Happy December

Welcome to the First of December, a lovely month full of warmth, joy, and the milk of human kindness.

(Random Blackadder moment: "Where’s the milk of human kindness?" "It’s gone off, Baldric. It stinks.")

It seems like all of a sudden, I have nothing to do. At least, nothing to do that can’t be done in a few hours as opposed to sitting here typing all day and night. It’s sort of a relief, but I also feel a little bereft. I suppose I’ll just have to start editing. Maybe I’ll take a week off though… just to catch up on housework.

Thanksgiving was nice. We went to Alan’s Captain’s house, along with some other guys Alan works with. It was a nice shock when we got there. Of the four couples there, only the Captain and his wife have a kid. They’re about my age and their daughter is two. Sgt. Schulz and his wife are around 30 and they don’t kids and the new guy is 22, I think, and he and his wife don’t have kids either. I suppose you’d have to know military families to understand how welcome a change that is. It’s just that a lot of them join right out of high school and get married after knowing someone only a short time and have kids right away. One girl I know from Facebook is only 20 and pregnant for the second time. So four couples that have all been together for more than four years and for whom marriage actually made sense and who are all having children in a responsible way really made my holiday. LOL. Incidentally, a guy in Alan’s shop who was not there on Thanksgiving, Pelzel, is getting married this weekend to a girl he’s been dating all of six months. No wonder there are signs on the fence leading to post that advertise divorces for under $250.

In weather news, it’s finally gotten around to snowing here. Apparently, this is one of the latest years ever for the first snow fall. Some of it is even still hanging around. We’re not supposed to get anymore snow this week, but I’m glad we have a little. I was getting bored with all the brownness. And without snow on the ground, it’s easy to forget that it’s winter here. There are so many evergreens and the sun is still so strong, that it still seems like it should be warm out. One thing that is awesome here, it doesn’t feel as cold as it is. Back east, the cold just seems to seep into your bones. Here you have to told that it’s 5 degrees. LOL… That’s how cold it was on the top of Pike’s Peak when we went and I was walking around with my jacket open.

Alan and I are going to be going away for the weekend. The marriage retreat is this weekend instead of next and it’s in Estes Park, CO. We have to go to workshops on whatever in the morning, then have the afternoons free. Apparently it’s near the Stanley Hotel, where Stephen King wrote "The Shining." They even have ghost tours. Maybe I’ll see if they have any spaces available on one for Saturday. Alan would love it. He loves watching "Ghost Adventures" and always says he wants to go out and do that.

At the moment, I’m reading "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," and I’m really enjoying it. There is something about the writing style that resonates with me. It’s like he’s doing all these insane things and he’s really there and participating, but there’s a part of him that recognizes just how insane it all is. It reminds me a little of "On the Road," just in its stream of consciousness style, but unlike Sal Paradise, Thompson is really connected to the action. There was a greater feeling of detachment in "On the Road." And maybe Thompson appeals to me because no matter how insane I get, there’s always a part of me off to the side, telling me that what I was doing/saying/feeling was kind of nuts.

Anyway, if I’m going to be out and about this weekend. I’d best touch up my roots. LOL… People look at you funny when you have brown hair and blond roots. I’ve posted ten installments of my novel so far and I’ll be posting more later. Stupid OD claims I can’t post more than one entry per minute, but in practice I have to wait at least five before it’ll let me post another. Muy estupido.

~Liz