Short

Yes, it has been repeated ad nauseam, but let's just mention again how LONG and COLD this winter has been. In a drastic attempt to counter act the long and the cold I have cut my hair. SHORT.

Some people do this to support people who lose their hair to cancer. Others donate their grown out hair for wigs. Well, I just cut it off to cheer myself up. Shallow, I know, but I am thinking it just might have worked. And a happier me is another way of doing something good for the world, just ask my husband!

For the past several weeks I have been in the doldrums, more than usual. The seasonal drag has been strong, and this girl has been struggling. All of my typical cheer up tricks had been failing. Music in the car, or on my iPod, unnecessary shopping, trashy magazines, coconut coffee, wine, the Cymbalta blanket...nothing was cutting it. Then daylight savings hit, and while we gained light in the evening, our mornings got dark again. And dark, COLD mornings make it damn hard for "not a morning girl" to get out of bed.

But today, after school, I walked in for my haircut and color appointment and said "Cut is short." And it feels good. And it is making me think I might have found spring, if not in the air, at least in my step.

"It Was The Best Day EVER!"

Snow day whirling dervish has come and gone. I know I have addressed this phenomenon before. The rush of activity at the end of a languid day. Today was a snow day, full of random possibility, which took on its own beautiful form. Still, with one responsible party of the house off at "real" work, I felt that need, around 3pm, to make it look like we hadn't wiled away the hours the ways we actually did...

-ending season 4 of Gilmore Girls

-finding a frighteningly lost necklace in the cushions of the couch, and having a small cry over the gravity of having lost it in the first place

-texting a friend, which led to the re-reading of a short memoir that has already been lovingly re-read multiple times before

-talking to my brother for over two wonderful hours

-thinking thoughts, having ideas, dreaming dreams

-trying out hair chalk 

-watching Olympic re-runs on NBC-SN and realizing how truly addicted we were/are/were

-baking cookie bars

-making homemade mac n cheese while listening to Lisa Loeb

-debating want vs need as we all updated our amazon wish lists  in the anticipation of upcoming birthday month

-braving the sledding hill again, after crashing on it this weekend

Yep, we can waste time like nobody's business, as I have shared before. But why not? I mean it's all about money and time in this life anyways, n'est pas?  And today we got some time. Not to mention, in some way you could say I made more money being off work today anyways. Being  a salaried employee, in theory a snowday off "ups" my per diem rate does it not? 

Remember the Cadillac ad that ran incessantly during the Olympics, with the guy who does the quick change into the suit, and speaks of good old American "hard work," and the acquisition of stuff? He mentions the whopping "two weeks" of vacation time he gets? Two weeks? I mean how do you even have the time to enjoy your stuff if you only have two weeks off?  I like stuff as much as the next person, but I am completely OK having less stuff, if I can have more time.  I say, take the "August off" instead, maybe even throw in a July, or a snowday here or there. Things still get done, goals and work are accomplished. Even with some leisure time, I think I still am a hard working American, and today I felt like one with a life fully lived, loved, enjoyed. Thank You, for life, for time, for snow.
It WAS the best day ever

EOS

Gwynn is recently obsessive about a lip balm called EOS...Evolution Of Smooth. It got me thinking of our day as it has had a certain EOS to it as well, and that would be Evolution Of Snowday.

Honestly, I'd say the vibe for a snowday started last night. Snow was trucking along all day, eventually canceling afternoon and evening activities, and Gwynn's basketball game as well. There was an after school lull, until just after Tim rolled in the driveway. Then snow kicked up, around 4:30, and it was that snow that just does not stop. 

We progressed with our evening, dinner, homework, and then Tim and Gwynn headed out to check things out. It was a BLIZZARD! Nearly a foot had already fallen, more was coming, but they cleared cars, and blew the drive anyways. Afterwards, all obligations for the evening done, as well as lunches and bags at the ready for the next day, we settled in for some prime time Olympics. The snow wasn't stopping, and honestly, we did stay up a little bit late...was it possible the snow would go all night? I think we all had our hopes. The evening had a serindipidelicious feel to it right to the bitter end.

Then, for me at least, was a night full of dreams.

There was a snowday in my dream.

When I dared to peek out the window in the night, it was clear that the snow was still going.

And at 5:40 or so the call came.

A snowday indeed!

The Evolution of our day began with a blissful feeling that anything was possible, but I have to say that little was accomplished, really, above the norm. And we are here, now, again, finishing dinner and watching the Olympics. But it is with the relaxed feeling of a surprise day off.

I'd say everyone should have a snowday now and again. It's good for the soul.

Q-U-I-E-T

You know, until you are a parent, I don't think you can really appreciate quiet. The blissful sound of nothingness. Of course once you are a parent, of young children at least, there are times that quiet is not a good thing. True quiet usually means someone is up to something and if you don't want a mess of grand proportions you better get up and get investigating. I remember back in the day too, when Tim and I would realize it was quiet, sometimes with the kids right underfoot, we would spell the word to each other, out loud. Q-U-I-E-T. It was a mantra of sorts. I think one of the biggest surprises to both of us as parents was the volume level, and Tim often used to say, "I never knew it would be this loud."

But it is quiet here today, and we are, these days, experiencing quiet of another sort. This quiet is "Woah! Both of them are at after school activities and we have the house all to ourselves!" quiet. And it is good!

Many good things can be said about kid free time you know, but today, we chose to revel in the quiet. Tim is actually asleep right now on the couch and I am quietly typing away. The only sounds are the keys, my thoughts, and the fairly constant blow of forced air heat. No music. No TV. No beeping or buzzing from phones. Just pure, blissful quiet. It will be a short session since, due to the cold, and to the drying nature of said forced air heat, my fingers are a messed up land of cracked winter skin. Then today, my fingers were aggravated even more by the world's worst paper cut, ever, on my right middle finger. Typing is sort of, really, truly, a pain.

But I could not waste this opportunity.
To reset, recharge, regroup.
An opportunity to reflect, on nothing.
A moment to be thankful, for alone together time.
To be thankful for
QUIET.

Whirling Dervish

…and Martin Luther King Jr Day has come again. And we failed to finalize the putting away of Christmas. But alas, many things got in the way. There was, after all, coffee to be drunk, there were instruments to be played, which would be a "task" on a school night, but oddly enough, on a day without structure, were what they should be; things to be played and enjoyed. Laundry was done and groceries were bought, but at the same time magazines were read, and series TV was watched.

In a frantic "what have we REALLY done today, we have a bit of a time table here if we are ever going to eat dinner" frenzy, all four of us just spent the last 30 minutes out in our rather tiny kitchen. In a whirling dervish of sorts, chicken was defrosted, and a squash was cut. Accompanying said culinary pursuits was a Science Olympiad project, mid project, in the middle of the island. Cake was made on the side counter, and a martini on the other side counter. Laundry was switched and changed. And now, after the 30 minute flurry, it is back to fun and leisure.

Somehow it seems, what needs to be done does get done. And on a day off, I am always impressed by what can be accomplished in a flurry of activity, over a short period of time. When leisure and fun are the true objective, work falls to the back burner.

And all that I intend to do in a full day, sometimes in a VERY short period of time, happens.
And that is probably something we should remember everyday.

2014…are ya KIDDING? It was JUST 1999!!!

Sadly, we come to this evening with another night of obligatory writing. Where has my writing rhythm gone? I was so good on the two times a month vibe, for so long, I am certainly not going to fail myself now, but it sure does seem that the past couple of months have been low on the inspiration meter. Or have they? I mean, the past two months, we have had exactly ONE free weekend. Perhaps the thing is, that there is much to reflect upon, just very little time to do it.

I suppose life could be worse.

On that note, tonight I am on the eve of yet another writing project. I bought, while out Christmas shopping, a one line a day 5 year memory journal. Should be good for me, the girl who can remember song lyrics ad nauseam, but can't recall what she had for breakfast yesterday. I look forward to the idea of pen and paper writing. I look forward to the idea of recording both the marvelous and the mundane. I look forward to having a place to notate gratitude. I look forward to a record, a review, a reminder of what has been going on in this crazy little life we lead.

And I look forward to the mystery. I mean, it is hard to imagine where will life even BE in 5 years! It is nothing I would want to know now, but surely something that will be fascinating to behold, and I feel I need to start to brace myself and hold on tight. Much lies ahead. And with the rate time flies lately, 5 years will be here and gone in a blink of the eye.

Again, life could be worse.

As we celebrate New Year's Eve, my favorite holiday, the holiday of hope, of reflecting and looking ahead, a planner's holiday for sure, I also hold out hope for humor in the new year. We JUST finished watching "Grumpy Old Men" with the kids, and if that 5 year one line journal can record a few zingers that would rival Burgess Meridith's gag reel at the end of the movie, I do think my life would be complete.

To 2014. L'chaim, L'chiam, to LIFE!

Depleted Air Supply

It has been kind of odd, this year, having NO time in between Thanksgiving and Advent.

I am a big believer in not forgetting about Thanksgiving, and have my personal rules, like actually decorating for Thanksgiving, and not playing holiday music until December 1st. But this year December 1st brought a Sunday. And December 2nd brought back to work Monday. December 3rd was a Tuesday recovery from said backlash, and today was really the first day I realized we are actually well into both secular and sacred Advent.

Oh sure, we did the advent wreath at my mom's on Sunday for dinner, and discussed our HOPES for the coming weeks, but it was not until Wednesday that it really sank in. It sank on two levels too.

Sunday, my attitude was a little bit dark and snark, and my dinnertime HOPE was that the coming three weeks pass easily, referring to working with kids that are too excited to focus. But my HOPE as the week has progressed has focused on a kid, a student at our school, a former student's brother, my daughter's friend, who is in the hospital fighting. Yeah, HOPE can spin on a dime it seems.
Still, this kid is a trooper. Kids are. They fight, they rally, they bounce back, and as much as we adults worry and wring our hands, they get the job done. And for some reason, deep down, I know that is what this little one is going to do.

SO that being said, and knowing he is one with a FINE sense of humor, I will turn to my other back to life moment today. On my way to work, realizing that it really was December 4th and I had yet to un-attic my holiday music I decided to tune to Y94 FM, Central NY's home of continuous Christmas music. How bad could it be?

Can we say Air Supply singing "Winter Wonderland?" No one needs to hear that. Then it segued into "Rocking Around the Christmas Tree," in my opinion one of the most overplayed bad songs to grace our holiday playlists. Just because it says ROCK doesn't mean it has to be on your ROCK holiday playlist. I blame iTunes. I blame Genius.

I changed the channel.

My ride to work is short, so by this time I had arrived, and made my way in to my classroom, where I was free to play any holiday tunes I wished. And truth be told, even with the small selection I have ripped onto the network, I have a better variety than good old Y94. They ought to give me a call. The day continued on, actually, interestingly, filled with holiday music. It was the day for it, it seems. We listened during work, we attended a K-3 holiday concert rehearsal. My students and I anticipated, and then were a bit disappointed not to hear, a perennial favorite, "Snowpants," as it was not sung by this year's first grade.

But then again, was that perhaps just a little life lesson…for every year, change comes our way.

Sometimes, advent sneaks up and surprises us. Just like life. And sometimes our personal rules get the best of us. But always, if we are looking, if we are aware, the universe hits us, with a visual, or a situation, or a song, and it lets us know that as much as we may like to think we are in charge, in so many ways we are not. We influence our time here, we choose how to accept the events of our life, but at the root, we deal with what we are dealt.

And sometimes it is a quick calendar.
Sometimes it is a really really really crappy health crisis.
Sometimes it is Air Supply at 7:50 AM.

How we choose to accept what we are dealt is what makes us who we are.
And today, I chose song, and music, and all the joy that comes with it.
And I suggest, especially in this season of advent, that you all do too.
Just please, for the love of God, avoid the Air Supply.