It's been a while since I've blogged. I'm not 100% sure why. Maybe I don't have anything to talk about. Maybe I have so much that I've just needed to sort it out in my head. Maybe I've just been busy. This is a season filled with holidays, family, friends, thankfulness, and cheer.
Facebook: I haven't been on FB much in the last few months. Life is much nicer without everyone else's drama. We each have enough going on in our own lives not to worry about some one else's. I used to like FB and tell people that it was a good opportunity to pray for people you know, and to spread good memes and positive thoughts. There's a lot of garbage on there. It's nice to step away from all of that for a while. I have missed everyone's daily things they are thankful for in November. I've missed not seeing the pictures of people's decorated Christmas trees. I don't think I've missed much else. There's always someone fighting on there. Somebody blocked so and so. Drama. Drama.
Thanksgiving: For Thanksgiving I went to my Granny's house. I'm glad that we decided last minute to do that. I love going out to my Granny's. We had laughs, chats, and more food than we could eat. I missed not seeing Chelsea and Danielle on Thanksgiving. This is the first year I've not had either of them. Desi and I decided that we needed to find Mom's Thanksgiving table runner. The Thanksgiving runner...that makes me smile. Mom loved Thanksgiving and Christmas. She over decorated each year. It was her "thing". :) One year she made a table runner for thanksgiving. Every person that came to Thanksgiving at Mom's had to wrote on the runner. We had to write what we were thankful for, our name, and the year. I looked for the runner in the boxes with Mom's place mats and chargers, nothing. I looked in the box with the Thanksgiving China. I found the silverware we used to use, but not the runner. I saw a box that said "Darla, Desi, Danielle - open at Christmas together". It was my handwriting. I didn't remember this box or writing that on there. I had to peek. I cut through all the tape. When I opened the box, I was on the phone with Desi. Mom's gold Christmas chargers were stacked neatly in the center of the box. Beside them there was a zip-lock bag with a light brown material in it. On the bag was written "Thanksgiving table runner". I wept softly. I wasn't in the mood to be thankful. Mom would have been disappointed because there is always SOMETHING to be thankful for. All of that, and who forgot to take the runner to Thanksgiving? *sigh* Meh. Maybe wasn't supposed to be there this year. It has been in that box almost 3 years now. It'll go back in there until next year.
I did my last (for a while) photography shoot Saturday. I'm thankful for the break, but also sad. I really love capturing people. I really love it. I haven't had a break from it in almost 5 years. It's probably going to be weird to not have any shoots scheduled and no editing to do. Free time in the evening is not something I've had in a very long time.
My mom would have been disappointed that I waited until the week of Christmas to put up my tree...again this year. I'm so very thankful that Granny bought me a little tree last year. It made it not seem to be as big of a task. Without kids, it's seems a bit ridiculous to put up a big ole tree. I'm not like my mom. I don't have the time or the desire to put up 4-5 Christmas trees like she did. That was ridiculous in my opinion anyway. She was so good at Christmas. She would work with all the grandkids for a month preparing a Christmas play. Those were so much fun. Every year the tree in the sitting room was filled with memories. Each of us had several ornaments that we had to put on the tree ourselves...yes even as adults. That tree was the biggest one in the house. That tree was put up on The Saturday after Thanksgiving every year. Mom did all the other trees herself. The other ones were like specialty trees, I guess. My favorite one was the one in the upstairs hallway. It was a small tree, may be 3 foot. It was decorated in light pink, white and silver. The ornaments consisted of angels, balls, ribbons and bows. My mother would hand make all of the bows on all of the trees. I am not sure why that one was my favorite. I think maybe it looked soft and sweet, maybe that was because of the colors she used. I've never told anyone that I loved that tree. I sat the other day looking at my decorated tree and thought of two things: 1) I did it wrong all these years, and 2) I wish I had one of those angels from Mom's upstairs tree to hang on it. My tree is different this year. I picked out all of the memorable stuff. I hung memories on the tree. I'm missing some because I didn't get down the boxes from the attic. Mom's big tree in the sitting room had some amazing memories on it. I wish I knew where those ornaments were. I hope that box didn't go in the donation pile when we cleaned out her house. There were wedding ornaments, birth ornaments, first Christmas ornaments, kindergarten ones, hand made grandkid ones, ugly ones, crocheted ones, and so many more. We each had to hang the ornaments the represented our lives. I had to hang my 1977 one. I had one that was a one eyed reindeer that I made in kindergarten. Those are the two I can remember most. I have a few things on my tree that used to be on that tree. The Christmas before Mom died, she sat down and went through important Christmas stuff that she wanted us to take right then. I didn't feel like we should because Mom wasn't gone. She was very sick, but not gone yet. She insisted. I remember that she gave me Little Granny's hand crocheted ornaments. They are on my tree this year. Little Granny was my Gramp's grandmother. She was my great-great-grandmother. Many people don't get the opportunity to meet their great-great-grandparents. I think next year I will do it much differently. Next year My tree will be only memory ornaments. Mine of course wont be as extravagant as my mother's was. I think that comes with age. The older we get the more memories we collect. That's the way life works, right? :)
California: I recently went to California for the first time. I've always been neutral about California, not desire to go, but no reason not to. A couple months ago my boyfriend had asked if I had any shoots on the weekend December 11-13th. I did not. He told me to mark off those days and that he was taking me somewhere. Told me that I would need to be ready to leave work at 11am on the 11th which was a Friday. He said it was a surprise and never told me one detail or hint. I assumed we were going to Wimberly for the weekend since we had talked about that before. I never questioned him. Friday the 11th was kind of a tough day. It marked one month until surgery. I didn't tell anyone that it was on my mind. At 11am, he drove us to the airport. That kind of ruled out my Wimberly assumption. He handed me the boarding pass and told me that we were going to Dallas but that it was not our destination. We had a beer and some hot dogs at the airport at Earl Campbell's Sports Bar. I had eaten there before. The flight was short and uneventful. When we landed in Dallas, he handed me my boarding pass and asked where we were going. It said Los Angeles. That's odd. He told me that was not our final destination, and that we would be renting a car a driving to where we were going. Friday when we left he did tell me that the activity we would be doing on Friday night was something I've always wanted to do. *shrugs* We played a word game together on our flight there. Anyway, so we get to LA, and go to the rental car place. I stood back a little. He was very adamant with the rental guy about a car he had reserved. The guy fixed the problem, and we went out to a brand new Lincoln MKX. I super love these cars. I'm too cheap to ever own one, but they are really nice. I was impressed with the heated steering wheel. Uh yeah. Seriously. Anyway, we drove about 45 minutes. It was already dark, so didn't get to see any of the scenery. (Side note: We both really enjoy old buildings and their history) He pointed and said, "That's where we are going" as we pulled up at this super old building with a long line of people out side. The building was beautiful. Early 1900's. The architecture was incredible. I told him this. I don't always catch on immediately. He actually had to say, "I wonder who's playing". We were driving slowing and I read the marque "Dec11 Dwight Yoakam". This is my absolute all time favorite male vocalist, and I think he is super sexy. I think it's more of how mysterious he is, that's probably because he keeps his hat low and his head down. I enjoy watching him dance a lot, and his voice is absolutely awesome!! I was so excited reading that marque that I may have squealed. We parked a few blocks down and head to the line to get in. The building was so detailed and gorgeous. It was the Ventura Theater. Stunning architecture. We were in the balcony. We were at the rail, so we were able to see quite well. The show was incredible! He played new stuff, old stuff, and two songs from other artists. His voice is just awesome. I could listen to him all day. He danced, he played several guitars, and sang his little hiney off. He is a fantastic performer. I was wowed to say the least. After the show we drove about 15 minutes to a town called Santa Paula. The hotel was beyond anything I can describe. It was perfect. Built in the early 1900's, huge fireplace in the sitting area, enormous windows, warm deep colors every where. There aren't enough words to describe it. We stayed at Glen Tavern Inn. Google it.
Saturday morning we went to have breakfast at a local Mexican restaurant. I don't remember the name. Then we went to all of the little antique shops downtown. Then we drove around and saw a lot of orchards around that town. I had never seen an orchard before. I experienced lots of firsts during this trip. I think he prides himself on introducing me to new things. Early afternoon we headed to Ventura to see the beach and to drive on the coastal highway. I think it was Highway 1. We went to Ventura Beach and walked out on these huge rocks. We walked all the way to the end. We watched the waves crash over the rocks for a while, looked at the mountains, and just enjoyed the weather. It was so beautiful. We went back and walked the beach to the next long set of rocks. There were a lot of rocks on the beach. They looked out of place. They were like randomly placed river rocks of all colors. They were all flat rocks. We took one. We walked back to the car and drove to a nearby restaurant to have an early dinner and a couple of beers. They didn't have the beer he likes anywhere we went, so he tried lots of different beers. He ordered a buffalo burger. It was my first time to try one. I didn't really care for it. I had a shrimp taco. It was a cute little place. The waitress asked where we were from after hearing me talk (she was able to guess). We chatted with her for a while about Texas. She had been once...to Amarillo for a baseball game. We stayed there for a few hours and headed back to Santa Paula. We found a little bar near the hotel that was built in the early 1900s. We went there for a short while and then headed to our hotel.
Sunday we went and had breakfast because he likes to drink coffee. I don't like coffee at all. We ate and headed south. We drove through Ventura again. It is such a beautiful town with really cool beach houses, shops, and old buildings. We stopped to have some lunch in Malibu because, come on...we were there, so might as well. I sometimes like to do things just to say I did them. Now I can say that I've had lunch in Malibu. We went to V's Restaurant and Bar. The waitress asked if we'd like a Bloody Mary. Well, sure! I've never had one before. It was not my favorite. It had a lot of stuff floating in it...spices and such. We shared a salmon burger and fries. After that we went for a walk on the beach in Malibu. There were more of those flat rocks. We took one from Malibu Beach as well. We hung out there for a while just taking it all in. Then we headed to LA to the airport. We found a little sports bar where he could watch football while we waited for the plane. We didn't land in Austin until Sunday at 10 or 11pm. At all the little places we went to, we would look up the history on the building/business. We learned so many cool things while we were there. It was such a fabulous trip. I still can't believe that it happened.
I only have a few more weeks until surgery. We just changed insurances at work. Really inconvenient right now since I was already pre-approved for the surgery with the Human Insurance. I am going to have to rush to get all the info to the doctors and such. I already have one pre-prescription that has to picked up before the end of the year just in case the new insurance cant get the prescription part done in time. I was worried about having to pay two deductibles, but looks like it will only be one. Whew *wipes brow* I'm still not scared. Nervous, but not scared. I already have two nurses that will come by to change bandages. The hospital will show me and my family how to empty the drains before I leave the hospital. I already had all of my pre-operation appointments. I have my schedule of the people that will be staying with me for the first two weeks. I feel as prepared as I can be. Now, I just breathe and do this one day at a time. I have a lot of prepping to do at work, and a lot of things to teach other people to do while I'm gone. Just breathing. I have so many people that are willing to step up and help. I'm lucky to know each of them. I'm not sure how I will heal or how I will feel afterwards, but I'm beyond thankful for the support team that I have. People that don't give up. People that are willing to change bandages or whatever I need during the down time. People that have stopped their lives to help me function with some sort of dignity during this healing period. What an awesome gift that God has given me. I am blessed beyond measure.
That's all I've got for now. I hope any one reading this has a very Merry Christmas. Remember to be kind to people. The holidays are very hard for some people.
~Darla
No comments:
Post a Comment