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Christmas, et al

Dec 26th, 2009
by Jim Reverend.
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Having a White Christmas in Texas is a mixed bag of good and bad. It’s good for all the obvious reasons (snow! Christmas! etc!) but bad because, in Texas, snow doesn’t just mean snow. It means ice, bad drivers, accidents, road closures, and travel delays and cancellations.

Christmas Eve, Celeste and I didn’t quite make it to our friends house as we had planned. Sure, I have AWD. Sure I could have made it. But after hearing reports of over 300 accident reports in Fort Worth alone, it was no longer the ice, the snow, or my vehicle that I was concerned about. It was all those other drivers. So we stayed put at my mom’s house despite the fact that everyone else had left for church/other festivities.

Christmas was awesome. Despite Celeste never taking a nap worth mentioning and having more sugar in one day than any 2 year old should be allowed in her entire second year, she did quite well. Yeah, she was cranky from time to time toward the end, but, I’m getting quite good at offsetting it.

She loved all of her gifts. The biggest hits were the play kitchen my parents got her, the piggy bank my sister got her, and the playsilks that I got her. I thought the wooden cars and trees that Santa got her would be a big hit too, but she hasn’t given them a second glance yet.

The only odd, strange, unpredictable aspect of Christmas was, once again, my parents. At some point in the not too distant past they decided that immediately following Christmas they’d be taking a vacation to Arkansas to photograph the many waterfalls of the Buffalo River, a worthwhile adventure by any account. But they decided to do so and the hell with anything else.

Celeste’s birthday is today (the 26th). It was going to be celebrated today. We were going to spend one more night at my mom’s and celebrate it over there, saving them and my sister a trip out, and ensuring that my brother would come. My mom, instead, suddenly pushed very hard to have it after dinner on Christmas evening citing that they wanted to get a head start on their vacation. So… that’s exactly what we did. Almost immediately following cake and presents we were — though never specifically stated — kicked out of the house.

It was a mad dash, without reason, to pack up all of our stuff, get it all in the car, and get out on the road. Celeste was crying. Everyone was far too busy to help with anything because they were all packing up their stuff too. I’m glad that C’s mom decided to spend Christmas afternoon with us, for all the obvious reasons of having her there for Celeste on Christmas day but also to help soothe her as everything turned to chaos.

Ideally, I’d have stayed at my mom’s a few more hours and drove back in the evening when Celeste would have slept. Would have made it easier to unload the car and I hate making her take 1 hour road trips to and from when I don’t have to.

All in all it worked out fine, of course, I just don’t particularly care for the the unexpected scramble, nor do I tolerate it very well. I kept imagining myself with a friend/partner who could say “Daniel, calm down!” in the nicest way possible to help keep me even instead of all stressed out. Yeah, I know I should be more “independent” than that, and I do okay on my own. But, I’ve always believed that the true power of a team was based in the ability to rely on each others strengths in order to help cover or improve each others weaknesses. Yes, some of you dream of being rockstars, super models, pimp daddys, and race car drivers. Not me. I just dream of being unstressed, of breathing fresh air, and of laughing as much as possible.

No Christmas recap would be complete without a list of Christmas booty (unfortunately, there was no Christmas “Bootie” to be had, but that can wait for another day). I got a shopvac from my sister, which I am very excited about. I got a netbook from my parents which will hopefully make travel with the kiddo and updating new thoughts and photos a little easier (I’m typing this on it right now). I got a pretty candle/decorative thing from my brother. Celeste loves little decorations, especially those that hold candles, so I’m sure this will be a hit. I also got a nice little pile of random stocking stuffs from that fat guy in a red suit. More than anything I’m excited about all of Celeste’s gifts and eager to see her play with them and watch her imagination create new uses for them.

Merry Christmas to you all. May you find your own life filled with many blessings during this coming year and may you offer even more blessing to those you love and care about.

and what about the kitties?!

Mar 18th, 2009
by Jim Reverend.
5 comments

Many of you seem to be indicating that the best solution to my housing problem is to live with my parents.

I’m beginning to see the light and am slowly starting to accept the possibility and consider it fully. The other option I’m considering is just staying where I am and letting them try to get blood out of a stone.

If I move in with my parents, there are lots of tiny problems that arise.

I’ll have to get a storage facility to put my stuff in or just sell it or burn it. Not fun but doable.

I’ll have to make trips back to the house to ensure it’s being maintained, to make repairs, and to generally play landlord. Not fun but doable.

But what about the kitties?

We have two cats. I got Toby as a kitten in 1999. He’s 10 years old and he’s been with me through a lot. Just after Jess and I got married, we decided to get, Miette together, also as a kitten. Jess is claiming no responsibility for either cat so, just like everything else, it falls on me.

My mom is very allergic to cats. It would be okay if I could keep them upstairs, but they are cats. Cats don’t like being kept anywhere. Even if I could manage to contain them, I’d have to deal with the destruction they’d perform on house while being contained. Ideally, I’d find some happy, wonderful place for them to live and then I’d miss my dear cats terribly every day there after. But where? Any ideas?

Reasons to stay?

Aside from moving in with my parents, the other ideas are not so good. So… what about just saying there and toughing it out.

If I do decide to stay put, I can refinance my house and shave off another $100. I’ve already got this mapped out and haven’t even really shopped around much. I might be able to shave off a little more on top of that.

It’s nice to have my own place. Eventually, I will be able to sell the house. If I’m still living there, I can leave it on the market, continue to make improvements, and decide what to do in the event that someone does want to buy it. I can always live with my parents as we transition from one house to another should that occur. And it will happen eventually, just probably not tomorrow. In the mean time, I can make it as livable and as happy as I want it to be and continue to seek a room mate that will actually get along with me and will work with me to make both of our lives better.

Thoughts?

weekend recap

Aug 18th, 2008
by Jim Reverend.
4 comments

Jess helped me move my office around Friday night trying to find a setup that’s more fitting and less wasteful. I think I may have found something that works. I’m quite happy about this as it had been a source of frustration for quite a while. The room was unusable as it was and always left in an unfinished state. The clutter alone was enough to make me cloudy headed. Now I actually have room for another person or two to work as well as seating for two or three and a place to sleep if needed. Who wants to be my first office guest?

Later that evening we watched “The Cabin” “The Ruins” (thanks Bonnie) at Justin’s place. Even if it’s the last movie you have on the shelf I don’t recommend watching it. The baby actually slept while there, after much coaxing, which was quite a nice surprise. She just needs a clean, soft surface, pillows for a barricade, and a room with limited distractions (no blinking lights, squeaking doors, or fluctuating noise levels. She can tolerate anything as long as it’s constant. Oddly enough, this is a fairly hard environment to find in many of our friend’s houses so we often have a hard time with this.

I spent early Saturday morning at the McKinney Farmer’s Market where I bought some yummy peaches that were huge and some equally gigantic tomatoes. The people there were really nice and didn’t mind my camera at all. Next weekend I may try to catch the Dallas Farmer’s Market at opening. Anyone want to join me?

Later that day Jess and I took the baby to Third Monday Trade Days just to look around. Then I came home and cleaned up my newly arranged office. That evening a couple of friends came over and we basically played Rock Band until 2:30am when I finally couldn’t keep my eyes open and opted to go to bed.

I work up at 6am Sunday morning because I forgot to turn my alarm off. Once I was up, I couldn’t get back to sleep so, after laying around for a bit, I decided I may as well get up and get something done. I cleaned my office some more, then washed Jess’ car which seemed to have not been cleaned in several years. I then straightened out my ToDo lists and did a few things in the yard.

I got a call from my brother asking if we wanted to get together, which sounded like a good idea to me. I also found out that my other brother and his wife are getting a divorce and that my two nieces will be living with my parents for the time being. While I’m glad to have my nieces around again and grateful that if they were in a hostile environment they are now getting out of it, I’m quite shaken up to think that the two of them will have a torn childhood like my brother and I did.

A bit later our friends woke up, we played a few games of Mario Kart and then they decided to go home. Jess and I got a few things done around the house and then went to see my parents, my brother, and my nephew at my Dad’s place. We had a nice lunch, then played a few hands of poker (I lost $15). We stopped at the store on our way home to pick up a few things and then watched a little TV before bed.

Now it’s Monday morning. Instead of typing this up from my office before leaving for work as I usually would, I left bright and early and stopped at a starbucks near my office to work in an effort to beat traffic a bit. I think it worked as I got here in less than an hour.

Today is Jess’ do-nothing day so I’m trying to give her as much space as possible so she can do whatever it is that she wants to do without any interruption, confusion, or stress caused by me. I have no lunch or evening plans today so, if you’ve got something (or even nothing) going on, let me know and we can do it together.

Tomorrow I have lunch plans with a few friends which should be awesome. Then my brother and I are going to the casino that night. He swears they have a craps table at this place. I think he’s full of crap (ha, get it!) but we’ll see.

I’m not taking nearly enough photos lately. Got any ideas? Want to be photographed? Let me know.