The Januarys Of Our Lives ~~

I keep this little desktop calendar going as my default.  It’s old as the hills, a la 1997, but I’m so used to it that I never changed to anything better. I do wish it would take birthdays and roll them over to the next year, though I’m not complaining.

We are all off and running into January now. I went back about 6 years to all the Januarys and never realized before that I always got hit with the flu and/or pneumonia every single January even though I’d gotten a flu shot each year and I’d gotten a pneumonia shot to last for years, too.  Ok, I guess the month is here again for 2011.  I’ll keep an eye out.

Last January of 2010, I was moving all the big stuff out of my prior abode, storing part of it in a giant storage unit, and then unloading Mom’s things and storing most of that, too.  When I think back to all that physical labor plus being so darn sick, I don’t even know how I lived through it.  Well, you do what you have to do, right?  You can collapse after.  Last January, our friend, Curtis was also getting new tests done and trying to recoup from his bout with vasculitis.  It was a tough month for him, too.

The very beginning of that month saw tons of snow and ice and I’d noted on the calendar about the hair-raising trips back and forth to the storage unit. Other than being so sick, I think it was lucky the cars and truck weren’t hit and totaled on the roads.  We ended up with a grand total of 36-38 inches of snow for December and January and everyone got their wish for a white Christmas.  After that, not so many got on the Band Wagon of Wishes for this Christmas.

Last January was also the month of Eric, the accountant. Remember him?  He’s the one I wrote about that made the major move on me when I went to see about the taxes being done.  I can still see him with those puppy dog eyes and hear him making that ungodly groaning noise when he trapped me in “the hug”.  Good lord, what a day that was.  Obviously I did not hire him.

Then, same month, my oldest friend, Lee, was put into the hospital and diagnosed with the same cancerous disease that Curtis had.  Well, Lee has been going through chemo since then and actually doing pretty well. Until now. She’s back in the hospital and has been for a whole week.  Yesterday, the Eve, was her birthday, and I took her her favorite Wonton Soup and bunches of birthday cards.  She is in an isolation room and you have to put on all this plastic garb and gloves before you can visit.  Everything is seeming a bit like a rewinding repeat of last year.  She is worried that she will never get out of the hospital, and to be frank, so am I.  (Update: She called me and now cannot even walk with help, and lesions are opening on her legs. I am having a very hard time not showing extreme worry when I am with her. I am very, very afraid now and even sorry to pass this along in my post.)  Here is my friend, Lee, on her balcony:

There is nothing I can do to change Lee’s situation no matter how I try, and if I don’t write about something else, I will crumble into tears, so, enough of the nightmare January stuff for now;  here’s a funny to at least raise the spirits for a moment.  Last January, at the end of the month, a friend of mine decided to throw a party.  He LOVED my dip and knew it was my own recipe of over 30 years.  Everyone said that dip is like a drug and you can’t stop eating it once you start.  He begged and he pleaded for that recipe and I finally caved and gave it to him, but with the stipulation that he never give it out to anyone else.  He agreed. Ha. People will do anything to get what they want. Here’s what happened at that party.  Lots of people, lots of food and everyone was having a wonderful time.  My friend was being the perfect host and visiting with every person there.  As I was mingling, I kept hearing comment after comment about how fabulous that dip was and I really did feel very proud.  Then I saw my friend with a larger group and I started walking over to them.  As I made it just to my friend’s back, I heard one of the guests in that group say, “Oh wow, this is the best damn dip I’ve ever had in my life!”  Without a pause, my friend pipes up with, “Soooo glad you like it, it’s my own recipe.”  Say what??  I was almost fuming and I tapped him on the back.  He turned, saw me, turned beet red and said, “Ohhhh s**t”.  I think he saw the fire spurting out of my eyes.  He had no choice, so he turned back around to his guests – thinking he could still save face and I wouldn’t hear everything he said, and in a half way whisper to them said, “Well, she helped me with it.”  I can only say that this was the first and last time I ever grabbed a guy by the rear end and pinched that cheek so hard he screamed like a girl. But it worked. He said to the group, “Ok, ok, it’s HER recipe.”  I thought he was actually going to cry. Tough.  He’s just lucky I didn’t grab somewhere else!

See? January can be fun!

Oh, and as a quick post script, I forgot to mention that both laptops that I won arrived and they are Perfecto!

XOXOXO