When Left Alone

When left alone I don't dress up like Mother Ginger and join the ballet doing "The Nutcracker." Nope...you won't find me 'riding the skirt' with little bon-bon dancers emerging from it. No...that's Barbara Carson,Founder of Ballet Austin. FFP took the picture backstage last night. He recruits and organizes VIPS for the eleven regular performances of Ballet Austin's annual "The Nutcracker" performances. [More next year when the ballet is between Bass and the new Long Center and will perform in the smaller Paramount.]

FFP also had a reading to attend today for another charity (Badgerdog Publishing) he donates time to as a board member and newsletter writer. So I was left to my own devices most of the day. Not only to go about my errands and such alone (not all that unusual) but also to go to a party without FFP.

When I shop and do errands without FFP, I tend to take a little longer. Today I went to the ATM machine at our bank and I was going to put some more holiday cards in the mailbox next to it but they had already had the one pickup of the weekend. I decided to go across the street to The Menagerie (which is a locally-owned gift shop...owned by a friend of mine I might add). I had a couple of people on my list who didn't really need anything but people I might see and who might drop by with a gift for me. I wandered the shop for thirty minutes while husbands bought expensive jewelry for wives and people picked out wedding china that cost hundreds of dollars a place setting. I got a couple of ideas and when a sales person was suddenly free I asked a couple of questions, picked out some stuff and wandered off to Anderson Coffee Company for ten minutes while they wrapped the stuff. I got four things. I'm pretty sure I know who is getting what, but in any case, these are neat little presents and were not all that expensive. I thought I might shop some more. Maybe see what shops were at Twenty-Six Doors which is nearby. But that was about my shopping limit for one day.

I drove to the Lamar Post Office. At the drive-up boxes the 'stamped mail' box, due to be picked up soon, was so full I couldn't get my twenty-five or so cards in it. In fact, other people's mail threatened to fall out when I tried. I went inside and poked my cards through the slot.

Now, the question was...should I shop some more? No. I'd reached my limit. I went home and talked to FFP between his events. He wanted to buy a new sports coat for his Christmas present. (He is easy...he will buy himself something. I just have to nod and smile and listen to him call his favorite clothing store, Capra and Cavelli, and negotiate on something he wants.)

Now the big deal. Should I go alone to a friend's party? Stuart has a thing about decoration and his little house is a showplace of cool decorating ideas. At Christmas, he manages to cram in two trees and lots of decoration into the space and then invite friends in to partake of goodies. Should I go all alone however? FFP is so good at parties, remembering who everyone is and all. I finally went alone. I talked to a friend who is fighting cancer and ate from the buffet and admired the decorations. Someone told me that the way we had added our room on in the back had inspired them to do something similar. Sadly, I didn't remember them being in our house! I am lame. Finally, I left around eight.

When I got home, I had a couple of hours before FFP would be home. I looked at my 'to do' list. One item 'clean up fireplace' had been looming for over a week. We had some marble placed on the hearth to cover some chipped limestone. Since then we'd needed to clean up inside the unused fireplace. There was no significant fire residue. We hadn't had a fire in years and I'd cleaned that up. There was just dust and dirt and stuff. With my week long allergy attack I hadn't wanted to attack it. I changed my clothes, took out the fire grate, cleaned it off, wiped off the old andirons. Then I studied the situation and wondered if some gas logs might be the answer. I got a long match and gingerly lit the gas element. Works. Hmmm. Add to 'to do' list: shop for gas logs. That's the trouble with 'to do' lists. They grow at the bottom while you check things off at the top.

Then I decided to wrap some presents. I'd gotten a few toys for my dad to pass out to kids, a book for my dad, a small gift for my mother-in-law, some silly things for a friend. FFP had gotten audio tapes for his dad (who is nearly blind and listens to tapes several hours a day). I copped out with recycled gift bags where possible, but I actually put paper around a few things. Dad hasn't mentioned gifts for these kids he knows yet, but I'm prepared if he does. Wrapping presents is a ritual that makes you feel like it's a holiday, too, right? Also on my 'to do' list: 'christmas decor.' I need to go out to the storage room and dig around and find something to make the house look like Christmas for when my parental units come over.

But FFP came home. So much for being left to my own devices. I sat down to read and watch TV.