This is Christmas?
I'm having a really hard time coming to grips with the time of year this year. I am entirely unused to this climate and may go crazy when my winter never comes. With highs in the 50's and lows in the 30's this is nothing like my past five winters in Fargo, the 2 winters before that in Northern Maine and the 16 before that in coastal Maine. The grass is still green, the bamboo and holly are still green (the leaves have finally fallen off the deciduous trees though) and the roses here at my apartment complex are still in bloom. It feel like late September, and yet I've already finished a term at school and I leave on Tuesday evening to begin my trek homeward for the holiday. (My flight leaves from Portland at 8.30 in the morning Wednesday, which would necessitate no sleeping Tuesday night and leaving here at 4-4.30am to ensure that I could catch my plane. It would also have left the boy with another 2.5-3 hour drive back from there on no sleep.) Instead of that scenario we have decided to take our time, leaving here around 4 on Tuesday afternoon to arrive at TheBoy's childhood home, where we will have dinner with his fabulous mother, who has taken me in and treats me just like I am her own daughter. Then, because we will only be 45 minutes from the airport, we won't have to leave until a little before 6 meaning that we'll both get to sleep! Hooray!!
How to Have Your Bath Ruined.
I have had a migraine all day. A migraine that hasn't had anything make it better, not my computer glasses, not medication, not a nap in the dark. So I figured I'd take a hot bath and hope that helped. Well, it was helping and then my downstairs neighbor came flying upstairs and laid on the doorbell. It took me awhile to get out of the bath and into a robe and he'd gone by the time I got to the door. Now, I'm all shaky and nervous as to who could've rung my bell, when he comes back up. I'm damp, my hair is wet, and he says "are you having problems with your water here?" Now, I've taken a bath a million times before in this apartment and there's never been any problems. I told him no, but that I was in the bath. And he has the audacity to say to me "are you sure its not overflowing?" yeah, jackass, its overflowing, and I'm not going to tell you. At any rate, he says he's got a drip coming from his bathroom vent (at which point my internal monologue says--"bathroom vent? we don't have a bathroom vent, why does he have a bathroom vent?" So, really, I'm figuring that the pipes between my apartment and his must have an issue. He was going to call the apartment manager and I'm hoping that fixing things doesn't disrupt too much because, at least on this floor, there are no drop ceilings. My guess is that the pipes are connected (by virtue of the bathrooms being stacked) and there's something going on between them that is no fault of either party. He left the situation by pretty much accusing me of being the drip's cause. He actually told me that my pipes had to be where the problem is, and implied that my taking a bath makes it my fault. Yes, jackass, I'd love to ruin your bathroom, so I drilled through my tub and down into your pipes so that you'd have a drip. Gah!
Boxing Day.
My sister's package should be on its way by now. I slept late this morning and TheBoy was already gone by the time I got up. However, the box is gone and he promised to take it in on his way out of town this morning. I wrapped everything last night, five small boxes in total and wrapped them in bubble wrap and tissue paper in a larger box. Then, I had to wrestle the box into brown paper wrapping because it had FedEx printed on the side (I'm a re-boxer, I admit it). By the time it was done I had no desire to wrap anything else last night so I've got wrapping that has to get done before I leave next Wednesday. TheBoy doesn't do a lot in the way of wrapping things, so that's my job since I like making them pretty with ribbons, etc. However, that means that I have to wrap the gifts I helped him pick out for his family before I leave to see mine. *grin* I was told that I made Christmas much easier for him this year.
I Can’t Wait.
I forgot to mention that I bought the perle cotton (black) and seed beads (a metallic pinkish-purple with silver inside) to create MaryElla. The problem is that I have to wait until after my Christmas knitting is done to start it. That makes me antsy and sad because I really like it and want to finish it. Something tells me that I may very well make more than one. I know at least one other person for whom it would make a fantastic gift.