days until I'm caught up. Smarter this time, though, as I will back up every entry on a word document because this website likes to lose entire paragraphs despite my obsessive use of the save button. *insert angry face here*. I made sure this weekend was a restful one with no plans as last weekend was not so restful. I've been doing stuff around the house, but I did venture outside yesterday to grocery shop and run a few errands in the bitter cold. It's been frigid for a week and doesn't appear to be letting up anytime soon. An awesome way to start my favorite month (sarcasm). I've been doing laundry, cleaned my bathroom, and took down Christmas decorations. Caught up with Granny Saturday and just got off the phone with Cora. The plan is to head over to Ludlow next weekend for a visit. She was unable to join us on Christmas because of the weather. I was going to bring her like I did on Thanksgiving but the weather foiled that. Denise and Sherry also decided to stay home so it was a smaller group this year. Jason, Caitlin, and the boys, however, stopped by for a visit. I was thankful for the laid back morning because I woke up with a massive headache that never really completely went away. I worked 11 hours last Saturday and had to come in for a STEMI early Sunday morning so it was probably from sleep deprivation and not enough water. Really couldn't rest Christmas Eve because I had stuff to do. Thankful for weekends like this when I can recharge my battery.

Thanksgiving was ok. I picked up Cora and we were the first ones to arrive. The reception was rather unsavory and it set the tone for the rest of the day. If I didn't have Cora with me, I probably would have just turned around and went home. But, I had the pie, so I guess I couldn't have done that. Most everybody arrived soon after and I got a little nervous when Cora chuckled and said it was crazy to let your dog in the bathroom with you (only my ears heard). People started drinking soon after they arrived so the atmosphere slowly got more jovial as the time passed. Dinner, as usual, was worth the wait and I had to wait until I got home to eat dessert otherwise I would have felt sick. I don't recall what I did that weekend but I'm fairly certain it was a stay at home, recharge battery kind of weekend. The best.

1.8

The first weekend in December began with a Friday night Cath Lab outing at Salt Hill for Meg's last day. She left us to work at Concord and to be closer to home. I hate going out on Friday nights but it happens every once in a while for good reason. It was a good group and turned out to be pretty fun. I'm pretty sure I ended up staying home the rest of the weekend...another battery recharge weekend.

I have no recollection of what I did the second weekend in December although I know I did the majority of my Christmas shopping on the 11th and 18th. It's surprising how much time is taken up by stuff on my standing and one-time to do lists. I really enjoy not running around on the weekends; it's going to happen more often this year. People are going to have to step up to the plate and come see me if they want to spend more time with me. The older Xander gets, the more time I want to be home with him. I can't control my job, but everything else I can. 

On the 17th, I went to Claremont to hang out with Heather and Simone. We went to Hannaford's then made a gingerbread train from a kit we bought there. We spent the rest of my time there playing and I left right before dinner time. I stopped by Jeff's to check out his new place then I stopped by Mom's for a bit and ended up eating homemade mac and cheese and sausage. 

This past weekend, I headed to Cora's for a visit because she wasn't able to come to Christmas. I was there from 330 to 10; we chatted, played Yahtzee and Aggravation, had cocktails and ate roast pork, mashed potatoes, butternut squash, and rice pudding. It was quite tasty and I ended up eating too much. I was supposed to go to Ctown yesterday to hang out with H and S but it was just too cold so we decided to postpone until next weekend. I ended up sleeping in, doing laundry, going to Barre class and grocery shopping. I picked up a pizza for dinner from C&A in Hanover because I told the owner (a patient last week) that I would. Their veggie pizza is tasty. I went to Newbury earlier today for an appointment, ran some errands then did some food prep. I made spaghetti sauce, salmon, loaded baby potatoes in the slow cooker, and ground turkey for taco salad this week. I also descaled my keurig. Super exciting life I have. Now, I'm trying to get psyched up for some elliptical time in the basement. I won't feel as guilty eating a whoopie pie later. Back to work for the week tomorrow. These 3 day weekends are never enough. I want vacation. Hopefully going to CA in March. 

Work has been pretty status quo for a while. Short-staffed. Sometimes the job gets on my nerves and it doesn't bring out the best in me but it's a tough environment and I hope that's true for most everybody I work with to some degree. 

I've been listening to Pandora's A Perfect Circle station pretty much exclusively since the concert. I've been introduced to Puscifer and I've got to say it's pretty good stuff. I go back to my reggae at work sometimes when we need happy, feel-good music. 

This entry was a little disappointing because it was tardy and stuff leaves my brain when too much time passes. Perhaps I'll trial a NY's resolution to make an entry on a weekly basis but publish monthly, still. We'll see how long that lasts. Until then...