Sunday, December 23, 2007

T'was the day before the night before Christmas


I haven't been here in awhile!

These particular holidays, far more so than the other 26 I've had have been completely brutal. Between the finger, and then a knee tear when a little kid did a kamikaze run/hug at my lower half and my knees went one way and the rest of me went the other, and then a nasty cold when I haven't been sick all year, and the millions and millions (well, hundreds) of dollars spent on stupid crap like contributions to the week-long junk food orgy at work and semi-mandated Christmas shirts and thank you notes for the presents I get from the kids and the teachers, and little token gifts I give to all my students at Second Job, and the no sleeping because you're up glitter painting the branches of a styrofoam tree for the winterNOTCHRISTMAS program and at 3 am you felt like it was a good idea to download every version of "O Holy Night" you could find on the Internet and compare and contrast Clay Aiken to Reba McEntire to Andrea Bocelli while you are polishing off a bag of mint truffles because you realized you hadn't eaten anything other than Deb's Delightful Divinity Dip and a handful of graham crackers at lunch that day because you were in charge of fitting 96 second graders for reindeer antlers in the afternoon and you wonder if this Godforsaken season of joy is ever going to come to a merciful end, and, and, and...

And honestly, in the midst of all that, about a month ago now, I forgot one day to take my meds, and then the next day I forgot that I had forgotten, and my schedule got so massively out of whack that my brain chemicals have spent the last three weeks doing the Chicken Dance instead of regulating my crazy. I thought it wouldn't be a big deal at first, and that maybe I could just stop them entirely, but reading Dooce's wonderful entry last week right as I was starting to feel my composure and my ability to deal with stuff start to crack reminded me I should probably be taking them, especially during times like these.

So I'm going to spend the next few days getting back into some semblance of a routine, and I'm going to flush out the chocolate and the salt and the bathtub of soda as soon as Christmas dinners are up (because at my family, our new Christmas dinner since my grandmother got sick consists of Ro-Tel and Ro-Tel related appetizers...fresh food is thereby banished for at least a couple of days) and I'm going to heal my knee and take my medicine and hopefully stop feeling like I am about to explode out of my body and take out a small village with the power of my preservative-fueled rage and depression.

How was that for a Christmas card for all of you? At least I didn't dress up the cats and photograph them in front of the fireplace.

Happy holidays to you all, have safe travel, and a wonderful Christmas. Love you guys.

5 comments:

Nory Roth said...

WHOA! Your week prior to Christmas break sounds eerily similar to mine! Except that here, we had about two inches of ice, and I lost three nights' sleep due to a power outage, and I just got my phone back yesterday! (The phone company called the NIGHT before they were supposed to come out to "look at" my line and informed me that someone HAD to be in the house to allow them access to my phone. Strange, the problem was, the line was LAYING IN MY YARD FOOL!!! So, bless my mother's eternal soul, she baby-sat my house while I went to work. Imagine how delighted my co-workers would have been if I had called off the day before vacation! Well, things are settling nicely, and getting much calmer since all of my power sources have been restored. Many thanks to you for your EXCELLENT suggestion of Airborne -- been taking it EVERY day since Thanksgiving with nary a sniffle! Merry Christmas, and Happy Healthy New Year to you! Take a much needed and greatly deserved break.

Shauna said...

hope you enjoy your break erin... what a year eh. and thanks for bloggin' on, dial Q for Quality!

have a happy new year and all the best to you.

Erin said...

"My brain chemicals were doing the Chicken Dance" is the most apt phrasing I have ever heard of that particular phenomenon. I'm glad I wasn't drinking at that particular second, because I'd have a LOT of explaining to do to my poor laptop! ;)

Amanda said...

Merry Christmas Erin! I hope that after the madness of christmas is over that you can finally unwind a little and take a well earned rest! Take care of yourself. :)

Lori G. said...

My lord, what a crazy month you've had with work, work, work. I'm glad you're getting some time to detox and relax. My cousin is teaching her first year and she is now starting a Teacher's Christmas Box collection. She's already gotten eight of them.

Take care of your knee, your mind, your body and yourself. We'll wait for the Valentine Day's photo with the kitties. ;-)