Monday, January 5, 2015

Week 1 - A Wonderful Break

When I started at UNL in 1998, having the week between Christmas and New Year’s off was new to me. My dad came for Christmas for the next eight years and so hanging with Norm was the focus of my breaks. When I started going to Rhode Island, I always tried to come back early enough to have a chunk of time at home. I made exhaustive to do lists and always ended break disappointed that many things hadn’t gotten done. Well, this was the first year I had zero expectations over break and it was wonderful! I ended up getting plenty done between the relaxing and knitting so it was all good. They say with age comes wisdom. Clearly that’s kicked in for me.

My flights were uneventful again, making this the first Christmas trip without any travel issues. I did forget my ear buds at Carolyn’s but I had enough time before my flight to go back through security to meet Carolyn at the curb and get back to my gate just in time to board. I’d also done early check in so had an A boarding pass, which was totally worth the $12.50. I got to Wahoo at 8:00, just missing checking in with the knitters at the library but it felt great to be home.

Monday was a veg day. I managed to unpack and start laundry but mostly sat on my butt knitting. Perfect. I had to leave the house on Tuesday to do year end deposits for Friends of the Library and ran a few errands while I was out but that was it. I did nada for New Year’s Eve, going to bed early. Worked for me.

Wednesday was my annual knitters’ tea so I got busy first thing in the morning – cleaning, pulling out china and teapots to wash, setting out cookies and making hot artichoke dip. All was ready at 1:30 when everyone arrived and we had a lovely afternoon sitting in the sun while knitting, chatting and eating yummy stuff. It’s a wonderful way to start the new year. Unfortunately I had stomach issues later in the evening that made for a bad night’s sleep. Too many sweets maybe? I need to add Pepto to my shopping list.

I cleaned everything up first thing the next morning and finally made a to do for the last 3 days of break. I had lunch with Lorri at Chip’s on Saturday but otherwise spent the last three days inside, plugging away at each day’s list between stretches of knitting. By the end of break, I’d gotten lots done, had plenty of time for relaxation and just enough interaction with friends. All good.

One last thing to mention – I fired yet another cleaning lady. What is it with me and cleaning ladies? This one was very nice and only used green, natural products. Unfortunately she didn’t make up for the lack of chemicals with extra elbow grease. I would walk in the door and the only way to tell she’d been there was the money being gone. The last straw was when I had to clean the bathroom before my tea and she’s only been there a week before. Then 2 minutes with scrubbing bubbles and a Magic Erasure had the bathroom sink cleaner than it’d been since she started. Enough! Why pay big money (50% more than my last cleaning lady) for such crap cleaning? So I ended the break telling her I was done and just to drop the key on Tuesday when she would have been “cleaning” my house. I’m going to give doing it myself a try again. Wish me luck.

I hope you all have had a nice start to 2015. I’m heading back to work rested and relaxed but with the beginning of a cold. I'm going to try to be at my desk at 8:00 rather than my usual 8:15. Would you call that a resolution? It’s not much of one but I’ll give it a try. I’ll probably fail within a few days but it’s worth a try. And my cold sheep (knitter's speak for a yarn diet) in 2015 is going fine but mostly because Lori gifted us all pink yarn at the tea and I got my first installment in the British sock yarn club on Friday. Isn't this gorgeous yarn? How cool that the first skein is orange. But I digress.... Did any of you make any resolutions? Do tell. Happy 2015.


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