Put a Bird on It

Happy New Year! 

New Year's Day seems like one hundred years ago already.  Christmas even longer ago.  It was all fine.  Everyone was happy, we lounged around for two weeks, ate ridiculous amounts, took walks, watched lots of TV, slept in, and now we are back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Highlights?  Not sure.  I never caved and sent out Christmas cards, but it didn't feel good.  The lack of stress felt good, but I had guilt about it, too, so it was kind of a zero-sum game.  I think I'll send cards next year.  I made all that bacon jam, and now its sitting in my fridge.  I bought and filled little jars with the stuff, but never actually gave them to anybody.  The Christmas tree was slightly crooked and the lights kept going out in chunks.  Not my best work, but it did the job.  The tree had 11 birds on it, and I held myself back from adding any more.  I received your typical mom gifts: a sweater, some earrings, a book, and a cookbook stand.  With a bird on it.

Leila's 11th birthday came and went.  11.  Did you hear me? 11!  I'm having more trouble with 11 than I did with 10.  Maybe because I know sullenness is just around the corner now.  We're also past the halfway mark to her high school graduation and she'll be gone in the blink of an eye.  Then I'll really have to figure out what to do with my life. 

She had a family party where she requested Hawaiian bar b q from a place we'd never tried before.  This was an odd choice, but we did it anyway, and, mercifully, she loved the kalua pork.  I roasted beets for the first time ever, and I made a killer beet and arugula salad.  That's what I'm having for lunch, too.  I can't wait for lunch.

She had a friend party the following night, and the girls played Just Dance 4 on the Wii with the lights down and disco balls going.  They ate pizza and cake at the dining room table while they gossiped about people at school.  Rob and I stood unnoticed in the kitchen an eaves dropped and drank mai tais. 

Let's see...  Another high light was that Rob and started watching Sons of Anarchy on Netflix and we love it!  Its so nice to have a series to look forward to again, and so sad that this is my life.  My biggest high of the day is getting the kid to bed so I can watch a show about an outlaw biker gang.  Dowton Abby started up last night, and I tried to stay up and watch the whole thing but I had to bail.  I was getting a little bored, and I had to go to sleep.

Except that's another thing.  I'm having so much trouble sleeping!  I doze fitfully and never feel like I'm asleep, and I toss and turn until around 2 a.m. when I either finally fall asleep, or I take an ativan to quiet my brain.  The other thing that seems to help is Nate Silver.  I'm plugging away at The Signal and the Noise, and, interesting though it is, it puts me to sleep.  So that's my strategy: Nate Silver myself to sleep.  I hope that book never ends.

Tomorrow I'll write about The Blitz, which is a name I like much better than The Diet.  Adios.