Week in Review: Week 252

This week is a whole lotta things: Christmas, last day of work before vacation, getting to see Katie, a day in the city. All good.

MONDAY

I had to do Christmas shopping ERRANDS. I am so not good at adulting. I missed so many days at school: adulting, dancing, rock-paper-scissors (to this day I do NOT understand that game). Katie was in Maryland at 8am. She’ll be here before too long. I won’t see her til tomorrow night. She’s going to do Christmas Tree with me! Oh the joy!

After my whole monologue about The Piano in last week’s Week in Review, I was watching a show last night where the little sister was practicing the piano, and she was playing one of the little songs from my grandmother’s “learn to play piano” books! Ha.

TUESDAY

The highlight of my day was KATIE!!! We (she, I, and my as-of-yet-unmet grandpuppeh!) met at Home Depot to pick out a tree (from the like six that were left). I got a big hug and kiss and joyous abandon from Skylar, but from Katie I got The Hand. “No Hugging.” I GET it. She’s RIGHT. But man…I have been SO looking forward to a hug from her. Or ANYONE, ha.

Maybe TMI, but there is very little (read: no) physical affection in my life anymore and that makes me sad. I can live without an annoying conversation but please hold my hand. Sigh.

I watch all these “behind the scenes” videos about BTS at home (can I pull them into ANY conversation, you ask? Why yes, yes I can). They’re so easily affectionate with one another, it’s a joy to see. And it makes me, ME: The Anti-Social One, want to live with a bunch of housemates! Ha. Now THAT’S influence.

The day leading up to the Katie visit was a little chaotic. It was a work from home day and there are a lot of loose ends right now that need tying up before the break. And I went to the school to photograph the holiday parade, which was very cute. And other things came up while I was there and it just became A LOT. Just One of Those Days. So I’m glad it ended well.

Ahh, Awkward Mother-Daughter Moment of the Day? Back story: three guesses what my computer screen saver is these days (spoiler alert: it’s not puppies and sparkle rainbows). So, Katie is walking through the apartment, towards the computer. Stops. Points at screen and in a questioning voice says,  “Asian Man?!?”

It was Kim Namjoon (RM), the leader of BTS. I was rolling. It’s the picture of him speaking at the United Nations in 2018, a now-iconic speech.

She now calls BTS “Those Asian Men” (TAM). She doesn’t get it but that’s ok. Six months ago I wouldn’t have either.

Another thing she noticed and had a lot to say about while she was here was the number of spiders, spider webs, and spider egg sacs around the apartment. Ha ha. Thanks for pointing that out, child. I really never wear my glasses inside except to watch tv (#nearsighted) so I miss a lot.

WEDNESDAY

HOW IS IT ONLY WEDNESDAY???

On a brighter note, sandwiches are bringing me great joy this week 🙂

THURSDAY

I’m losing track of the days. How is today Christmas Eve? Worked from home and afterwards I crashed cuz I’ve been sleeping so little. I actually lay down on the bed at like 4:30 and I NEVER do that. I still have to decorate the tree, wrap gifts and make at least an attempt at making this place NOT lool like a hurricane just blew through.

FRIDAY

Christmas day. Had to get right up and do tree, wrapping, wash a couple dishes so we’d have something to eat dinner on. Katie got here around 2 after doing Christmas morning at her father’s. We picked up Chinese takeout from a local place and ate at home.

She made me break my 3-month NO ENGLISH TELEVISION streak. She’s the only one I’d do that for. I have to say, the experience was most unpleasant, ha ha. Not gonna name the movie in case anyone else liked it but…oofah. Talk about culture shock. The American movie was crass, loud, ridiculous, not funny, heavily sexually-innuendoed (#bettyeism). Sorry, I’m being a little judgy here. But it’s like having a sh*tty boyfriend for years until you feel like that’s all you deserve and then you meet Prince Charming and you’re like WHOA. So THIS is Love?!!

Santa made me Chinese on TikTok for the day 🙂

SATURDAY

We headed into the city with the grandpuppeh. She (Katie…Skylar had no clear goals for the day other than SQUIRREL) specifically wanted to visit a statue in Central Park of Balto.

“A half-wolf, half-husky named Balto gets a chance to become a hero when an outbreak of diphtheria threatens the children of Nome, Alaska in the winter of 1925. He leads a dog team on a 600-mile trip across the Alaskan wilderness to get medical supplies. The film is based on a true story which inspired the Iditarod dog sled race.”

It was a lovely day. Clear and cold, perfect for walking. We took lots of pictures, ate hot dogs from the sidewalk vendor, and just enjoyed the energy. We walked a lot and I felt good, No Hip Pain At All. What a pleasure.

Great window fashions.

I have some new thoughts about “designer” fashion….working on writing that up for a future blog post.

I wish the baby could stay longer but she’s headed home early tomorrow. I’m so happy when she’s here.

SUNDAY

Crash Day. This is always a weird break cuz the first half is so full of Christmas prep and Christmas doing and when it’s all over I just CRASH. Stayed in bed til noon (bear in mind I didn’t go to sleep til like 4:30),  got breakfast from the deli then came home and watched All The Things, just moving from computer to bed to sofa.

There was probably more going on behind-the-scenes this week but I wrote half of this after the fact and can’t remember much beyond activities.

And yes, Week in Review is only going up on Wednesday…and I never got Workday Wardrobe up on Saturday (may just tack it onto this week’s)…I never even posted my Christmas Day post! I got swept up in All Of it – the real life and the fantasy life. It’s Monday afternoon as I’m writing this and finally trying to pull myself back into reality and get caught up, so…some things might be going out on weird days this week. Bear with me. This is always a weird week for me. And maybe for others as well, I don’t know. Yes?

More Christmas pictures coming in a post later this week…

Peace 🙂