Special in my own way

Time for my every-once-in-a-while blog post. Why now? No clue.

I went to BAM after work today. Books-A-Million. They took over my Borders, and I'd been there once or twice before the holidays. I was happy to see that it was pretty busy inside. I got my favorite latte and sat down with a iPhone magazine, just like in the old days. Me, who thought I knew my iPhone pretty much inside and out, learned about 15 new things from the magazine. I'm so happy. I've missed out on a lot of knowledge since Borders closed!! I plan on making BAM my new after work hang-out on Saturdays. I'm excited. Those who know me know how much I loved Borders and now I have a good replacement.

My sister Ilene from GA is in town to spend a lot of time with my parents, and she's staying with me. It's been so nice to have a house guest! We met my brother and sister Lisa for dinner tonight at a huge Chinese buffet, Teppanyaki Supreme Buffet. It was a gluttonous place! I can usually do some damage at buffets, but I haven't had much of tolerance for food since I had the stomach bug earlier this week.

Speaking of that...yuck. I've never had the stomach bug, and thought I was kind of special because of that feat. Serves me right. I really thought I had an immunity. Many, many people at my parents assisted living have had it. There's a warning sign when you enter the building, but I wasn't worried. I spent two days in a row visiting and got it right after that. Now I'm part of the club, woohoo. I hope to be able to say, "I've only ever had the stomach bug once in my life." Would that still make me special?

Time flies

I'm all dressed up with nowhere to go. Sorta. My plan for the day after spending an hour working on my basement cleanup (baby steps) was to spend the afternoon with my mother. I finally reached Mom on the phone to find out that she, along with many other residents and staff, has the stomach bug. She has a sick caregiver, but one that gets to stay with her and give her all the care she needs. Needless to say, I'm staying away.

My mother suffered a small stroke earlier this month. It's been over 11 years since the massive stroke that changed her life, and the lives of her family. I really thought after all this time that it would never happen again. This one was a quiet one, in many ways. We noticed that all of a sudden my mother became very quiet. Long story short, the hospital where she stayed for 3 nights diagnosed it as a stroke. Fortunately there were no physical changes, and my mom is acting much more like herself. She is pretty depressed, though, and it has a lot to do with winter. She's stuck indoors and is feeling isolated. I know I'd feel the same. My plan was to show her a good time today. Raincheck!

Life is quiet around here. My daughter has a new man in her life and between that and our jobs, and her school, I don't see much of her. When I do, it's great. She's growing up and becoming a woman. I look at her face, and it's new to me. I miss her!

So, I live in my big (for one person) house mostly alone. I'm not bored, and I'm not lonely. I used to spend so much time on the computer, but I really don't any more. I check for e-mail; I rarely get personal e-mails. It probably has something to do with the fact I hardly send them, and because I don't blog, I don't get comments mailed to me. Thank goodness for Groupon, bradsdeals, LivingSocial, etc. It's the only mail I get (haha). I check in with Facebook on my iPhone at least a few times a day. I like seeing status updates and making some of my own, but other than that, it's not important to me. I've been terrible about reading blogs or writing them. Instead of being on the computer I've been watching shows that I've DVR'd. TV is very entertaining! That said, I can't wait to be entertained by the things you can do in warm weather. I miss being outside. I can't wait till the days are longer and the outdoors is where I spend my time. Time flies, which can be good and bad. Before I know it, I'll be sitting on my porch watching for my hummingbirds. I really can't wait.

Happy New Year!

Visiting my mother and writing a new blog post were the only must-do things on my list today. It's almost 7 PM and I'm just now getting to #2.

The holiday 'season' passed by in a blur, as usual. I guess the season is all about the lead-up to the day. Once Christmas Day is over, it's all over. My sister Lisa and I went to The Annapolitan on Christmas Eve Day for their Holiday Dinner. There were over 200 people there (I think there's around 90 residents). It was so nice! I've said it so many times but I'll say it again. We're SO glad my parents are living there.

My daughter worked Christmas Eve but we spent some time together when she came home, then a few hours in the morning before she headed to her dad's. I spent a really nice day with my neighbor Kelly and her guests.

Are we hams or what?

I was ready to head back to work on Monday. I'm finding I don't do well with too much free time. It was a quiet week at work, and will probably be a slow month. Hopefully not too slow, since I work on commission. Rob was able to visit mid-week and we had our Christmas then. I think his favorite gift was the Dr. Martens shoes I got him. Mine was the Apple gift card to use towards the iPad3 I'll get as soon as it comes out. I.can't.wait!

I chose to be proactive and make New Year's Eve plans instead of staying home alone (Rob works every weekend). I'm so glad I did. My friend Kit and I drove to Manassas, VA, about an hour away. We checked into a hotel, and our high school friend Lisa met us there. We went to Kit's sister's bar/restaurant. It was SO out of my 'norm'. I felt like I was sightseeing! So many people smoking and drinking. Such loud head-banger music. It was fun until the smoke finally got to me. We headed back to the hotel and hung out by the fireplace for a while. It was so great to be together. There's nothing like old friends!

I spent a few hours with my mom today. She hasn't seemed like herself since this past Saturday, and I made an appointment for her to see her doctor tomorrow. She's just too quiet. I hope she's OK! I finally cut her hair. She was quite the wild-looking woman.

The top two pictures are, of course, the 'before' pictures. Doesn't my mom look great in her new glasses?

I'm ready to get cozy with my book, the biography of Steve Jobs. I hope it gets me so relaxed that my new evil friend insomnia stays away tonight.

Happy 2012 my friends. I wish you health, and happiness. Wealth would be great too, but I know that health is the most important thing.