The Countdown...

Well, I am done with shopping, the cards are sent all of my big work events are over. 

Now all I have left to do is: 

Bake, cook, clean and WORK. 

So many of my friends are school librarians who have the next two weeks off. I do not. As a matter of fact, our library is open on Christmas Eve, so I had to take a vacation day to be home and get ready for our Christmas Eve Open House / Feast of Seven Fishes Event.

To make matters worse, I work Saturday and Sunday; then Monday and have a half day on Tuesday. 

I don't know if I need to tell you this, but I am not a spring chicken.  I can't do what I used to do.  For example, the kitchen floor?  The grout needs to be scrubbed but I will just dim the lights and hope no one notices, or if they do they have the good sense to keep it to themselves. 

I have been power cleaning in short bursts. I have been slowly cleaning the carpets in order to save my back. 

I am looking forward to Christmas Day, staying in my pjs and drinking mimosas. 

Seasons' Greetings from our house to yours!

It has been a long, hard, sad year.

So long, so hard and so sad, that I had a hard time coming up with our typical TOP TEN THINGS.

Here's what I got...just in case you aren't on the Christmas Card List....

Click on the image to make it larger!

A Very Marianne Follis Thanksgiving

As your children get older, having a family meal becomes a logic problem

1) Madelaine works at Mimi's Cafe Wednesday, Thursday and Friday morning
2) Madelaine works at Silver Fox on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evening
3) The boys work at Silver Fox on Thursday evening
4) Fred works on Friday night and most of Sunday
5) I am working to cover for my boss from 9-2 on Saturday.
6) Zach, Madelaine's significant other need to be at a gig on Satuday at 9.

Good thing I am great at logic problems.

Fred put the turkey in at noon and the house smelled wonderful when I got in from work. We set the table, fixed the sides and had everything ready by 5:30.

It was actually one of the nicest Thanksgivings I can remember. We lingered over our dinner, and then retired to the living room for dessert and more chat.  The whole thing was over in 2.5 hours and the only tension was when the boys teased Zach about being FIBL II.  FIBL stands for future brother in law, which was their nickname for Mad's longest term boyfriend to date.  Zach wasn't bothered, but Mad was.

Here is the gang.  Of course I am taking the photo.

(Madelaine has darkened her hair again.  I think she does it just to bug me.)

The cherry on top was spending Sunday morning and afternoon with friends at a crafting brunch.  There were mimosa and fritattas and decoupage.  What more can you ask for?

I also get a kick hearing them curse me under their breath for my crafting prowess.  I will post photos of my finished product, but they aren't done yet.

Here we are, with our mess...my hair is back because, well, crafting is hard work.

Monday, bloody Monday...

Why yes, I am a U2 fan, as well as an Irish American.

But that is not what this post is about.

It's Monday. After a long weekend of a busy Saturday at work and a Sunday filled with cooking, cleaning and company.

Today I feel hung-over and I only had a single glass of wine.

The good news is that I have plenty of leftovers so when I go home dinner will be waiting for me.

Very good news.

Looking forward to a couple of days off to work on "the project" and do some reading.

Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel

My last blog post was almost one year ago today.

And it was about writing. 

Last year I said that I loved to write but that maybe the dissertation had taken that love away from me.

Last year I was working on paring my dissertation down to an article.

This year, I am waiting to see if my article will be accepted for publication. It is being peer reviewed as we speak. 

This year I am working on a new project, that I am excited about, but hate that I am not spending as much time on it as it needs. 

Sadly, I am sometimes a "feet to the fire" kinda gal.  Despite the glib confession, it is something I don't necessarily like about myself.

In the meantime, I thought I would blog a bit. You could almost think of it as a warm up exercise.

I could never be a writer....

I love to write, I do.

But I love to do it when I want to do it.

Writing on demand has never been my forte.

When I was writing my dissertation, I would plan certain times that I would write…set aside certain day and set hours. It didn’t work. It would take me three hours to rework a paragraph and in the end I typically reverted to my original words and thought. It took a looming due date before I glued my rear to the chair and banged out the pages.

Before my dissertation, I loved to blog. I would come up with what I’d like to think were some pretty funny stories told in a pithy style. Again…the dissertation ruined that for me. It was forever before I was able or interested in blogging again. Or writing in general.

But…I am hoping maybe the bad taste has left?

This weekend I wrote a short synopsis for a chapter proposal, fleshed out three grant proposals and started seriously working on converting my dissertation to a paper*.

Ok…so it’s not pithy, but it is words on a page.

*Taking 200 pages and reducing it to 20 is not as easy as you might think. I was taking the actual file and deleting stuff and it just wasn’t working for me. So now I am highlighting the good stuff from my paper and lifting it. I know it sounds weird, but it feels less negative. Taking instead of deleting.

I need a sign.