Christmas Break

 

I gave myself a day off. To do whatever I wanted, when I wanted. I didn't post on this blog. I answered some emails. We took our walk as usual. That's my hubby strolling along on a street leading to South First where there is a Moonlight Tower. We walked about two and a half miles, part of it on a shopping street on South Congress we would usually avoid this time of year leading up to Christmas but especially now while trying to social distance.

I ate leftovers. And cheese and crackers. Breakfast was banana 'pancakes' (really banana and eggs cooked up like pancakes) and bacon. I had candy and cookies. A late snack of half a salami and cheese sandwich. And a cocktail. Manhattan on the rocks with High West Rendevous Rye. 

I put maybe three pieces in the jigsaw puzzle. I read papers and worked puzzles in them. We watched part of WW84. Meh. We watched a couple of episodes of "Bridgerton." It's no Downton Abbey or maybe it's just a different time. We watched an old Cary Grant movie called "The Holiday." It was amazing. Directed by George Cukor. With Katherine Hepburn. Cary and Katherine do some gymnastics. There is a New Year's Eve party if you need a holiday hook. (We watched on Criterion.) We watched some NYPD Blue.

I plan to be productive today. No really. I don't feel bad about missing a day of Holidailies because doing whatever I wanted felt good. For a while. I want to feel like I accomplished things at the end of today.

Progress

I feel like I should always have a picture with these entries. Since I'm not posting an entry of my black eye, I just added this picture with my husband in the lobby of the Fairmont where there are giant nutcrackers, apparently made from cake and macarons. Pushing the boundaries of gingerbread creations, I guess.

I was a little bit productive today. I tidied up and cleaned some surfaces that I was going to put decorations on. I got decorations out of storage but didn't do anything with them. Other than that, I've just eaten (lunch: tortilla with chicken, cheese, guac, and hot sauce and half a banana; dinner: soup and a grilled cheese sandwich). And read papers and watched TV. Oh, and I've checked out the progress of my black eye (it gets worse before better, right, although the swelling is gone).

And that's about it. And I'm going to go back to the TV and newspapers.

Oh...and I pulled out the leaf in the dining table and got out a jigsaw puzzle. Because it's a holiday tradition, damn it!

Addiction

How do you manage your addictions? If you don't have any, that's great. (Or maybe they are good ones like a healthy diet and exercise.) My big three are crosswords, coffee, and cocktails. In that order. I can go days without drinking and not miss it. Notwithstanding the custom glass at my neighborhood bar. I really miss the first cup of coffee (or two) if I can't get it, but the others, like the one I'm having now after lunch and at almost two in the afternoon are not so craved. (And since I don't use cream or sugar they are not as bad for me as they could be.) 

But I can't pass up a crossword grid easily. I get up in the morning, excited to make a cup of coffee and work the puzzle in the New York Times. Later in the day, I'm likely to give a whirl to 1-3 others in the other papers we get. Not to mention a Ken-Ken or Jumble or Suduku.  When I should be doing chores, I tell myself I'll just finish this puzzle, then I'll be productive.

I guess I'm addicted to Facebook, too, I'm always putting something on there and trying to start a conversation. (Sometimes it's a picture of my cocktail, crossword or coffee!) I like seeing my friends' activities and opinions. (Although some are frustrating for sure.) 

Sometimes when I feel I've been drinking too much I purposively don't have any alcohol for a couple of days. (My dad used to say that he would stop drinking for a few days to see if he would have the DTs. He was kidding, but he saw plenty of delirium tremors working for the VA for three decades.) 

Sometimes when the "I'm going to get around to reading this pile" of newspapers gets too high, I make myself go through them and not work any puzzles. (I will sometimes cut them out and save them, however! Maybe I'm a hoarder, too.)

I never go without at least one cup of coffee in the morning. But I often drink green tea or just water in the afternoon or evening. Or...cocktails. Or wine. Or beer. I didn't choose cocktails above just because of the alliteration. I drink lots of different things, but first and foremost on the list is my Manhattan on the rocks. (Rye Whiskey please.)

So, am I managing my addictions well? I guess. I probably have some others, too. Jeopardy and some other TV. Reading. (Although I don't find reading as meditative as crosswords. Something about the interaction of it and seeing the finish line.) Walking. (I feel like I have really accomplished something if we go for a walk. If I record it on Facebook with a few pictures, I feel even more accomplished. If we stop for a meal or coffee (!) or a snack, I might...work a crossword at the table!)

It's good to recognize your addictions, their purpose and how to deal with them, I suppose. Most addictions are for escape. If I was addicted to pain killers, I wonder if I could distract myself with the three C's. Probably not. Fortunately, I'm very averse to swallowing pills or taking any kind of drug. I have some low-dose phenylephrine and diphenhydramine that I take to relieve allergies. I almost never take anything else and I hate having to take those. (I take the phenylephrine to fly, too. Otherwise, my ears will not pop and its painful.) I get a flu shot once a year for the herd's sake. 

Promises and Plans

I like to think that I am one to keep my promises. Even those that I make to myself. I decided a few weeks ago that I should do Holidailies. And here I am on this blog. (Which hasn't been updated since the end of that last Holidailies.) I thought I might kick off writing a few days before the writing and posting to the portal began. But, no.

I have been suffering great swaths of procrastination. I will tell myself that I will get organized, do some writing, do some cleaning as soon as I (pick one)

• take a nap
• read and discard the pile of newspapers that's built up around my chair
• take a walk
• make some travel and social arrangements
• go out somewhere to eat or listen to music or visit a museum

I make lists. On scraps of paper. And neatly organized on my computer. But. I don't get to everything on them. The key things get done: banking, bill paying, organizing the calendar. Then it's back to the list above.

Fortunately, I have taken care of Christmas. I sent money to my close relatives in Colorado. Crass, but done. My husband and I decided that we would each get a little bedside lamp we saw at the MOMA design store when we were in New York. He wanted a sport coat and picked a perfect one on sale for Black Friday at his favorite store. We are each getting a paper calendar. He already got a three month up one that helps organize his column writing. I'll get a French page-a-day at the local independent bookstore. (As I tear the sheets off, I'll scribble 'to do' lists on the back!) I may get him a surprise. I may get one. Christmas, done and dusted. I have, in the past, bought gifts (actual wrapped and delivered things) for SO many people. Not any longer. Feels good.

Also, while procrastinating about a lot on many fronts, I have, fortunately maybe, organized three of four trips we will take in 2020 as far as planes and hotels. I still have to review all that, put the confirmations in folders and put all the details on the family calendar.

I'm better at getting things done when I make myself a specific promise. Like writing something here every day. And then there are deadlines. Like all the tax deadlines that are looming now that December 1 is here. Time really gets away from me!

The Nutcracker

Since we (especially FFP) have been involved with Ballet Austin for about twenty years we now have a tradition of seeing their production of "The Nutcracker" each year. It's very festive what with the party scene, the snow scene and the music that screams Christmas because it's on every other car and jewelry commercial (and, really, is delightful music). FFP saw many of the productions from the wings in his years as a VIP Mother Ginger wrangler.

The picture above is from 2005 and is Karen Kuykendall dressing up as a VIP Mother Ginger. (May this Austin Legend rest in peace.) New costumes were purchased a few years ago so the costume has changed. Tonight FFP will don the new costume and ride the skirt portion on stage, propelled by stagehands and with children dressed as bonbons lurking underneath. The bonbons will emerge, he will try to upstage them with his 'moves' (but their proud relatives in the audience will ignore him) and he will be wheeled off. He's done a turn on the skirt twice before (albeit with the old costume). During his VIP wrangling days, one didn't show up, pressing him into service when I wasn't there. One time he did it in a dress rehearsal for some reason. Anyway, I'll be there for his triumph tonight with some good friends. The ballet and the music and all the little kids in the production and in the audience in their Christmas outfits will make it seem like Christmas. Won't it? He is sitting on the other side of the office now watching people do moves on the skirt.

I Promise to Keep in Touch

Text of an actual postcard sent to us by a friend (RIP Al) twenty-eight years ago. When we did  things like sending picture postcards.

I last posted here in March (a SXSW film wrapup). And before that on January 1st of this year, 2013, which is now hurtling toward a close. But I've been thinking for a while about communicating more. Here in my blog and also directly with friends via the post office, the electronic message and yes, face to face.

In short I've decided to make Visible Woman more Verbose. Not just tweeting and commenting on facebook and posting pictures of Manhattans. (If you are not my facebook friend, I sometimes drink the cocktails named Manhattans and post photos of them. Yeah. Ho. Hum. But a surprising number of people are intrigued by it. There you go.) I've decided to blog old school. So old school that I'l call it an online journal (how quaint).  Instead of just hunting up a photo every day from Austin, I'll create a more organized and coherent communication.

I begin in earnest today trying for a daily post connected to this year's Holidailies (the 14th annual if you can believe it). That January 1 post was, in fact, the last of my efforts in 2012/2013 addition of this blog portal.

In this new stream of blogging I'm going to try to focus each entry on one or more of the following present tenses of verbs: Drinks, Eats, Sits, Walks, Remembers, Connects, Learns, Owns, Does, Draws, Watches, Listens, Believes, Plays and Opines. Other areas may be added. I considered including 'suffers,' for example. It sounds a bit too dramatic, however, in light of the real suffering in the rest of the world. And I'm often a bit reticent about my aches and pains and injuries.

In any case, peek in here in the next few weeks for more of me if you will. And don't be surprised if the (Verbose) Visible Woman does some "sitting, drinking, eating, drinking & drinking" in honor of my dear old friend Al. (See above.)

Where's this Conversation Going?

The photo was taken in July. Shorts weather. Blackmail shop window, I think on South Congress. But that's not where I'm going today.

I had brunch with four girlfriends.

The conversation began while we were waiting for our table. I said to one friend: "Is that a new muffler?" She had a pretty scarf on, but she asserted that she'd had it a long time. She said, "You know you have stuff and sometimes you don't take it out of the box...."

I mentioned that I had a muffler I bought in Germany in 1972. It always amazed me that I'd never lost it. Then I said that I still had a lap blanket I bought on that trip...a souvenir from the already over Olympics in Munich. Another friend said I should find out if it was worth anything. This segued into researching values on eBay and the Internet and how "Antiques Roadshow" folks seemed so naive about what they had.

One friend told the story of a friend's family who found, after the patriarch died, a book by Winston Churchill that was signed. Which transported her to other stories about that family including a show at the Paramount where they had front row seats. Which led me to say I preferred row T there. And caused her to say what her niece, the opera singer, said about the best seats in a hall. Which led another friend to say that she had seen a performance of a choir in Paris that she knew said niece had sometimes performed with. And she was surprised that she was, indeed, there. Which led to a description of poor accommodations on that trip. A room that smelled of smoke. And a discussion of smoking regulation and anecdotes about same.

And we hadn't even sat down. Sitting down we covered more ground. Banks, online banking, driving on ice and snow, finding old letters.

Outside, as we were leaving, we recounted all the houses and apartments one gal has lived in, all in the Austin area. None of us, not even she, could quickly summarize.

And so it goes. A conversational flow.

This is the penultimate day of Holidailies. It's been fun, I suppose but I think I will welcome 2013 with a little more silence online. Or not. At least I met this simple challenge: type something here every day. And the conversation sort of flowed at times....