the tall and sloping R dwarfing the other letters

I attempted to put up our Christmas tree today, and the effort... didn't go well. I got the little artificial I bought last year out of the closet at Mom's house, but its branches are now just collapsing, rather than taking shape, which left a gigantic gap in the tree. I repacked it in the shape it should take and plan to try again tomorrow. If that doesn't work, I'm not sure what we'll do, because I don't want to buy a real tree, and having to buy an artificial each year completely defeats the purpose.

Sara and I might both be coming down with something. Today she said she still felt cold under long pants, long sleeves, a jacket, socks, and a blanket. We have cold medicine but no vitamins, but I'm going to pick some up later this week, if I remember. It was so cold and wet and nasty out today that we stayed inside and watched one of the movies Ben lent me, My Man Godfrey, while bundled up in the bed of our new sleeper sofa.

Two radio stations are now playing nothing but Christmas music, and so is the muzak station at work, mostly. And I like Christmas music but only in moderation! Listening to it all the time, everywhere I go, is annoying as all get-out. Especially the craptacular Christmas music that the radio plays. And it's only December 1...

I'm trying to do most of my Christmas shopping online this year. I've just gotten started and it's already a little frustrating. So far I've been told "Sorry, we're out of that" on the first gift I tried to order, and the second gift I was hunting for, I could only find for sale on a webpage that was obviously fraudulent. "You don't need any information on the item! You just need to give us your credit card number!" But Rebecca's no fool -- no siree, she's gonna live to 93! -- so I contacted the website hosting said page, and they're having it taken down.

I was off today, but instead of doing anything productive, I've just been really lazy. I didn't visit Grandma, rike my bike, clean the apartment, or give Sable a bath. All I did was sleep in until noon, make a YouTube video, and eat one big meal. Now I feel so lethargic and bloated. The weather channel said it would rain all day today, but it never did, though it was extremely windy and cloudy.

Last night I stayed up late making notes on the story I'm planning to write for NaNoWriMo. (Only two days left! Eek!) I wrote until my hand cramped -- and by the way, I'm putting all my notes in this awesome notebook I bought from work for only 85 cents -- but I'm not satisfied. I meant to do more work on it today, but of course I haven't done that, either. I think that most of my outline so far is good (or good enough for me, anyway), but I don't think that it will be nearly enough to meet NaNoWriMo's word requirement of 50,000 words. I'm also worried that the ideas will sound good in my head, but when I actually try to write them, they'll come out all wrong. But I guess I should stop worrying and just go with it -- after all, that's part of the whole purpose of NaNoWriMo. I'm always writing stories and never finishing them, but if I can stick with this, it will almost certainly be the longest single piece I've ever done.

I have a series of recurring dreams in which I have some pet rodent that I really don't want, and I neglect it horribly, never cleaning its cage or feeding it, until it starves to death. They're pretty disturbing dreams, because I wake up feeling so guilty. I had the dream again a few nights ago (it was a pet rat in this one) and was telling Sara about it. Me: "And you know what the really weird thing was? I don't know why, but I think the rat's name was Ryan White." Sara: "Rebecca! That's horrible!" Me: "Well, I don't know why that was its name. I didn't give it that name."

Mom called me Friday evening, wanting to know where Adam was (she has to know where he is at all times). She says that he's not answering his phone and she can't get up and look for him because she threw her back out and can't get out of bed. I'm pissed (why is she calling me? how should I know where he is?) but offer to drive over and see if he's walking up and down the street, which he usually does at night. Mom snaps, "Oh, don't even trouble yourself. Just do whatever the hell you want," and hangs up on me.

About an hour later, Mom calls me again. She's lying in bed, with debilitating back pain, can't find Ben or Adam, and needs me to go buy her some wine, which apparently is the only thing that can ease her pain. I'm tempted to say, "Sorry, but I don't trouble myself, I only do whatever the hell I want," or "Oh, yeah, where are your precious sons now?" or "Remember that time in 2007 when I had asthma so bad I couldn't even talk and Sara asked you what she should do and you yelled at her?" But instead I just go out and buy her the damn wine.

On Saturday I did my laundry and visited Grandma (who was having Aunts Bello and Sis over for lunch; they were like some crazy old Cajun ladies club). It was supposed to be my day off, but Nice Manager called me and all but got down on her knees and begged me to come in that evening, because the mid and closing workers for the front end had both called in sick. So I figured what the hell and worked close. One of my co-workers bought me this awesome French-themed photo frame magnet to thank me for coming in. 

Today Sara and I cooked ourselves a delicious breakfast of biscuits, bacon, and scramb. Then we visited CJ & Company, bounced on their trampoline, played with their puppies, ate their brownies, and altogether had an awesome time. Oh, and on Friday afternoon, I went to a garage sale down the block and three shirts for only a dollar. One of them I really like and am wearing now.