Here it comes! Tomorrow starts my company annual end of the year “all hands on deck” event. This year we’re hosting in Newport Beach (our headquarters). We’ve got 19 coming in from all corners, plus our 15 locals. My work partner and I have been planning, organizing, and reserving since July! 3 lunches, 2 dinners, a yacht party to see the holiday lights, a tie-it-all-together meeting, gifts, promotions to announce and celebrate and more. And yes, I did personalize the placecards, as I do each year.
You both drive me crazy, but I don’t know how the four of us would get through all this without each other. She has always worried that we’d come apart like our uncles did, but honest to goodness, look at us go. What a lousy, wonderful, stressful, weepy, amazing year it has been. I love you both.
Scored the tickets my daughter wanted, but boy that was not easy. Signed up for pre-sale notification, supposed to be 10 am this morning. Didn’t get email with link to presale until 11 am. Tickets were going so fast that after I clicked the first seat, it was gone before I could click on the second seat next to it. Crazy, but done, Merry Christmas to us!
I have to agree with the people who have been saying let’s punt the 2025 “top” or “best” lists because there isn’t much about 2025 that I want to rehash….
Well, I have good news! Last weekend my husband won the Grand Award for a 1 frame exhibit at the Stamp Show where he presented it. It was a small show, but winning the best for the 1 frame exhibits was special for him. It was only the second time that he showed it.
I really don’t talk about his collection here in town, so not many people know about it. People talk, and I don’t want to open us up to some potential burglary attempts because someone thinks that the collection is very valuable. (It is, but not as valuable as some of the collections that our friends have.)
I knew that I shouldn’t have listened to your father and shared my great idea for your wife for Christmas. We just spent eight days with y’all, and she specifically said that she wanted this thing ”some day” in passing so this is the day! But when I told you the idea you came up with various reasons why YOU don’t think it’s a good idea. Well, this isn’t YOUR present. And she said she wanted it! I’d never heard of it so it’s not like I’m the one who thinks it’s a good idea. SHE said it. So, you know what? I’m getting it for her. She can leave it in the box and never log on if she changes her mind about it. Or you change her mind about it.
Harumph.
Are you 33 or 83? Sometimes, you are so resistant to change!
If you want to know how your sister-in-law is doing, don’t email me. Contact her yourself. But you haven’t spoken to her in over 14 years…you know, after you mailed to her the “I hope you go to hell” letter that my mother/your wife wrote to SIL before my mother/your wife died…and, you know, after you then called SIL up on the phone, out of the blue, a couple of months after that, and you wanted to talk with her as if everything was just fine.
You’re weird.
I’m not playing the game.
Find a hobby. Preferably a hobby that doesn’t involve harassing people you haven’t spoken to in over 10 years. Like, seriously, ANYTHING. ANY hobby. Painting miniatures, reading books, going on walks, playing bridge. SOMETHING.
My DILs estranged mother died very unexpectedly 4 years ago and left a huge mess (legal, financial, real estate-al) for her 20-something only child to clean up. We paid for the funeral and many other expenses rather than leave her and our son to navigate it all themselves. The house was uninhabitable and sold at auction for a fraction of the worth. DIL will never quite overcome the trauma.
Yesterday, DIL got a call from her only uncle, from a hospital. He’s somehow been admitted after cardiology results indicating need for immediate surgery. He wanted her to tell him what to do. Then told her he’d put her as his emergency contact. Then said she’d need to come out (across the country) and settle his affairs. All this late at night. Surgery was to be today (he relented and agreed to it) .
I reminded her that being an emergency contact is not a legal status requiring her to do anything. I reminded her that she can love him and still not want to do all this again, nor can they afford it, nor is it her problem to solve.
Sir, I wish you well, but be a grown up. You can’t just parachute into people’s lives with these grand demands and expectations. She is panicked and traumatized all over again, thanks so much. (but get better! and follow the doctors’ orders this time!)
The problem with dying when you are 100 is that there is no one left to come to your funeral. My aunt was a great woman, and everyone loved her, but most of the people she knew are either dead or too old/sick to travel on short notice (Jewish burial). Looks like it will just be her kids, grandkids, and one remaining sister (brought by me).
A well meaning person asking you to pass on the information that my father in law passed away does not absolve you from blasting it to the entire email list.
I did ask you to refrain from contacting said well meaning person that I protested. We will see if you can do that.
I know who that well meaning person is, the fact that they thought it was their responsibility to call someone to post it to an email group is astounding but not surprising.
I told one person, my neighbor who cleared my driveway while we were gone. I’m pretty sure they told the well meaning person who called the HOA emailer.
My husband cried when I told him, he is very private and wasn’t planning on telling anyone but those who he is very close to.
It felt so intrusive. It’s been a week.
PS, the plow came last night and did a great job. Very grateful
DS doesn’t have his heart set on a school, he will end up where he is supposed to be, and he seems completely chill about everything. Despite those facts, why do I still get anxious about college decisions? It’s so silly.
Today on the way to see my mom, my husband needed to put a quart of oil in the car. It was cold, he dropped the oil cap into the engine.
The oil cap could not be found.
We had to call a tow truck, which was surprisingly difficult on the turnpike. Did you know that you have to call the highway police who will call the tow? Yup, neither did we.
Got a tow to the dealer which blessedly was only 5 miles away. They found us an oil cap after telling us we would have to order one which would come Saturday. No charge.
Canceled the rental car that we needed to get to our kids house. No charge for that either
In the end, the only charge was $135 for the tow and 2.5 hours of our time.
Hey universe, how about a day this week where nothing goes wrong?
The kindness of strangers today was so appreciated!
It just dawned on me that I forgot to mention that LEO son married an amazing woman this fall. They make a great team and we think she’s a wonderful addition to the family. Her family is very nice as well. My wife and I feel blessed.
You know, it would be nice if someone asked how I was doing instead of always “How’s DH?”
Every time.
Why don’t you come over and see him? Oh, you’re very busy?
And you wonder why I quit coming to church.
Got delinquent state tax notice yesterday in the mail. I know I’d paid that bill back months ago when I first received it. My bank account showed the debit had processed and the funds had been transferred. Called the state taxation department and, after wading through a several menus of very UNhelpful call options twice before finally getting a real person to speak to, I was able to resolve the issue. Indeed, the tax bill had been paid on time, and tax dept had a record of receiving the funds but had not credited them to my account. Tax bill is now marked paid AND the $500+ penalty they accessed has been removed.
I guess the 30+ minutes of my time I spent on the phone was worth it.
But, jeez, why couldn’t they get it right the first time?
I supposedly said something offensive to somebody over the summer and they are now angry (not at me) but at the people who heard what I said and did not defend her. Although, she waited 6 months to mention this, has been with me and the others who were there many times since then, and doesn’t recall exactly what I said. Nobody who was there remembers me saying anything. I think I just have to ignore it and move on.
