Seaside Christmas

After three different ecological experiences for Christmas in a row (2009 in the mountains, 2010 in the desert, and now 2011 on the seaside), I have to throw my vote for the seaside. We've stayed in Cape Cod for a couple Christmas' and it was wonderful, but my absolute favourite environment thus far for Christmas is a warm seaside! Next year will be a wonderful reproduction our our honeymoon Christmas in Rome and Malta ten years ago, but that's just an every-five-year special deal. I think my general leaning each year will be to find a warm, sunny spot with soft salty air. I don't even require terribly warm...but just warm enough that massive bundling is not required.

The best gift I could have this week was going to bed and waking up to the water crashing on the shore. Although Hilton Head's ocean isn't exactly the crashing type (very mellow), I still could hear it as all stress melted into the air. One of my favourite moments was watching Eric and Elle fly their kites that I acquired in Boulder's most interesting kite shoppe. The winds were absolutely perfect.

Overall, it was a fantastic Christmas season for me! I received very thoughtful gifts, and despite my presence in Indianapolis for only a few days in December, I managed to spend quality time with some friends. I made a major dent in my doctoral writing that was enjoyable rather than pressured, and I had the fun of finding the perfect box for gifts. I am one of those pathetic types that finds a 'perfect box' and then looks for a gift to fit it. Rested, somewhat healed from my medical drama, and caught up on the 'little' things that drive me nuts during busy times, I am feeling very ready to hit the New Year parties in Asheville on Saturday! I'll start thinking about 2012 half-way through January....

Medical Drama

There are currently five medical problems that I am experiencing. I was only aware of one, and the onset of the second issue is what drove me into the MedCheck at 330am in the first place, but now I feel like one of those old people with the squeaky voice who's only conversation quality is a comparison of how many things were wrong with them.

The cold...check. Had a pretty good idea of it's existence.

The infection....definitely check. Thus explains the 330am visit to get through our wonderful system for drugs.

The back...ok, well, yeah. I knew something was wrong with it because the muscle, not bone, popped when I picked that box up incorrectly. The incredible pain and complete lack of motion range were additional clues. Also, when you've trained in martial arts for more than a decade, torn muscles and fractured bones are a little ho-hum. However, this issue seemed to be a far bigger deal to everybody than the reason I was there. At least I got some nice pain killers out of the trouble.

Stage 1 hypertension blood pressure....wow, could you make that any more dramatic? Also, could we consider the fact that my blood pressure is going to be through the roof as you list all the things that are wrong with me when all I want to do is sleep peacefully?

Let's see, there was one more, but I forget, and it's likely to not be important. Regardless, I think that I left MedCheck slightly more depressed than when I entered. At least I have home and drugs now, although I'm concerned that my little apothecary of orange pill dispensers from the pharmacy also reeks of old person issues.

Now to pack for a wonderful trip to a warm(ish) beach for the Christmas holiday week, which is by far the most likely best medicine I can get.

The Litigators (book review)

The Litigators by John Grisham

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

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The Gospel according to Coco Chanel (book review)

The Gospel According to Coco Chanel by Karen Karbo

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

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Perceptions

Perceptions are such unique monsters. Just when I felt that the entirety of United States was insulted, outraged and generally cranky with TSA, I have discovered two new perceptions.

First, TSA is wonderful. If you will read my blog post about my experience with Border Control, you will come to realise that TSA does not randomly threaten violence and while there are horror stories of how they abuse their power, they have many lessons to learn to fully exploit that. Given all the bad press, their general demeanor has overall improved, making flying really quite fine... this is of course only my perspective, but I was amused how a truly horrible experience with a different branch could improve my flying time so dramatically.

Second, while adults are generally offended with the lack of privacy and runaround of disrobing half your clothes for security measures, it would appear that children, ie, my child, is offended with the advent of being left out of this chaos. When the TSA agent informed Elle that it was not necessary for her to take her shoes off to walk through security, she was enraged. "MOMMY AND DADDY'S SHOES GET TO GO THROUGH! MY SHOES NEED TO GO THROUGH!!!!!" Slightly bug-eyed from the shock of this announcement, he tried to assure her that this was a good thing and because she's so little, her shoes didn't need to go through. Wrong tact. Totally wrong tact. I went through at this point because I was a little embarrassed and felt it was more than Eric's turn to deal with Elle's odd little quirks (and there are many... so many). I gratefully missed the final round, but turned to see Elle's socked feet walking through the security 'thing' with her chin a bit high and an expression somewhat similar to what I always thought the Queen of Sheba would have. The poor TSA agent looked a little befuddled and was blinking several times at Eric, who apparently had opted to handle the situation by not handling it at all.

The trip went smoothly after that, besides of course the announcement to the entire (and rather small) plane that "MY PANTIES ARE STUCK ON MY BUTT!!!!" in her fury that I would not loosen the seat belt. I have seriously considered the possibility that she is the anti-Christ, and this manipulation is further proof. I cannot tell you how many people I watch her melt and how many compliments of "what a delightful child we have", which only solidifies my developing belief of her anti-Christ possibilities... after all, the anti-Christ fools everybody, right?

An exceptionally fine morning....

Despite my lack of morning prowess, this morning was an exceptionally fine one. After a night full of weird dreams and nightmares, I found the alternative of getting up a little early tolerable. Knowing that I had an 11a meeting, ie, before afternoon, did not please me, so I expected morning activities to be tinged with a bit of grumpiness. And I tried to maintain my status quo, but I failed.

A morning at a grocery store seemed to be the best way to maintain my grumpy state for a fine contribution of my presence in the meeting. However, the world was against me. Standing in the deli waiting for my turn to order cold cuts, this lady would not stop talking to me. I don't particularly care for talking at all in the morning, and I really hate to be chatted "at"...so this was a promising sign that my grumpy state would increase. However, she accidentally engaged me. I was rather upset with this as I actually smiled during this conversation. I would have to make up for that bit of friendliness and cheer later in the store.

Moving into the other aisles the morning stockers were very kind, always popping out of the way for my cart. More cheer. What the hell is wrong with the world? Finally I get to the cash-out lines and discover there is only one very long line. Excellent! I can stew in my bad behaviour and criticism...until the manager and co-manager opened a new line and personally escorted a few people, including me, into a new line, and were most professional. That's it. I gave up. Clearly The Fates had destined my day to be positive and I had to accept it. Embracing this new mindset, I smugly handed over my 'free drink' rewards card from Starbucks for the most expensive drink I could possibly think of, and gloated my whole way home of how lovely the morning was.

Mindsets are amazing things.

Welcome Home!

I say that with all the sarcasm I can possibly muster. After a glorious week of relaxed Canadian holiday in the adorable village of Niagara-on-the-lake, drinking absolutely sublime wine, eating lovely food, and having great scenery (Niagara Falls view from room), I wasn't terribly excited about returning, but Denver is next week, and Christmas in Hilton Head is close on it's heels. I was pretty sure that those details alone could buoy my spirits nicely throughout work and school for December.

That was until the border crossing. These people either need seriously scripts of Xanax or holiday time. They seized my car, pulling everything out of it, tore up stuff, and accused us of not being cooperative because we asked 1) what they were doing and 2) why they were being aggressive when they literally started screaming at us. After threatening Eric physically, our emotion was mostly shame of being a citizen of a country that greets anybody in this manner. They had no apology for being the worst assholes I have ever experienced, but did give me appreciation for the TSA having enough news spotlighted on them that they are somewhat normal. Trust me, the worst TSA nightmare I experienced was not topping the Border Control. The whole thing started because he asked my name three times, and I raised my voice each time for him to hear. He finally heard the third time, and he claimed I yelled at him. They accused Eric for having an issue when he simply asked what was going on in a seriously nice tone. Our takeaway is that you cannot ask anything and just about everything you answer will be twisted to be taken somehow offencively.

I was too scared to sleep because every time I closed my eyes I saw those five guys surrounding Eric ready to hit him, or envisioned their rage in the way that dreams do so unfortunately well in the few snatches of sleep I was getting. The fact that I had to get up at 5am the next morning for a 3.5 hour drive to attend four dreadfully tiring meetings at the university was not helpful to my already heightened state of exhaustion and tension. To make matters worse, it was pouring rain the entire time and every time I would even get close to the speed limit, I would start hydroplaning, resulting in being 10 minutes late to the first meeting.

Apparently the meeting was going poorly, so when I slipped in, my boss came up to me and told me to leave. I was a complete mix of emotions, from shocked to hurt to stunned to anger to frustration. Granted my previous 24 hours had left me in a particular state of feeling apprehensive towards anybody and everything, but I have never been told to leave a meeting I was requested to attend, especially one for which I traveled nearly 4 hours in really crappy weather to attend. This left me feeling pretty worthless and unneessary, but in a struggle with my emotions, I could see everybody around me was incredibly tense. It would seem that the day is not going well here. At least the one meeting so far resulted well, so just two more and then I can work very hard to pretend Sunday and Monday never happened. It's just a black hole, and those two days are heading not quickly enough into the vast emptiness of lost memories.

Much orc slaying will commence later.