Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

Tag Archives: holiday


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Happy St. Patrick’s Day

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThe weather people remind us that last year on March 17 we had 75 degrees (23.8 C).  This morning when I took Katie-girl out for her morning jaunt it was 22 degrees (-5.55 C).  What a difference a year makes.

The heat wave we experienced last March, no matter how much we enjoyed it, was a very bad thing.  Many of our farmers had no crop last summer, most of us lost trees and shrubs. Though I long for spring I will wait, albeit impatiently, until the appropriate time for warm breezes and flowers. Meanwhile — Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all of you!  Enjoy some Irish Soda Bread and some forced forsythia that Katie and I cut from a bush in the yard last Sunday.

It’s blooming in the house today.

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Happy New Year!

I just don’t feel any affinity for 2013.  The number itself seems awkward, unwieldy, just a bit off.  Where 2012 appeared to be a good, strong, well rounded and full number right from the start, 2013 seems rather empty and irregular.  Maybe the problem stems from the odd number itself or maybe I’m superstitious about the whole 13th of it all.  I don’t know.

I was unable to stay up to see 2012 out last night.  Part of that was my uncomfortable feeling about 2013 and part of it was that I was exhausted from crazy work.  Mostly I just wasn’t ready to let 2012 go.  I know there are many people – thousands of people – that are more than ready to move on.  People who survived Sandy, people who lost family members in any number of tragedies, people who are going to graduate in 2013, get married in 2013, have a child in 2013.  But me?  I don’t have a specific event planed for this new year; to me it appears as a long long beige tunnel the curves away into the future.  There’s no telling what’s out there waiting and it’s a bit unnerving.  It feels more comfortable to cling to the known, no matter how horrific some of it was, then move on into the beige.

I know, I know.  I’m responsible for colorizing my own beige world and 2013 will likely contain amazing and as yet unknown events.   And I also know that as I move into the year my feelings will settle down, my camera will be busy, my dog will sill make me laugh, work will be work, and my family will love me.

I was sound asleep when 2013 arrived, Katie and I snoring away when stupid neighbors began yelling and shooting off fireworks.  Katie barked and made all the crazy noise go away and we settled back to sleep.  I felt detached from the excitement, ambivalent about time marching on without me.  Mostly I felt annoyed.  But I’ll get over it.

I wish all of you a very very happy and healthy New Year.  Time to join all the thousands who are out walking and jogging and eating right because this is January 1.  I’ll go for a walk, track my points today.  Tomorrow?  Well tomorrow is January 2 and all bets are off.

Happy New Year to all of you!

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Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Katie and I would like to wish all of you, all over the world, a wonderful holiday.  This year it will be just the three of us together, Katie, her Dad and me.  We will enjoy a quiet day, mixed in with a bit of barking at imaginary monsters at the front door.  She’s practicing that now.  Later on I’ll cook a holiday dinner for us and maybe we’ll watch a movie.  Or take a nap.  Simple, quiet ways to spend the one precious day off from work that I have.

Oh wait!  Katie says it’s CHRISTMAS Mama!  We have to have an adventure!  Well.  You never know.  A good romp at the park might fit into our simple family holiday.

And then a nap.


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Concert night

Tonight is our holiday concert.  We didn’t get to perform the Halloween concert last October due to the remnants of Hurricane Sandy taking out local power that night, so this will also be our season opener.  I’m sort of nervous which is silly.  It’s Christmas music for goodness sake.  But of course, not just any Christmas music;  some of it is challenging.

After an 11 hour work day yesterday I practiced for about 30 minutes last night.  The ‘few measures’ I had planned on working on morphed into almost all of the works.  And it wasn’t pretty.  I know, I know.  The worst dress rehearsal can sometimes mean the best concert.

Here’s hoping that holds true for me tonight.

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Disconnected

Imported Photos 01015It’s December.  Christmas is around the corner.  Everyone seems to be excited but I’ve been feeling disconnected from it all.  With no children and no special plans for the holiday, no shopping or cooking to do I haven’t felt empathetic while listening to the young mothers at work talk about sales and gifts and recipes and travel plans.

Today contained a bad commute to work in a downpour, a bad morning at work filled with big problems, a lunch hour spent with truck safety stuff and studying rally signs, a long afternoon trying and failing to get caught up, then a quick drive to band rehearsal where we started out playing terribly and irritating the director.   A typical and exhausting day.

But we’re practicing Christmas music for our concert next week.  And Christmas music is hard to resist.  As the rehearsal wore on we started to sound better.  People settled in.  The director smiled a little bit.  The muscles in my  neck relaxed.  No one minded going past 9 p.m. as we worked out a particularly difficult passage.  People stuck around afterward getting organized for the concert.

On the drive home I sang along with the radio – “Do You Hear What I Hear?”  and “Rudolph the Red Nosed Raindeer.”  I enjoyed the Christmas lights in the neighborhoods I drove through.  Coming down my street I saw that my husband had turned on our holiday lights for me.

I smiled as walked in the door; Katie was excited to see me and husband seemed happy too.  All in all it was a good day.  It’s December, Christmas is right around the corner and the magic of music connected me to the season. Finally.

So get out there an enjoy the season everyone.  And my best advice is to turn on the radio while you’re out.  I bet you find yourself singing along.

Happy Holidays everyone.  Happy Holidays.


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In a land far away

Early morning at the lake.

I am back from four days ‘away’ and it feels like I was gone a week.  That’s a good thing.
It’s hard to describe what it’s like to go from stressful work filled ‘here’ to sunny shiny watered ‘there.’ (Click the photos to see the details.)

Calm

There is always the underlying sadness that very special people are no longer there.  But still it was very good to be South.

Magical

We visited wonderful places, ate wonderful food, played wonderful music and slept until we woke up.

Yum

I couldn’t ask for more.  Except to have Mom and Dad there too.

Missing


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Quiet weekend

We spent the weekend working on projects around the house, taking care of a neighbor’s cat while they were out of town and taking advantage of unseasonably warm weather to put up outdoor Christmas lights.

It was nice.

Early morning peace.

This weekend was the calm before the holiday storm.   Crazy people are camping outside retails stores to be the first shoppers on Black Friday…and some stores are even opening on Thanksgiving night.  As usual I will not be in those lines, nor shopping for things no one needs.  I’ll be spending next weekend with siblings; goofing off, cooking, taking walks up mountains, pictures and naps.

If you’re spending next Friday shopping for stuff….well…enjoy.  To each his own.

And I do appreciate your efforts to turn our economy around.  Yes I do.