Day 1008: Home for Christmas
Dec. 19th, 2011 09:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nagi_schwarzYou'd think with me being unemployed I'd have a lot more time to update this thing. Sad truth is, my days just really aren't that interesting. I'm sure my audience longs for the days when I was so confused in Contracts all I could really focus on was whether I could beat down Officer Despain and steal his breakfast muffin. My mom wasn't kidding when she said married life settles into a routine, but it's a routine I'm okay with.
It's also not that interesting to write about.
On the other hand, once school starts again, and if I get a job, my nice, comfortable routine will change, but till then I have things going in a happy, easy pattern.
Well, happy is a relative word. Getting Cody out of bed in the morning? Not necessarily a happy experience. Not an unhappy one either. I have to decide whether I want to be vicious or nice. I like him too much to be really vicious. Vicious would involve ice cubes or something else equally unpleasant, as well as depriving him of the blankets (he steals them all in the middle of the night, you see). In the end I'm nice - I'll crawl out of bed first, make him lunch and, if he has enough time, breakfast, and then come back and cuddle with him a bit before cajoling him out of bed and into the shower.
Since I'm my mother's daughter and a little OCD, I absolutely have to make the bed before I work out or do anything else for the day. Dishes can wait, but I have to make the bed. Can't explain it. I've been working out to a tribal fusion belly dance DVD, which is harder than you think. A year of just martial arts without the dancing has killed some of my isolation skills. On the other hand, tribal fusion requires a lot more articulated isolation skills than traditional tribal or cabaret, so learning the new stuff is tough, but it's a great workout, and I love dancing. It gives me something to do, and it helps keep me warm. The pilot light in our furnace goes out every few days, and so I have to go reset the thing, and if I'm dancing, well, I'm warm. Some of the arm and shoulder isolations make my left shoulder unhappy, but I reckon I can go back to kenpo with Cody.
After I work out I shower and dress and eat breakfast (Cody makes fun of me because it's an apple) and read my scriptures, and then I run errands for the day. I watch some Smallville, I do what research I can until my brain hurts, and then I write till my muse refuses to work any longer. Somewhere in there I always check the mail, because I love getting old-fashioned letters and am a bit compulsive about things like mail and paying the bills, too. I try to call my mother and say hello, because we're both home alone and a bit bored at times, and I hop online to look for jobs or catch up with friends.
Cody calls when he's hitting the road to come home, because I am my mother's daughter and like to have dinner ready to eat when he walks in the door. I'm getting better at timing it right, too. Of course, we don't have a dinner table, so we eat on the floor together - neither of us eats on the couch. We watch an episode of Sarah Connor to let the food settle, and then read scriptures together, and then he trains while I read or write or watch Smallville or crochet or whatever I have handy. Sometimes I'm his practice dummy.
And then sleepy time happens.
Last week I helped Cody's mom set up their Christmas tree, which was fun. Her sister came over to visit and deliver a belated wedding gift, and we talked family history and other fine things till Cody got home from Kenpo (we'd all gone to dinner together at Rupe's first). Cody and I went Christmas shopping together a bit, and we met up with his mother and little brother for lunch on Saturday after the temple, which was nice.
Yesterday we drove down to St. George together. He did most of the driving. We listened to his live version of The Wall and I read him some Sarah Rees Brennan - the Demon's Covenant. Poor Cody has been sick the last few days. A couple of times when he came home from work he had a tiny bit to eat and then just passed out on the couch, so I let him sleep. Because his coworker has been sicker than him, he's been working sick, and last night he was miserable and exhausted, so I let him sleep in today while I helped my parents trim trees. Yes, my dad is 71 and my mom is 64 (I even sang her the Beatles song) and they're still crawling up ladders and hacking off tree branches. My parents are tough. They're going to be like the two old bachelors in Secondhand Lions, sitting on the porch with shotguns. Except, you know, my mother hates guns.
This Christmas I'm mostly looking forward to seeing my baby niece. Despite Cody's repeated assertions that I am baby hungry (I am most assuredly not, and have a year's prescription of The Pill to prove it), I want to see her and play with her. Also, I made us matching panda hats and need to take all sorts of ridiculous pictures of both of us wearing them. Also, Cody and his friend Logan spent a good long time Saturday night making ridiculous and outlandish wrappings for Cody's Christmas presents for his family, and it will be interesting to see how those were received. I might have donated a pink Victoria's Secret bag and a lacy tablecloth to the cause. Cody used some of my furry yarn and wrapping paper to make one box (with a knife in it) look like a Santa Claus, which I actually thought was very clever and cute.
St. George is nice and warm, which I have missed immensely. After tree trimming I got cleaned up and we had lunch and visited some of the old widows I send letters to, as well as my Aunt Faye, who has an essentially fatal case of pancreatic cancer. For a woman who's dying, she's very cheerful and has an excellent attitude, and Uncle Bob seems to be coping as best as he can. This Christmas is probably the last time I will see Aunt Faye, which makes me pretty sad, because she's always been wonderful to me. She took a ceramic class earlier this year and made me a lovely ceramic serving dish as a wedding gift.
Being home is always an experience. I don't quite know my way around as well as I used to, and the house is so different. Mum upgraded the house, because every ten years a house needs upgrading, or so she tells Dad. The den and kitchen have been repainted, and now my parents have this ridiculous alarm system that announces, in a voice rather like the one on the Tube reminding you to Please Mind the Gap, whenever a door or is opened or closed. On the other hand, neither of them are like Cody and I, who sleep with knives at hand, and they're older now, so security is pretty important. But still. I felt bad for Cody, who was trying to sleep in this morning, because every time one of us came into or out of the house, the alarm system let the world know about it.
I know Cody loves being with his family at Christmas, and this year we're with my family, and I'm grateful he came with me. I feel so bad that he's so ill, and I'm a bit nervous about becoming ill myself, because then it means I won't be able to play with baby Marina, but it's Christmas, and I'm happy. It's good to spend time with my parents, and I love them dearly.
Hey.
I'm home.
It's also not that interesting to write about.
On the other hand, once school starts again, and if I get a job, my nice, comfortable routine will change, but till then I have things going in a happy, easy pattern.
Well, happy is a relative word. Getting Cody out of bed in the morning? Not necessarily a happy experience. Not an unhappy one either. I have to decide whether I want to be vicious or nice. I like him too much to be really vicious. Vicious would involve ice cubes or something else equally unpleasant, as well as depriving him of the blankets (he steals them all in the middle of the night, you see). In the end I'm nice - I'll crawl out of bed first, make him lunch and, if he has enough time, breakfast, and then come back and cuddle with him a bit before cajoling him out of bed and into the shower.
Since I'm my mother's daughter and a little OCD, I absolutely have to make the bed before I work out or do anything else for the day. Dishes can wait, but I have to make the bed. Can't explain it. I've been working out to a tribal fusion belly dance DVD, which is harder than you think. A year of just martial arts without the dancing has killed some of my isolation skills. On the other hand, tribal fusion requires a lot more articulated isolation skills than traditional tribal or cabaret, so learning the new stuff is tough, but it's a great workout, and I love dancing. It gives me something to do, and it helps keep me warm. The pilot light in our furnace goes out every few days, and so I have to go reset the thing, and if I'm dancing, well, I'm warm. Some of the arm and shoulder isolations make my left shoulder unhappy, but I reckon I can go back to kenpo with Cody.
After I work out I shower and dress and eat breakfast (Cody makes fun of me because it's an apple) and read my scriptures, and then I run errands for the day. I watch some Smallville, I do what research I can until my brain hurts, and then I write till my muse refuses to work any longer. Somewhere in there I always check the mail, because I love getting old-fashioned letters and am a bit compulsive about things like mail and paying the bills, too. I try to call my mother and say hello, because we're both home alone and a bit bored at times, and I hop online to look for jobs or catch up with friends.
Cody calls when he's hitting the road to come home, because I am my mother's daughter and like to have dinner ready to eat when he walks in the door. I'm getting better at timing it right, too. Of course, we don't have a dinner table, so we eat on the floor together - neither of us eats on the couch. We watch an episode of Sarah Connor to let the food settle, and then read scriptures together, and then he trains while I read or write or watch Smallville or crochet or whatever I have handy. Sometimes I'm his practice dummy.
And then sleepy time happens.
Last week I helped Cody's mom set up their Christmas tree, which was fun. Her sister came over to visit and deliver a belated wedding gift, and we talked family history and other fine things till Cody got home from Kenpo (we'd all gone to dinner together at Rupe's first). Cody and I went Christmas shopping together a bit, and we met up with his mother and little brother for lunch on Saturday after the temple, which was nice.
Yesterday we drove down to St. George together. He did most of the driving. We listened to his live version of The Wall and I read him some Sarah Rees Brennan - the Demon's Covenant. Poor Cody has been sick the last few days. A couple of times when he came home from work he had a tiny bit to eat and then just passed out on the couch, so I let him sleep. Because his coworker has been sicker than him, he's been working sick, and last night he was miserable and exhausted, so I let him sleep in today while I helped my parents trim trees. Yes, my dad is 71 and my mom is 64 (I even sang her the Beatles song) and they're still crawling up ladders and hacking off tree branches. My parents are tough. They're going to be like the two old bachelors in Secondhand Lions, sitting on the porch with shotguns. Except, you know, my mother hates guns.
This Christmas I'm mostly looking forward to seeing my baby niece. Despite Cody's repeated assertions that I am baby hungry (I am most assuredly not, and have a year's prescription of The Pill to prove it), I want to see her and play with her. Also, I made us matching panda hats and need to take all sorts of ridiculous pictures of both of us wearing them. Also, Cody and his friend Logan spent a good long time Saturday night making ridiculous and outlandish wrappings for Cody's Christmas presents for his family, and it will be interesting to see how those were received. I might have donated a pink Victoria's Secret bag and a lacy tablecloth to the cause. Cody used some of my furry yarn and wrapping paper to make one box (with a knife in it) look like a Santa Claus, which I actually thought was very clever and cute.
St. George is nice and warm, which I have missed immensely. After tree trimming I got cleaned up and we had lunch and visited some of the old widows I send letters to, as well as my Aunt Faye, who has an essentially fatal case of pancreatic cancer. For a woman who's dying, she's very cheerful and has an excellent attitude, and Uncle Bob seems to be coping as best as he can. This Christmas is probably the last time I will see Aunt Faye, which makes me pretty sad, because she's always been wonderful to me. She took a ceramic class earlier this year and made me a lovely ceramic serving dish as a wedding gift.
Being home is always an experience. I don't quite know my way around as well as I used to, and the house is so different. Mum upgraded the house, because every ten years a house needs upgrading, or so she tells Dad. The den and kitchen have been repainted, and now my parents have this ridiculous alarm system that announces, in a voice rather like the one on the Tube reminding you to Please Mind the Gap, whenever a door or is opened or closed. On the other hand, neither of them are like Cody and I, who sleep with knives at hand, and they're older now, so security is pretty important. But still. I felt bad for Cody, who was trying to sleep in this morning, because every time one of us came into or out of the house, the alarm system let the world know about it.
I know Cody loves being with his family at Christmas, and this year we're with my family, and I'm grateful he came with me. I feel so bad that he's so ill, and I'm a bit nervous about becoming ill myself, because then it means I won't be able to play with baby Marina, but it's Christmas, and I'm happy. It's good to spend time with my parents, and I love them dearly.
Hey.
I'm home.
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no subject
Date: 2011-12-20 03:54 pm (UTC)How did you like The Demon's Covenant, by the way? It's probably my favorite in the trilogy, but The Demon's Surrender (the final book) has perhaps my favorite narrator.
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Date: 2011-12-21 06:44 pm (UTC)My version of married life isn't quite what I was expecting, and it has its miserable moments, but I'm loving it all the same.