Should Old Acquaintances Be Forgotten?

It's another New Year's Eve, and we all tend to get into reviewing this past year's gives and takes and wishing for a better new year. 

As far as I'm concerned, 2010 sucked sea water in a big way.  I lost my job, we lost Uncle Mike, and even lost our 16-1/2 year old cat.   But hey, we have our health, right?  Well...more or less.

I am very grateful for my family and friends.  I really dig my two kids and their dad...even as he sits across from me at his laptop, sniffling and coughing with a cold.  I am hopeful that 2011 brings health, happiness, and full employment to all of us.  I am enrolled to complete the two outstanding electives I need to get my degree -- thanks to the generosity of my husband and kids -- and hope (again...that word) that it brings me to full employment.

Some old acquaintances are better left forgotten, let's face it, right?  Others are golden and should be kept close to the heart.

I wish everyone everywhere (well...mostly everyone) the best of the new year.  Stay alert, stay low, and stay true.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Our daughter's birthday was on December 23rd, and I am not free to tell you how old she is as evident from Christmas Eve when I reminded her uncle and older cousins about her age.  She's come to that sensitive part of aging, I suppose. 

Her birthday is two days before Christmas, and let me just say that she was due on December 5th, and had we NOT gone in to get her, I'd still be pregnant with her, and it would not have been pretty.  Anyway, she was the best Christmas present for us, especially in light of the year we had...losing both of my parents within six weeks of each other.

Anyway, the most important thing about that year was the most beautiful baby girl in the world who was brought out to me at the hospital on Christmas Day in a huge red stocking.  She is still totally beautiful, smart, sassy, and funny to boot. 

My husband and I are so absolutely thankful for this Christmas gift and for that of her brother three years later.  Forever, they will be the best gifts!

I cannot close without talking about the Christmas Eve tradition of hanging out with my oldest brother's kids, grandchildren, step-grandchildren, friends, lovers, whatever.  It is a night filled with food, laughter, drinking, food...  It is also a night we reminisce and feel the loss of my sweet sister-in-law who's been gone for two years now.  These are her children too, and her presence is everywhere -- in the decorations and especially in the baked goods of her daughters and her sister.  We all miss her terribly, but her legacy of love is strong and very powerful.

The noise level is off the charts as the small, all male grandchildren run amok shooting at each other and dragging older cousins into their fray.  Some of the still older "cousins" hang out at the playroom bar and try to see how many drinks they can slam back before going outside to get sick and/or get on the road to drive home...such a comforting vision and thought.

In any case, I love being with my brother and his huge family.  It's so loud, but it just would not be Christmas without it.

Well, greetings of the season.

It's Yours, I Want It, So I'm Taking It...Huh?

OK...it's come to this...one of our long-time neighbors around the corner has had a tradition of displaying a nativity scene each year at Christmas.  Even for a recovered Catholic like myself, it was just a sweet holiday tradition that is part of the neighborhood we've called home for 30 years.

That is...until someone decided that what was someone else's just had to be theirs, so they STOLE the nativity scene...baby Jesus, Mom, Dad, and all the animals.  What is wrong with people, can you tell me?  What happens inside of their brains that clicks and says, "I want that, so I should have it!"  Puhleeze do not give me the whole bad economy crap...no one has the right to steal...it's just too wrong, especially when you're stealing someone's representation of their faith.  Helloooooo!

Give it back and apologize.  I truly believe that if you kick dust into the face of the Universe, she will get you back in the softest and most vulnerable place on your metaphysical behind...it may take some time...but you can bet you'll be gotten back.

Good grief!

Long Vacation?

I applied to what must the 20th job posting for my former company.  It wasn't just any job...it's essentially a former job of mine, sans one key element, my former boss.  I even had contact with the hiring manager who I've known and worked with and who (almost) sounded glad to hear from me.  And yet, I have not heard anything from the company, despite her assurances that she would be in touch with HR about my application.

I think I have a very thick skin for rejection when it comes to job applications...or maybe just a thick head.  As I try to view each day as another opportunity for a phone call from a potential employer, the truth the silence of the phone and the lack of emails screams..."too old, too experienced, too much money, etc." to me.  Next month will mark my year of discontentment.  The HR director who said that I should view my time off as "a long vacation" and that I should apply to my company for jobs knew that I would never come back, and not because of lack of trying on my part.

Next month, I will take the two boxes that I packed when I left my former company and dump their company-specific contents.  Long vacation...ha!

What's in a Name

Years ago, when my coworker friends and I were to the punched-out point at work, we'd amuse ourselves by coming up with unique baby names.  For example, one of the names was Uvula (that's the thing hanging in the back of your mouth, for those not familiar with the orginal SNL cast singing about the care of said uvula).

Anyway, we'd have imaginary conversations with these unfortunate children, "Uvula, come in from outside now, dear and do your chores!"  "Fallopian honey, please stop feeding the baby the dog's food."  "Uterus, mind your manners when company is here!"  We go on and on until we were laughing so hard our collective uvulas, fallopian tubes, and uteruses would get a cramp and we'd end up crying.  An idle mind is the devil's playground, right?

Which brings me to when my oldest brother and sister-in-law were having one of their six kids (yes, I did say six), she was in the hospital room with a woman who had even more kids than her and my brother.  The poor woman was pretty tuckered out, and she was plum out of baby names when the nurse came in to check on what her new addition would be called.  She thought and thought and finally looked down and said to the nurse, something to the effect, "The baby's name will be Fem-a-lee."  The nurse commented on what a pretty name, and would the lady please spell the name?  "F-E-M-A-L-E."  True story...I swear! 

Southern Italian Cooking Northern Italian...Basta!

So, have you ever cooked polenta?  Me neither...until today. 

I was making a lunch of our weekly fish-type dish (tilapia), and I figured I would bring it up a notch and add polenta.  Now, if you don't know what polenta is, it's cooked cornmeal stuff.  The stuff, before adding water, has the consistency of Cream of Wheat hot cereal.  Don't get me wrong, I love Cream of Wheat, so I was pretty hopeful.  Besides, my friend whom I've known since the beginning of her time (I'm older) and her family would just gush all over about the "polenta parties" they would have...they're Northern Italians...should have known better coming from the back of the boot on the other side of where they're from and due south (Bari).

So, I seasoned the fish and put it in the oven, and proceeded to follow the instructions on the polenta box...simple, right?  I even made the onion and mushroom and white wine topping (I have so been home way too long).  The fish and the vegetables turned out fine...the polenta...meh.  Let me put it this way, my husband of over 30 years, who will try anything, wrinkled his nose and didn't go for it.  My son and I tried it...it wasn't even interesting.  I guess polenta is a lot like tofu in the way it absorbs the flavors of the spices and food around it because there is no taste whatsoever without the topping that I made...and even that didn't save it.  Needless to say, the polenta ended up in the trash.  Polenta parties...ha!

I still have a half of box of polenta left...what to do, what to do.

Have I Been Re-Invented and Not Know It?

OK...so we've all read stories about people (mostly women...coincidence...I think not!) who have successfully gone on to restructure their careers and their lives -- either on purpose or have been forced into it like those of us who have been outsourced...and we know who we are, right?

Anyway, I am looking at a year of being unemployed...it is not a nice place, let me tell you.  I have applied to so many different jobs in different industries, including my former company, and the only place that sounded like a viable hire was the crazy man who wanted me to take his animals to the vet's...huh?

So, my question is this...have I been re-invented and not known it?  And, if I have, what the hell am I already 'cause I'm a little confused.  Maybe my re-invention is to be unemployed and miserable...so can I re-re-invent myself as employed...puhleeze?  I don't want to head a multimillion dollar company, I just want to get back that part of me who interacted with fellow employees in a place that is not wrecking the environment or hurting small animals or children and is a good corporate citizen to boot.  Holy crap...can you believe what I just said...I am being sucked into a wormhole.  Or, maybe it's just that all the pre-holiday desserts that I've been baking (and eating, God help me) have put me into a sugar/carb/cholesterol/fat state of mind.

In the end, I think I just want to be re-invented as myself...is that such bad thing?  I think I hear a chocolate chip cookie calling my name...maybe the banana or pumpkin bread...or the pizzelles...in Italian no less.

Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  We had a very nice one, save for some drama that I won't go into about here, and enjoyed great food and laughter with family who we love.

My husband and I never had the dilemma of which parent house to spend which holiday with because we lost our parents early in our relationship.  Whenever I hear others grousing about the travels and tribulations associated with this dilemma, I wish we could have had some of that.

I am so very thankful for our family, especially the gift of our two terrific kids who have grown into terrific adults.  Too often the holidays bring out the worst in family dynamics (hence the previously mentioned drama), and coupled with too much food and alcohol, things are said and done that strike out at the people we love and need the most.

I'd like to think that, for the most part, we are all very thankful for the people in our lives, despite our differences (or maybe because of them?).  Each of us brings a bit of ourselves to the other, and no matter whether it's good or bad, we affect each other.  It's so much better to leave a good sprinkle rather than a bad, I'm thinking.