On Second Thought, Yes, These Will Be Fine

The events of last Friday were unspeakably deplorable and horrific.  Any parent, any person with a heart has been deeply saddened by the senseless deaths of the 26 in Sandy Hook, CT.  I grew up in Danbury, a town within 15 minutes of Newtown.  

And while we are all feeling it as a community, a sort of unbearable loss,  if we weren't directly hit, we can still count our blessings. I know some of those directly affected will still count their blessings - those are amazing humans.  

So here are the things that I am going to consider blessings whereas I may write an entire post on why they suck:  

I have my Humanling. She has epilepsy and we deal with that.  Overall she has a pretty normal life and a decent, yet naive understanding of things.  But she is here with me.  Mornings suck when fighting her body's urge to flee off into a seizure but fight it off we do, most of the time successfully. 

I have two adorable rotten animals who's alarm clocks are set to "play with small noisy items that no one knew was under the chair" between 4-6am.  I can deal with this.  I have a water bottle and at least one of them respects that.  

When the cats are on vacation from destroying my beauty sleep, I have hermit crabs, who's claws sound like chalk on the plastic side of the tank as he's trying to burrow himself under the water dish.  I'm not sure if any of you realize how slow and methodical crabs are when they are on a mission. Bumping the side of the tank only prolongs the process.  As soon as you lie back down, the crab is emerging from his shell again, because he can.

A smoke alarm that goes off when I boil water.  Prompting Big Kitty to stalk me and implore me in her desperate meowing that I do something to make it stop. 

I have a sign on my forehead that states that I must not take my work seriously while in the office because my podmate, whom I adore, gets along with me so well that she loves talking to me.  In a whisper.  So no one else can hear and which also requires an advanced course in lip reading.  If I am reading lips then you may as well clock me out for lunch because I'm not working either.  

Being single.  I have found that I'm pretty excellent at getting the garbage out on time, cleaning the litter box, guinea pig cages and watching Christmas movies on the Hallmark channel.  My hands might feel a little like sandpaper at the moment but it's nothing a good dose of olive oil couldn't cure.  I'm quite the catch right now.  Don't blink, I may be snatched up as soon as I post this.  There's probably a single carpenter needing a girl with sandpaper hands out there somewhere.  

I said that I wouldn't eat mushrooms for loved ones.  But in recognition of current events, I have changed my mind.  I'd eat mushrooms every day if it would prevent anything like this from ever happening again.  And would say "Amen" after gagging down each one.

Inevitably Blessed

Today we are finally receiving proof that snow exists. I feel like I’ve heard the Sky is Falling a number of times this season so far, only to receive nary a flake. Booooo!

I do not enjoy being cold. I enjoy even less, being hot. By default, bring down the mercury!

I do love the cozy, hunker down feeling of a snowstorm. We had an amazing Christmas day yesterday…the very holiday we’d been dreading simply because it has been a rough health season for the Honey, leaving us to mainly rely on my paycheck for a family of three in a very expensive town. We managed to buy a few gifts for our families, but our main concern was to give Humanling a kid’s Christmas. Straight from the Humanling’s mouth, “This is the best Christmas Ever!”. That in itself made us happy.

As the snow comes down today, we stare at the full birdfeeder. This is another joy of ours….to see the pine grosbeaks, doves, blue jays (well…Honey is not enjoying the bluejays but to me they aren’t simply Bird Bullies of the feeder, they are still birds), chickadees, tufted titmice (not even sure if the plural would be that but it seems to make sense!) and nuthatches. What a wonderful cast of our daily Bird Show. We had run out of bird food a month or more ago and could hardly stand to watch the birds mainly disappear. Even worse was watching them show up desperately, pecking inside the empty holes, looking for anything at all. I’m almost positive they’d even have settled for a gobstopper.

But now, it is full. The birds have telegraphed the other birds that there is one place nearby that is serving in this weather.

Our other animals seem content and happy…guinea pigs have carrots from grandma’s yesterday. Cats and dog are all curled up on various pieces of furniture.

We travelled down the hill to the market for Snowed In type food. Which is anything you can get your hands on at this point. Say honey, doesn’t motor oil make a good buttery sauce?

The shelves were becoming more and more bare from the organized, under frenzied but over annoyed crowd. A sense of humour was not to be found. What WAS found though were people who may have been out of The Happening. It isn’t sound that they were REALLY trying to off themselves, but debatable when more than one person walks/drives/sleds aimlessly in a parking lot without much regard to the fact that it really isn’t a ghost town. Those aren’t mirages…they are actual CARS coming at your back. Thankfully with people behind the wheel who want to enjoy their Christmas wares without the slap of manslaughter on their record.
But now, with the beautiful gift of wood for the fireplace, a fire burns and the three of pursue after Christmas enjoyment. Art to be made, posts to be writ, football to be watched, beer bottles to be kissed by the Honey.

The most beautiful gifts of all, were every single one of them. We were far blessed! I am swimming in giftcards to Borders. My heaven, my sanctuary, my All That Is Right with this World. Beautiful, beautiful Borders. Of course I fantasize about reading more than I actually wish to be reading!

But the top gift of all, the Mother of all Gifts, is that my older girl, Miz Eye and her boyfriend of 5 years, are gifting the world with a blessed new being! As life keeps opening up new days, new lessons and new passions, I am inevitably regenerating again...I am going to be a 41 year old Grandma! So for now, lots of sweet dreams of books and the time to read them as well as that fresh new baby smell and a cross country trip to Arizona next year to get to enjoy it!