Thanksgiving

It's been a while since I posted! The next one may very well be titled "Christmas" at the rate I'm going. Nothing new to report, which I think means I'm getting old, if I can go almost an entire month and have everything stay the same. Scott started his new job last week, and it's going well so far. I think he likes it there, and they are compensating him handsomely, so even if he hates it from time to time at least he will feel it's worth his while to be there. I get to see him out the door every morning, and he looks so yummy in his Express pants and ties and sweaters and combed hair and freshly shaved face... Mmm, I love the smell of his shaving cream! In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I wish I could properly express how thankful I am to have him in my life, and that we found each other, and for the million reasons I love him, but words elude me. I'm not the most eloquent person you know, haha.

Man, it's only 4:40pm but the sun has already set. Good thing I wake up between 6 and 7 every morning or I wouldn't see any daylight at all! I still have 2 hours before Scott comes home from work, and then he still has to pack, and then we have to pack up the car, and then we have a 300 mile drive to Livonia. Hopefully we will have missed the holiday traffic, since we are getting a late start. That's probably the only plus to leaving so late. I also hope the weather is clear, especially around the Benton Harbor area. I have horrible night vision to start with, and then if it's snowing I can't see for shit and end up driving white-knuckled with my teeth clenched.

Another anxiety is that I'm bringing Spaz and it's going to take a lot of planning to pack him up. He weighs over 13 lbs, and I had to get him a dog-sized carrier so he could stand up in it comfortably, and that thing is not easy to carry at all. Plus, it is so cold outside that I need to cover the crate with a huge blanket so cold air doesn't get in (last year I thought he'd be okay for a few minutes but he got so sick I had to call the emergency vet on Thanksgiving night at midnight. It was awful. He was hardly breathing and we couldn't wake him up even though we were shaking him violently, and then we couldn't get him to eat or drink. So this year I have to plan ahead.) I think what I need to do is get the car and heat it up and stay in it while it runs, because this is Chicago you know, and have Scott lock up and bring Spaz down in his blanket-covered carrier. It sounds stupid, but I really have to plan the entire packing part of our trip. It's not like my parents live the next city over, and if we forget anything we are screwed.

So we should arrive in MI around 1am eastern time, then I have to wake up at 8 to start laundry (which I tried to do this afternoon but there was a note on the laundry room door that said both washing machines are broken -- balls!) and go to the store to buy things for my pies. I need to start the pies by 10am so that they can be out of the oven and cooled and ready to go so that I can make it to Scott's parents' by 2pm. Then it's off to my grandma's by 5 and hopefully we won't have to go anywhere else after that. I am going to need a few hours to breathe!

Friday I'm kind of leaving up in the air, although there is a knitting store in Plymouth I want to go to. Friday night is my annual bar night with friends, which I'm pretty excited about. When I made reservations I said probably 20-25 people, but we are at 30 already, easily. I am kind of dreading going to the bar, because the smoke is god-awful. My contacts dry out, my throat gets so sore I can't swallow, my stomach hurts so bad I want to puke, and I smell like shit. I freaking HATE HATE HATE being in smoky bars. This never bothered me before or while I smoked, but now that I'm an ex-smoker (13 months since my last one!) I am highly sensitive to it. I hate that most of my Michigan friends smoke, and I hate that the only social things they want to do involve going to smoky bars or diners. I hate coming home at 3 in the morning and having to do laundry and shower. HATE IT. But I love them so I swallow all of this crap and blog about it instead.

Ugh. Stress. Holiday stress, more specifically. I don't know when this started for me, how many years ago it was that I felt the need to make everything perfect around the holidays. I think it was after I moved out, and felt like I needed to recreate the warmth and magic of holidays with my family, but in reality I just feel empty. It's not the same. Decorating the tree, making pies, Christmas shopping... I guess it's time to start making new memories and new traditions of my own. A tradition of driving 600 miles, haha.

Time to start packing.