Saturday, Nov. 11, 2023 11:54 am
Almost Thanksgiving
I did have a lovely Day of the Dead. My altar and house decorations were nice, but never finished. This should have been the year I made the altar extra special for Mother and Aunt Dorothy, but I never got the pictures up. Next year I need to start earlier.
I have a list somewhere of things that I'm "missing" since the move. I had a cute little kitchen plaque that said "Not all witches are in Salem" for instance. No idea where it is. I have a Beatles Hard Days Night cup and saucer. The cup is here. Why wasn't the saucer with it? I feel like these things will show up so I keep an eye out. Some things do reappear. Yesterday I was trying to see what photos I have that need to be scanned. The whole array of photos needs to be better organized and stored. I was digging through and found a USB drive Mark gave me years ago of "my" pictures from his computer. Some are duplicates I have that I scanned on his computer, but many are of trips we took that I did not have copies of. It was fun to look through them again. I was darn cute for a long time!
I did get together two weeks ago with my old friend from the 80s and early 90s. We had the best visit. It was cold and rainy that day so we had tortilla soup and guac at her house. I had already decided I was just going to say, "Let's have cheese and crackers here instead of going out," but she was ahead of me and had the soup cooking. It was sad to know she and her husband of 30 years are having some issues. He is a very handsome man now. He's one of those that is much more handsome now than he was at 40! They are going to counseling and I hope they can find their way through. We talked nonstop for four hours. I heard about her daughter and granddaughters and then they arrived so I got to meet them. I had met the daughter when she was about five, but I still can't picture them as lifelong parents in my mind. I'm really excited to get back together with her again, but she's been out of town almost this whole last two weeks. So maybe in the upcoming days. I know I am seldom excited about getting together with friends and I'm sure the new will wear off, but I'm so grateful to be friends with her again.
I also talked to an old high school friend this week. There was a group of six of us in high school that ate lunch together every day. We called ourselves "The Table" sometimes, as in "okay, all The Table will be there." There were other peripheral friends that sometimes came and ate with us and were part of our group, but four girls and two boys always were there. He and I were great friends from seventh grade past college. He lived in Vienna for 18 years and I even visited him there once time. He wasn't the reason for the trip, but it was great that it worked out that I could get together with him. He moved back to Texas and even Austin when I was there, but we were an hour apart and never quite got together very much. I was married by then, too. He was divorced. We were never interested in each other, so that wasn't an issue. One issue was how rapidly he spoke! I couldn't follow a conversation with him on the phone! Phones may have improved because I could understand him mostly this time. It was his birthday so I messaged him on Facebook and then he called and we talked an hour and a half. It was very pleasant.
Last weekend my sister and I were going to go to Hot Springs, Arkansas, for a cousin's baby shower. Her grandmother, my first cousin, was going to have a family brunch on Sunday for everyone. We were really looking forward just to seeing her and staying at her house and having the brunch. She is a caterer and does everything well. By the time the trip was upon us, I was dreading it. I texted my sister Friday night and said that Present Me was mad at Past Me for committing to this. On Saturday morning she fell out of bed and conked her head! She didn't feel like she should drive so we canceled the trip. I was so happy! I must have manifested her injury. It was great to have a full weekend with no obligations. As we saw pictures and heard more about the whole weekend, the more we were glad we weren't there. There were many more people than we had thought about being there. So they had enough family of their own without needing us there, too.
I finished Inktober, the month of ink drawings. Only one time did I "forget." I had done a preliminary sketch, but never got to the real thing so I posted the preliminary sketch and that counts. I used the real prompt every day (though you don't have to) and I only drew real things, never just one of my designs. It was a lot of fun and I got great responses. Even sold one of them.
I put my Day of the Dead altar in the living room where the TV sits and moved the TV to another room in the house, my "front" room. I have enjoyed watching TV in there with a view of the street outside. There have been a couple of moments of "spooky" too though when cars turn around in my driveway so there are spotlights sweeping through my room, or just watching cars slow down on the street. I probably will take down the altar today and I probably will move the TV back. I have still watched some TV in the living room with a tiny TV so I probably am too used to it to change everything. Maybe I'll put the tiny TV in the front room.
I had a handy man come to the house this week. He's part of a service I had in Austin and loved, but now I'm wondering if it is too costly to be worth it. I had hoped he would fix a few things while he was here, but he was only here to create the list and take photos of the appliances so they will know what I need if they break. Now they've scheduled the real handyman to come December 20, but that is SO FAR AWAY. I wrote and asked to be on a waiting list in case there is a cancellation. I have two new toilet seats and bidets I want installed as soon as possible! But, time flies so freaking fast as it is, Dec. 20 is really a week away.
My house payment went up $100 dollars. I think the hike is mostly the cost of insurance! My agent is a friend of mine and she says I'm still getting a good deal. I'm not so sure. I'm sure I will manage. I did get my inheritance and that makes me very happy. We got Mom's probate done, too. By inheritance, I don't mean a giant windfall. Mom's holdings wouldn't have even kept her at her residence for another year and that is scary! I don't know what we would have done when her money ran out. Bless her heart for exiting just in time to leave us with a little and prevent those big worries. I am going to use a little of the money to pay off a 401K Loan I took out a few years ago to pay off debts so I could refinance my house at a better rate. That debt is going to continue for a couple of years, but if I pay off the rest of it now I'll have $200 more each month in my paychecks, so that will ease that hike in the mortgage. In a a few months, the car payments will end and that will be a big windfall to have that extra money. So I know it will all work out. Just a little tight for right now.
I accepted a Thanksgiving invitation to the in-laws. No one here had invited me and there was no indication there would be a family gathering. Of course, I made the commitment and then find out there is going to be a Thanksgiving at my sister's with one son and his wife. But I've always said they need to have their own family events without me. I don't always need to be included. So this is me being self-directing and that's what I would like to do more of.
I read this week about hypergraphia.... the need to write and draw obsessively. I believe I am a sufferer. I truly could sit here and type my thoughts all day long. I sit at work and often write things down just to be writing. I collect fountain pens just so I'll have a nice pen to use to write things down. And then the drawing, too. Similar except I'm more comfortable with words than drawing. Interesting there is a word for it. I wish I could make myself write more fiction and things separate from my own thoughts and world.
If I could sit here and write while someone else cleared my desk and washed dishes and cleaned litter..... now that would be the life.