Cheers

Happy New Year!!!

I can't just end my blog on a negative note (see last entry) for the year, so -- have a wonderful night and may the next year be fabulously great!

Goodbye To You

Dear 2008,

It is with great satisfaction and relief that I write this farewell letter to you. Don't get me wrong, you had some good points, but overall? You were very unawesome and filled with stress, tears, and more unawesomeness.

The good points: FP and I celebrating our first wedding anniversary, buying a house, and landing a fabulous job, were fine and all. But, sadly, those were tinted with some real crap. Closing on the house, packing, moving, and unpacking? All were a bit overshadowed by the fact FP was so sick he was in and out of the emergency room at the hospital, and I got to go through a lot of that fabulous time by myself.

Then, of course, there was the whole slab leak and redoing of the plumbing, which happened at the same time of the cancer/no children ever scare. Add some financial stress, and what a wonderful summer it was!

My new job is truly great, it was just a bit overwhelming at first. FP's job continues to be....constant and craptastic.

Now, I don't want to continously complain, 2008, even though I had a billion sinus infections, we needed to also redo our whole central heating/cooling unit, and my body is STILL out of whack, so I will move on and look forward. I know 2009 will be a much better year. It does seem to go in waves, doesn't it? At least for me it does -- and it seems like a lot of people I know did not have a fantastic 2008. I refuse to spend 2009 depressed and tired, like I seemed to have spent a lot of 2008. I have a lot of big goals for the new year, and I am ready to just close the door on 2008.

So, goodbye and farewell. I can't say I will miss you, but I definitely won't forget you!

Yours Truly,
Steph

Elves

Watch this for FP and my holiday greeting!

Next year I promise we will send cards. Really.

Happy Holidays!

I hope everyone has a lovely Christmas and wonderful Hanukkah!!

We will be eating an Italian seafood feast tonight made by ME!

FP isn't the only one who cooks around here!!!

Rollercoaster

The holidays are such a weird time.

There are so many expectations for fun, love, sharing, giving, and partying....and it feels like you need to be on all of the time, since everyone else seems to be on.

And I love it and embrace it, and generally by New Year's Eve I am so over it and ready to return to non-holidays. Not that I am over the holiday season by that time, more just over all of the constant going, going, going.

This year is the first year in my 32 years that I will not be in NYC for the holiday season at all. I only have spent one Christmas away from my hometown, but we headed North the following day, so it didn't seem that we had missed anything at all. I was feeling sad on Friday about the whole thing, in between going to two holiday parties, dinner, and then out to see the DG, but then I looked around at my friends and family here and felt all warm and fuzzy again and it was all good.

But I feel a little nostalgic and blue about it all today. I need to change my holidays vision and the traditions we do, which is fine, but just taking some getting used to.

Also kind-of sucking this year is that my little brother shipped out last week, so he won't be here for the holidays, and FP is constantly working all the time. So the three holiday parties I went to this weekend, he couldn't come with me because he had to be up at 5 a.m. to work, and he only has Christmas day off, but then immediately has to work next weekend, too.

I know, I know, we're grateful we both have jobs when so many people don't, but it is crappy not to be able to see my husband during the holidays, unless it is when we are asleep in bed.

I don't feel bah humbug at all, and have truly been ful of fa-la-la, but I think it really is the changing of the traditions, especially when the holidays are such a traditional time, that I am getting used to.

A Hint

If you're wondering, "What do I get my child's teacher for the holidays? The teacher that puts up with my bullshit and stays late or comes in early to give my child extra help sessions? The teacher that goes out of her way no matter how annoying, I, the parent, can be?" don't think about spending a lot of money on some worthless crap that actually cost $50.

Take that money and get a damn gift card.

Seriously.

Unsolved Mystery

I do not like sweets. Really, I love salty food or pasta and bread, but I always pass on sweets.

But why? WHY during the holidays do I find myself eating crappy cookies and cake that I really don't want?

Ugh.

How We Celebrate The Holidays At Our House.

We're classy.

Creepy. Also? Crawly.

When I first moved to Florida, I got a taste of the "Palmetto Bug," or, as everyone else in the country calls them, "mother fucking huge roaches." I thought the roaches I saw in NYC were giant, but they have nothing on their Southern neighbors.

The thing with Palmetto Bugs is that they are everywhere here, and the closer one lives to the water, the worse it is. It doesn't matter how clean you keep your house, or how spotless your kitchen is, or that you get up every crumb you can find, they are just everywhere! And being that we live close to the beach, and close to the Intracoastal, and close to tons of ponds, they really just live everywhere.

When we first moved into our house, we noticed that everyone had BugOut service come. You pay them and they spray your house and lawn quarterly, or monthly, or whatever you set up for. Even though I knew they were fifty billion bugs, I still thought it was a scam. Just get some roach motels and call it a day.

But after Tropical Storm Fay, I changed my tune. Those fucking bugs were everywhere. Also? They live in palm trees, and since we have three huge ones in our yard, they just heart it. Sitting out on our patio became a disgusting battle with the bugs until I lost it and called BugOut that very instant. So, now we have them come and spray once a month and although it is probably rotting our insides with chemicals and killing other species in our lawn, at least those damn bugs do not run up my legs when I am sitting outside.

In Florida, you also need a termite bond on your House. What?? Yes, by law, you must have termite protection, especially in Northeast Florida, because they are a huge problem here. And of course, our bond just went up and we had to get a whole new fucking treatment done on the whole house which, let me tell you, is not cheap. Now we are under a new bond, which is a good thing, mostly prompted by the guy telling horror stories of hundreds and thousands of termites spilling out of the walls.

Seriously, wouldn't you die?

I love Florida and beach life, but holy shit, I never thought there would be so many giant bugs. I mean, I have traveled a lot and held tarantulas and rhinoceros beetles, but I never thought I would be living with their first cousins.

I Rule As A QB

I know you all must be expecting a tale of woe and embarrassment. One where I choked because of the crowd or because of my lack of ability.

But guess what? The Destroyers kicked ass!

Unbeknown to me, I know how to throw a football. In fact, I threw six touchdowns. My kids rocked -- we talked so much about teamwork and spirit and being supportive and not feeling pressured if you dropped the ball, that they were all excited for the game rather than stressed out. We knew we were the underdogs, so we only needed to have fun.

And it was so fun!!! I was so proud of my class because kids that normally would be shy in that situation rocked! And scored lots of touchdowns, but the main thing is that they had fun.

Of course, the other class has two football players' sons in it, AND literally the best football player in his age group for the entire city of Jacksonville. And they played him the whole game. And he scored all of their touchdowns except one. But guess what? They only won by one touchdown!!!!! So I consider it a great success!!

I have a hilarious video of the edited game, it is about 5 minutes long, but I don't want to post it on here because of the kids. However, if you would like to see the hilarity, along with our famous referee, please email me your email and I will send it on to you.

The moral of this whole thing: most important to just have fun!

Solo

I know, I know, you're dying in anticipation on the edge of your seat to hear all about my football game, but you are going to have to wait just a few more days. I want to post pictures with the story of it all, and the pictures are at school, and I wasn't there today, but am going in on Sunday to do some grading, so I will get them then.

And why wasn't I at school today? Well, I attended this most fabulous math workshop about making math fun and learned all of these really cool games and problems and projects to utilize in my classroom. Seriously, if we had the money, I would make going to school my job. I love learning. Really, I am one of the biggest geeks I know.

Aside from the nerd-a-thon, I went out to lunch by myself today. To chili's. Now, I know Chili's is no fine gourmet dining, and as I have mentioned before on my blog, I am kind-of a restaurant snob. I hate big chains, I don't like to go to fast food (except Taco Bell. Bean burritos....heaven), and I enjoy a nice meal. However, FP and I have discovered that Chili's makes everything better. It's kind-of our motto. There is something to be said about those kind-of places where they pay people hundreds of thousands of dollars to develop the PERFECT recipe for each drink and dish. And the recipe never falters. So those shrimp fajitas I am obsessed with taste the same everywhere. Yum.

I love to go out to eat alone. Not all the time, but sometimes it really rules. I don't bring a book, or talk on my cell phone, or even text. I just sit. I watch people, I stare into space, and in general just be quiet. Really, how often are you ever just quiet? I love it. I ate my shrimp in silence, and watched the people around me. When I was done, I paid my bill, and went back to my math conference.

Pretty much a perfect day.

The Big Day

Tomorrow is my football game.

Wish me luck.

Details to follow....

Stick It To Me

In the quest to end my sinus pain and the constant headache I have had for the better part of the past six weeks, I went to acupuncture today. I had done it before in NYC when my sinuses were giving me headaches all of the time, and it worked well, so I went back again today.

Acupuncture is really cool, and I definitely believe in the different energies in the body, and that everything is all connected. If you have never had acupuncture, it is amazing how a needle in your foot and your knuckle affects your head. The tightening and twisting of those needles makes your pain go away, intensify, or even shift around. Apparently, I have a "wind headache," which totally also translates and makes sense in the Western medicine world, because there is air in my sinuses and it hurts. But what was just so insane is that the wind headache was running around my head when she was twisting and tightening the different needles because my body was fighting it and trying to get rid of it. My head definitely feels better, but there is still some work to be done -- no Western hops of a quick fix. I have some herbal formulas to take and I go back next week.

For those of you that think this is a bunch of hoo, and that it is literally all in my head, then that is OK, I can live with that -- whatever makes this headache leave for good. Of course, sine my cayenne pepper experience, my head has felt a ton better, but the headache is still slightly there, and I am over taking aspirin, antiobiotics, decongestant, and steroids constantly, because I think that is so bad for a body.

One of the herbal forulas I have to take is "Free and Easy Traveller." With a name like that, how can you NOT feel better?

In Vain

Some of the people I work with are extremely self-righteous.

Today's lunch discussion started with how "awful" it is that so many kids say the "f-word," and quickly turned to what a travesty and shame it was that so many of the sixth graders used the Lord's name in vain.

The only thing I could think of while I silently listened to the conversation?

Oh my god?! Are you fucking kidding me?????