Catching Up, Again.

Y’all. Things have been a little bit nutty since my last post.

First, M got injured in a soccer game. It happened while we were watching the game online, which was pretty stressful because the camera just follows the action, so I thought I saw her go down, and then I yelled to Cute W, who’d gone in the kitchen for a minute, and then we stared at the TV where the camera was focused on a different area of the field, following the movement of all the other players who were getting together in a circle while the injured player was somewhere off screen. And so we were watching her various teammates collect into a group and confirming that nope, she wasn’t one of the players who was, you know, walking. I called our friend, M’s roommate’s mom, who confirmed that it was M with the injury, and she even brought her phone over to M on the sidelines so we could talk to her right away. Long story short, she needed knee surgery, which happened in Iowa, and Cute W went out to take care of her, and now he’s back and she’s recovering well, although she’s still on crutches. Except, apparently, for weekend parties, when her friends borrow a wheelchair to wheel her around.

Meanwhile, we’d planned a trip to NYC for Gi, Cute W, and me, so Gi and I went alone while Cute W was in Iowa. We definitely got lost more than we would have with him, but we packed in tons of touristy fun. I’ll give you a fuller scoop later.

Between his massive road trip to Iowa (he drove because he wasn’t sure how long M would need him) and my whirlwind trip around NYC, Cute W and I were still barely catching our breath before it was time to prepare for hosting Thanksgiving. And now I’m in full-on Christmas mode. In fact, I wanted to be sure to share my 101 Ideas for Holiday Family Fun in the Capital District because it is jam-packed with holiday fun.

Before things got so crazy with M’s injury and the travel, I’d started writing up a little post from way back at the beginning of November, so here it is.

Here and Now (and by that I mean, a few weeks ago at this point)

I’ve spent so much time lately catching up with our travels hither, thither, and yon, that I thought I’d change it up with a quick update on what’s going on with life in general here at home. So here’s what happened today.

First, Cute W’s out of town, which means that at about 6:45 am, I woke up to my cat Ruth sitting on the table next to my bed, peering at me curiously and wondering if she was ever going to get breakfast. I am fortunate that the cats never walk on my face and they’re even too polite to meow for breakfast (with me; it’s possible that they just know I’d put a pillow on my head), but they definitely start casually hovering in my general area until they get their morning allotment of canned smelly puree.

I gave G a ride to school. Part of her is absolutely beside herself with excitement about the frost on the morning grass and the steam that forms when she exhales and the other part of her is just really cold. Poor little dumpling: this is basically sweater weather only for us Upstate New Yorkers.

I aspire to take morning walks, and usually it remains just an aspiration, but today I was tasked with walking a neighbor’s dog, and along the way I took this picture of our house with a small jack-o-lantern inexplicably hanging out on the side of the road. In fact, that’s when I thought, “Maybe I should just take pictures all day.” And here we are.

Next up: a workout. I got a subscription to BODi (formerly Beach Body) before the pandemic, and gradually Cute W and I have expanded our workout equipment so that there is a ton of stuff we can do in our basement playroom. You may remember I talked about BODi because that’s where I found my meditation challenge, and I am a super-fan of Megan Davies (I’ve mentioned her before). I am almost done with her Sure Thing series. Whenever I’m doing one of her programs, I end up having to buy another heavier set of weights, and this morning I trotted the latest big ones out, my 30s, along with a few others.

Squatting while holding these makes me feel like a Beast in the best possible way.

Then I had to order a new phone case, because the hard part of my OtterBox just cracked. I was very sad because the only cases available were black. Then I pondered if perhaps I could decoupage my way to a cuter case, just like I’d made my lotion jars into cute storage for desk stuff. Later, I confirmed: yes I can! This is the new, unbroken black case with some scrapbook paper Mod Podged onto it.

Of course, then I did some of what I call “work-work,” which is my actual job versus working around the house or volunteer stuff. It was uneventful, so I took zero pictures.

There was also some post-Halloween cleaning up to do. It was time to put away all of the Halloween decor, plus I had a big stack of games from when G hosted friends at our house after trick-or-treating. She’d gone with mostly international students, and can you believe some lady said she was too old to trick-or-treat? Obnoxious. Luckily, I’d prepared her for it, and she told her that this was her first Halloween ever, and the lady coughed up the candy.

Oh, and it was such a beautiful day that I spent some time collecting seeds from my native plants. I’d originally aspired to go to the Native Seed Swap I’d enjoyed so much last year, but we were traveling that weekend and I couldn’t make it.