Well, the last day of my vacation ended up being a lot like the first day, with lots of housework, watching a couple of movies, and waiting for the menfolk to get home from a wrestling tournament.

Not looking forward to going back to work tomorrow.  I am wondering why I am giving all of my inheritance to my children rather than up and quitting my job like my sisters...though that is all self-pity on my part, and know my children need the money for college more than I do to sit around on my butt!

On the other hand, today was lovely and sunny, and the dog greatly enjoyed going out and running around.

In an hour or so, the tournament should be over, and I can have a vehicle to run to the grocery store. And the return of my husband, who I hardly even saw over the past week and a half, though that is in no small part to both of us getting that evil cold.

I did get to IM chat for awhile with my buddy in Albuquerque, which was great, as I haven't had a chance to talk to him or to his sweet wife in months, as we have all been so busy. And I got to talk on my cell to my buddy in New York, which was also great. He had to tell me that they have opened up a Krispy Kreme near where he lives, as he knew the kids would want to hear that!

Will be glad when Dan gets home, hope its before dark so we can go for a bit of a walk if my lungs are up to it!

 

Well, I ended up spending most of this week in bed coughing my lungs out. It seems that when I get a bad cold it will often get my asthma going, and knocks me out of commission for a few days. Darn it.

Wednesday was Dan's birthday. I dragged out of bed to go with Dan to go watch Steven wrestle. He, and his asthma, were also affected by this bad cold we've all had. He had no energy, but still somehow managed to win his match, against a kid who outweighed him by at least ten pounds. The coaches have been doing that -- having him wrestle up at least ten pounds all season, so that when he gets to the various championships and wrestles kids at his weight they will seem light to him. But this was not a good day for that. His nose started bleeding and he coughed up blood, and I couldn't bear to watch it. In fact, he missed school on Thursday and today on Friday.

After the wrestling we picked up some pizzas , and birthday cake , and ice cream.  The three of us came home, ate, and sent Steven to bed. Bill had gone out to Chelsea with the high school team so that they could watch the high school team regionals, so after he came home and ate, the rest of us all went to bed, too. Bill was so tired, he also missed school on Thursday, but went back today.

Yesterday was just a waste. Stayed in bed except for taking hot showers, which help a lot with the breathing. Made sure Steven was drinking plenty of fluids and was resting.

Today I actually got up and got dressed, and did laundry all day. We all ate tacos and watched a Harry Potter movie tonight. It was restful.

Sometime in the last day or so, I picked up Dan's cold. So today  I am taking things very easy. A bit of light housework, and bedrest and plenty of hot tea with honey made by our neighbor's bees who live in the apple/peach orchard across the road.

Yesterday was President's Day  so the kids did not have school. I took them out to lunch at the good diner up on Michigan Ave, then to Target to get a digital camera for Bill to take to Europe, and then to a bookstore to get Bill books on Paris and Madrid, where he will be staying with his schoolmates on their trip. I am a bit worried about Madrid, after those bombs on the trains -- but it is not right to live your life in fear of random crime. You still must live, and if you worry, it will petrify and paralyze you into something that is not life.

Last night Dan and I went out to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, the place where we had our first date way back in the spring of 1983. It is this great Chinese place with spicey food, and is decorated like a white washed cave, complete with waterfall and grotto.

Then we went to a concert at the Power Center in Ann Arbor put on by a group called the Kodo Drummers. It was an enchanting evening of traditional Japanese music, a feast for both the ears and the eyes.

Man, is it ever snowing outside this morning! We're supposed to get half a foot of snow or so, and a bit of freezing rain today. And I won't have to drive in it to get to or from work!!!!!!!  That is so sweet!!!

Yesterday was the high school individual wrestling districts, at our high school. I worked concessions for a good eight hours, and some people worked them for a lot longer than that. Hopefully we brought in some money for the wrestling program! Bill's weight class was a bear. There were six kids who had qualified for the state championships last year. He got one of them in the draw and the kid stuck him, though he fought hard. While he has had a winning record each of the three years he has wrestled, what can you do when you are up against kids like that? Just do what he did -- fight as hard as you can and show good sportsmanship. And then help out the people running the tournament.

Dan is off in the snow and my Jeep to go to a tournament down in Dundee with some of the little kids from the wrestling club. I am hoping that he will be OK with the four wheel drive. I would rather have him home, though. So far my vacation has consisted of watching a lot of wrestling, talking about a lot of wrestling, and selling a lot of hotdogs to people watching wrestling.

Luckily, tomorrow  I can go out for dinner and a concert with the Kodo Drummers (a drumming group from Japan) with Dan. Should be fun, as long as he hasn't exhausted himself by doing snow removal.  The again, the drummers might wake him up.

Yesterday I spent a quiet day at home, doing housework and watching movies. I watched The Notebook, a beautifully filmed tearjerking romance (that book made me cry like a baby, and the movie did, too). In the evening I watched Shall We Dance with Dan. I watched it previously with some friends, but he had not seen it. And he did indeed love the film, even though it was a chick flick. This morning I watched De-Lovely which was a biography of Cole Porter, through his music and through examining his marriage to his lovely wife Linda (well portrayed by Ashley Judd). The film did not shy away at all from Porter's homosexuality and the problems his marriage suffered because of it...

We headed out to Tecumseh last night for high school team districts. It  was a cold night and the snow was blowing over the roads, causing them to get icy. Bill did not wrestle, and that was probably for the best, as he has not been wrestling well since thast one horrible week when they had so many meets and tournaments. That just seemed to wear him down both physically and mentally. And the poor team only managed to score six points against Tecumseh, which is ranked something like fourth in the state. That was a rough, rough meet, and was a bit of a downer for the team, as they have high school individual districts tomorrow. At least that will be at our high school, so there will be long drives over bad roads...

Have been enjoying my quiet time at home. Have been cooking and baking and cleaning, with enough time left over to read and to watch movies...hard to believe that I could have been in New York city right now...seems like a different world...

Well, school was not cancelled yesterday and so I did not get to have my kids home with me. But that's OK, as I got a lot of housework done, and if they had been home I would have spent time with them instead. They come before having a clean house...but nontheless, the house does need to be occasionally cleaned...

Dan came home midafternoon and we drove to Trenton to watch the middle school wrestlimg meet. It's been the first time I could ever watch my younger son wrestle for the school team. He wrestled very well, too, beating an older, heavier kid in short order and in a dominating fashion. He was very excited that I was able to come, and he got special permission to ride home with me instead of on the bus. I took him to Panerra Bread for dinner, then we went to the Target in Woodhaven to get him a new backpack, as his old one had ripped out in the bottom. He was very pleased by both of those stops.

Right now I would have been on the train for about an hour, if I had been going to New York. But I think the kids are much happier that I am here and that they can see me for a few days. Working the goofy hours that I do, I can usually only see them for three days a week when they are in school, and sometimes I think that they miss me quite a bit. I know that I miss them!!!

I am now free!!

Since the new supervisor has been creating needless problems again the last couple of days, having a few days off is decidedly welcome.

Tonight we are getting one heck of a snow storm. I got to drive home in something very close to a white-out. The flakes were huge and coming down very fast. You could not tell where any of the lanes of the road were, so you just drove down what looked like it was the middle and hoped that you didn't meet anyone going the other direction!  We're supposed to get about half a foot, and the snow is following several hours of very heavy rain, so the roads should be pretty nasty by morning. I might get to have the kids home with me again tomorrow!

Am now down to two nights of work before I get my break. I can't wait! I have a stack of dvd's I am hoping to watch, and I want to just relax with the kids, and do things (like cooking meals and eating dinner with my family) that many people get to take for granted.

The weekend was a bit different. On Friday I just couldn't seem to get out of bed. I thought I was probably just worn out from work, but when Dan came home, he realized that I was burning up with a fever. So Friday was spent mostly in bed taking tylenol and drinking lots of cold water.

On Saturday we went back down to Frenchtown Township for the high school league championships. Bill didn't medal, but I am still very proud of him. After the tournament we ate dinner at Red Lobster in Monroe, which was very welcome to all of us.

Last night I worked. While I was at work there was a huge ice storm, followed by heavy rain. Driving home was interesting...

As usual, I will not even see Dan today on Valentine's Day. Well, I saw him for a few minutes at 6AM, but I was so sleepy, I'm pretty sure that doesn't count.

When I got home from work last night, there were little sweetheart roses, a card, and a box of chocolates waiting for me. When he gets home from work tonight, there will be a coffee table book on Frank Lloyd Wright architecture, some chocolate, and a card waiting for him.

As I had said, we had a bad ice storm last night, and I got stuck in the driveway when I got home from work in the middle of the night. Dan had to come out and rescue me. Our driveway has a hill, and I got stuck in my son's little truck halfway up the hill. (I drove Bill's truck to work last night because Dan had needed my Jeep yesterday to go to Bedford for a little kids' wrestling tournament). Even with the parking brake on, whenever I took my foot off of the brake pedal, I started sliding back down the hill. So I called Dan on my cell phone, and he came out and stabilized the truck (cat litter on the ice worked wonders ) and helped me walk inside, as it was very slippery. Then he went back out and got the truck down to the bottom of the driveway so it wouldn't go down by itself in the middle of the night. He said that backing down in reverse didn't work, as it was too fast and uncontrolled and he ended up in some bushes. So he had to try to come back up as far as possible, then go backwards in drive, as that was much more controlled.

The kids didn't have school today because of the icy roads. So I have spent a nice day at home with them. I cooked up a big lunch of macaroni and cheese, and ran to the bakery and got a big cherry pie for them for a Valentine's Day treat.

Am feeling much better today than yesterday. Got some good sleep last night and the sun is out today!(Though the ground is covered with snow, and it is very cold outside). So I did my normal wintertime thing when the sun is out and I am alone in the house by doing a bit of naked sunbathing on top of my bed. We rarely see the sun in Michigan in the winter, so when it comes out I try to soak up a bit of the rays. My bed is surrounded by high windows (no one outside the house can see in), so I just curl up with a book in the sunlight and relax. I always feel better after I do that. I still have to sit down and pay the bills for this month, but I think I will do that when I get home from work tonight.

Steven wrestled last night for the first time in quite a while, and did well, winning both of his matches. Those were his first official matches of his school career, as all of his matches last year were counted as exhibitions, as he was only in sixth grade then. The matches from earlier this year were in wrestling league tournaments rather than school sanctioned events. So these were the first, and he was happy to win both. And I was very happy, as he came out of them with no headache, no dizziness, and no other symptoms that the concussion might be bothering him.

One more night of work this week, three next week, and then I can have my blessed days off.

Am exhausted today. When I got home from work last night, Dan was all upset about something going on with the wrestling program (a couple of parents who are very strong supporters of the old high school coach who was let go last year have been, for the lack of a better description, causing as much trouble as they can), and he needed to talk and vent, so we were up until about 3:30AM. And when the kids leave for school before 7AM, morning comes very early.

Yesterday before work I finally went to one of the two gourmet grocery stores in Ann Arbor that my friends have all been trying to talk me into going to. The Whole Foods Market was a bright and cheerful place, filled with all sorts of organic foods. They import their organic tortillas from New Mexico, which tickles me. I had to email my friends in New Mexico about that. I got some soups and soup mixes, some bread, some bottled green tea, and some items from the bakery. I hope to go back on a day off of work, so I can take my time in the meat, dairy, and cheese areas of the store. I think that I could easily spend a couple of hours in there wandering around.

Have been reading lots of short mystery novels lately. I just do not have the time or motivation right now to tackle the big stack of heavy duty history and science fiction/fantasy novels waiting to be read. One of my friends has lent me the first couple of books in a series by Laura Childs, set in a swanky tea shop in the historic district of Charleston, South Carolina. The setting, of course, is lovely. I've only spent a couple of very enjoyable days in Charleston, but reading these books makes me wish for another trip down there, and the little beachfront hotel on the Isle of Palms where I stayed last time...

On this day (Wednesday) next week, my break from work will begin. I am more than ready for that. If my trip to New York to visit my friend Fist and his family could have happened, I would probably be packing right now in order to catch the train out of Toledo in the middle of the night. Well, hopefully our families can get together next summer. The weather will surely be better then, and maybe we can take all of the kids swimming or something. And my friends from New Mexico might even be able to join us, which would be heaven!!  I am just feeling a bit blue right now...its snowing today, and there was an ice storm last night and my heart aches from missing the other friend I would have seen in New York if things could have worked out. I am sure a lot of my blueness today is just from not getting enough sleep last night. Thankfully there are only two more work days this week, and on Friday I can relax and get a lot of rest.  On Saturday will be the high school league wrestling championships down in Frenchtown Township, though, so I will be spending the day down in the shadow of the nuke plant once again.

Today is Fat Tuesday, better known in this area as punchki (I don't think I spelled that right ) day. In the Detroit and Chicago areas, both with large populations of Polish descent, people celebrate Fat Tuesday by eating Polish jelly filled donuts. A rather delicious custom!

I am close enough to getting my time off now that I am starting to count down the number of work days left. At the moment it is six, counting today.  My time off will be spent watching a lot of wrestling tournaments, but that seems to be my lot in life.

It was so nice to have a weekend off. On Friday I ended up resting most of the day. On Saturday, Dan spent most of the day in bed, trying to make up for the lack of sleep he's been getting since wrestling season started.

Bill got out the door to head to Battle Creek with the high school team about 5AM. We all rested afterwards. We ate a leisurely breakfast, rested some more, then took the little one out for lunch and pie at Baker's Square.  Then we took naps, until it was time for his friend's parents to come pick him up for his overnight visit.

Dan and I then headed into Ann Arbor. We wandered around for a bit, did some light shopping, and stopped off at a coffee shop for tea and cookies. We then headed for the New York Philharmonic concert. Only in Ann Arbor is a major classical music concert like a sporting event or rock concert, complete with scalpers and people with signs seeking tickets out in front of the concert hall. In the first half, the string section (plus a couple of brass and woodwind players) performed Mozart's 29th Symphony. It was light and fluffy and pretty. In the second half the entire orchestra came out and played the much more deep and serious Mahler's 5th Symphony (it goes from death and grief to acceptance and then on to tentative life and joy). They were great! When the superb horn soloist stood up to take his bow afterwards, the girl behind me started yelling "You're a bad*ss! You're a bad*ss!!" at the top of her lungs. Only in Ann Arbor!

Then we headed to a big bookstore and did some shopping, before coming home and snuggling in front of the fireplace for awhile before bedtime.

It was a very nice day.

Things are looking up a bit. On Thursday Bill finally was able to keep down Gator Aid and crackers, and began feeling better. He was able to practice today, and will be leaving about 4AM to go to Battle Creek with the rest of the varsity team. They will be spending the night there. Steven will be spending the night with his best friend tomorrow night. That means Dan and I will be able to go to the New York Philharmonic concert tomorrow night, then come home to an empty house. We're planning on piling up pillows in front of the fireplace, playing some jazz on the stereo, and doing some serious snuggling.

Some other things that are looking up include a nice mention of Bill in the local paper on one of his wins last week that was a big upset (the kid he beat had beaten him rather soundly earlier this season), and also his medal at Sherriff's. Also Steven is finally doing better from his head injury and is able to practice again without getting headaches or feeling dizzy. He has been having a rough time with his health since last October between the recurrent staph infection and the head injury, so I am very happy and relieved that he is feeling better.

Watched Shall We Dance? with some friends the other night and it was a very good and unabashedly romantic movie, and seemed to be every bit as enjoyable for the men as the women in the group. Takes a good chick flick for all of the men to like it that much, too. Richard Gere put in a good, restrained performance as quiet workaholic in a quiet midlife crisis. Susan Sarnadon was good as his unconnected wife, who loves him but is too busy running around to express that to him. Jennifer Lopez was very good as a dancing teacher, who shows a great passion for dance under a very restrained exterior.

Tonight I watched Two Brothers with Steven, and we were both glued to the movie. It tells the story of two tiger cubs who lived somewhere in French Indo-China early in the last century. Their mother is shot (that might be upsetting to younger children, as it upset my 12 year old) and one cub ends up a circus and the other eventually in a sort of menangerie. The tigers are beautiful, as is the cinemetography. The story, about the power of family love, was very moving.

Rough couple of days. My older son came down with a tummy bug, which he shared with me. He hasn't kept anything down other than water since Monday night. It'll be the doctor soon, if that keeps up. I missed work yesterday, but luckily I only had the one day of tummy problems. Neither Dan nor Steven have come down with this yet, but Dan looked pretty rough when I got home tonight, so I wouldn't be surprised if he gets it next...the family that hugs together can share bugs together...