Ah, 2023!
I was trying most of December to get here, but December is always the most stressful month for me, and this year I was host for Christmas dinner, which didn’t help alleviate any of it.
Alex was finishing final papers until the day he flew out here, so he was a bit stressed, too. But then he was able to relax once he got here. Actually, so did I, partially. Iqbal’s always relaxed. We watched several movies and a lot of “Bob’s Burgers,” which is a typically silly cartoon. We also played a lot of Trivial Pursuit and watched Jeopardy. (Alex is still on the call list for Jeopardy until June.) Alex is able to answer so many more of the questions than I in either of the Trivial Pursuit games we have, but somehow I managed to win all three of the proper games we played. The other way we “play” is simply to continue asking each other the questions after the game is won/lost.
But movies and games do not clean the house, or cook. Alex to the rescue. He made a pecan pie and the absolutely most delicious purple sweet potato pie. We had planned for this after he made one for Thanksgiving dinner at Kat’s (his partner) mom’s home, and everyone there liked it. I didn’t think I’d particularly like it, because I’m not fond of pumpkin pie, but while it kinda reminds me of pumpkin, I like the taste much better. Then on Christmas Eve, after his pies were done, and I’d made the cranberries and pineapple sweet potatoes, I was stressing about cleaning the kitchen floor. On top of the stress, my back was really hurting from the half bending I was doing as I wrapped presents. Alex was so sweet. He told me to go to bed and he cleaned the floor!
On Christmas morning the floor was clean and we enjoyed opening our gifts after I got the roast into the oven. Unexpectedly, Alex also made the mashed potatoes. Now, I grew up eating mashed potatoes five to seven days a week. (My dad loved them.) My mom made excellent mashed potatoes. No one anywhere ever made better, but frankly I got tired of them. I never order them out and would take only a small spoonful if they were served (which they seem always to be at holiday dinners). But Alex’s (I think he said it was Kat’s family recipe) potatoes were SO GOOD!! I ate more than I usually do. OMG!! I even want more! And they tasted just as good as leftovers!!
Everyone said they enjoyed dinner, but most didn’t have any pie! I think only one had the sweet potato pie and only 1/4 of the pecan was gone. All the more for us! Finally finished tonight.
Then Alex was supposed to fly home at around 5 am on the 27th. He and I didn’t expect to sleep the night of the 26th because we’re night owls and had to leave by 3 am to get to the Portland airport. (Iqbal slept early.) We were watching something (a creepy movie, I think) when he got a notification at 2 am that his flight was cancelled. They’d been cancelling flights all day. It would have been nice if they had let him know earlier, but I’d been dreading the trip and was relieved. Fortunately he was able to cancel his place on the waiting list and get a better timed flight on Thursday [though Iqbal and I were caught in rush hour traffic on 205 & 5 for our return trip–only rarely exceeding 35 mph, if that, where the limit is 55-65 and people usually go 65-80–until we were out of Wilsonville (the south edge of metro-Portland).] It was nice having Alex for 2 extra days and he still got home for New Year’s Eve with Kat.
I don’t make resolutions. There are things I hope to accomplish, mostly finishing some things I’ve started, but that’s it.
We’ll see. Yesterday I got a lot done, but today I woke up with the dreaded muscle fatigue. I’m not sleepy at all. I had enough sleep. The problem is that I feel like I just spent a day pounding rocks. Stirring my huge pot of soup felt like work. Going up and down stairs is actually hard. None of it makes any sense. I finally understand how my mother felt so often. Non-specialists don’t have a clue. I’ve been tested for everything they can think of. I’m very healthy. My sister and I believe it may be the unexacerbated version of her rare Muscular Dystrophy. That’s what her MD specialist thought. Both my mom and I also fit the profile, but it takes a genetic sample to be sure and since there’s nothing anyone can do for it, it doesn’t seem worth finding out. Mom lived to be 93. I’m not worried about it. BUT IT’S FRUSTRATING!!
I changed my banner and background. I’m also frustrated with WP. The banner gets cut off at the bottom on small screens. Everything else adapts to the screen size.
My mind is wandering wildly now. I don’t think I’ve said anything of any importance. And nothing is coming to me. If I manage to get to finishing anything, I will post that. I also have a few book reports (not really a review, I don’t think) to write. I also have a tiny short story that’s been floating in my head for a while that I want to get written before I forget it, and I may share that here (or post a link to where I put it on writing.com).
So that’s it for now.