Luci Year 32

Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh! Internet that works, a full belly, Christmas tree is up, cats are playing in it already, LM is in bed…Now if only I had the energy and time to wash all the dishes and clean the rest of the house…but I shouldn’t ask for more. I got a lot this year for my birthday.

For my birthday, my 4th time turning 28 despite the urging of my friend Stella Price to own my age proudly, I got a family dinner at Olive Garden with almost everyone there. I was missing my friends, my great-grandmother (the ORHB which I will define eventually) and my cousin, but having the rest of the family around the table was an accomplishment in and of itself and it was beautiful to see. I sat at one end of the table and almost cried when I looked down the length of it and saw my family there. People were still asking me what I wanted for my birthday. I don’t know why it’s so hard for everyone to understand that the family dinner is honestly all I wanted. Do I normally come off as that materialistic that they can’t believe all I want is to spend a little time with them? I’m actually very easy to please.

Granted there are “things” that I want, but I can buy those myself with time and my income taxes. I don’t need my family to buy them for me. The whole last half of the week was perfect to me. I spent Thanksgiving AM at Oscar’s restaurant with Aunt, Uncle, Cousin, Grandmother, Grandfather, Sister, inevitable Brother-in-law, Uncle from out of town and LM. Granted it was 8AM on a holiday, but it was lovely and I enjoyed every second of it. We went over to Grandmother’s house later where we played Mexican Train Dominoes until it was time to go to Hunan’s Chinese Restaurant for lunch. We met two couples who are long-time friends of my grandparents there and we ate together. I know it sounds weird to have Chinese food for Thanksgiving, but it’s not the first time we’ve done it and since Aunt and Uncle were taking Great-Grandmother to Uncle’s parents for Thanksgiving, Grandmother’s kitchen is still a demo zone and there’s no way in hell I’m about to cook for all those people it was a great alternative. Then we went back to Grandmother’s house and played MORE Mexican Train Dominoes until it was time to go to Friend’s parent’s house and eat yet again…also taking home left-overs…hehehehe! My friend makes THE BEST homemade a gratin potatoes!

I finally got home and rolled myself and LM into bed. Friday was lllllaaaaaaazzzzzzyyyyyy and lovely. I didn’t bother getting up for Black Friday. I checked the papers Thanksgiving Day and didn’t see anything worth getting up for. I stayed in bed all day long until it was time to go to dinner that night! (Well I did get up to feed LM, but got straight back into bed when I was done! LOL!) We all went to Olive Garden! I love their salads….

After that I went to the movies with my sister, nieces and LM. We saw Planet 51. Not the best movie, but the kids loved it. Got home at midnight. Got up Saturday, sent LM off with Grandfather, met Grandmother for breakfast, went back to her house to play a few rounds of Mexican Train Dominoes with Grandmother, Grandfather, Uncle from out of town and LM until Sister arrived with Nieces. We went book shopping at my favorite used book store, Hawsey’s! I got this old cookbook that thrills me and an idea that has been growing all day.

I plan to start the hardcore diet again tomorrow. Due to my history with kidney stones, I will have to have my blood drawn every two weeks to make sure my body isn’t storing the protein in high levels, but it should be ok. It’s going to be hard but now that I have my doctor on board, I don’t have any more excuses.

I also still need to deal with my mother’s death and my shitty relationship with her. I need to work on my self and my life as it relates to other people. I need to loose weight, de-clutter my house and my life, and finish that last tiny bit of college I found out I still have to do. Seems I have a lot on my plate right? So I was thinking, why not write about it? Like a diary of sorts, chic-lit at its finest! Because as it turns out, I need to de-clutter my brain as well.

This cookbook was written in the 1960’s and is basically a house-wife’s guide to being a good hostess. Anyone else see how irrelevant that is now? Well, it might be, but maybe I can put a modern twist on it, and add in my life as I change it. See, I want to be more lady-like, or more accurately, what I perceive as being lady-like in the modern age. Which is actually what led me to the working title: “Ladymorphesis: The Journey of a hot mess into Lady-hood”.

Opinions anyone?

Kisses, Hugs and Spanx,
Luci