A Hodge Podge Post

I haven’t done a hodge podge post in a while (which is a good thing). But I’m doing one now!

1) The personal trainer at the office is going to kill me muscle by muscle. I’m so sore all the time because she thinks that we should be at EPIC LEVELS already and I’ve only attended three workout sessions in the past two weeks. But she’s very sweet and I’ve realized that if I completely ignore her efforts to get me to “be more intense” then all is well (or as well as it can be). One great thing about the workouts is that my office all gets along really well and half the fun is insulting everyone else while we’re all being put through our paces. Yesterday after 45 minutes I reached my limit and could not go any further. I collapsed onto the balance trainer I was using (pictured right), and just laid there, half on half off. I heard my co-worker burst out laughing a moment later and he asked, “Uh…what’s wrong with Jaynee?” Then later on during a group lunch we all enjoyed, he told the story of looking over at me and seeing me literally lying in a heap in the middle of the warehouse floor, clinging to the balance trainer like I was drowning. Can I just take a moment to say that I’ve been at this company for almost a year now, and I’m so glad I work here.

2) Our 20th annual White Elephant party is just 2 1/2 weeks away and we’re getting excited about it. Our menu is finalized (lots of gluten-free, vegetarian-friendly, keto-style things on there to appease our health nuts, and yet plenty of good hearty hors d’oeuvres for the folks who don’t care about that stuff). The good news is that the menu appears to be just as easy to prepare as our menu from last year (despite being almost completely different). And since it’s our 20th year hosting, we’ve got a couple surprises for our guests – both for their take-home gifts and a special award after the White Elephant game itself. It’s going to be a great night!

3) Speaking of Christmas – this weekend Denis and I are going to set up the entire INSIDE of the house. I’m excited about a couple things in particular. Last night we picked up a curio cabinet to put our White Elephant collection on permanent display. This will free up valuable space in our Christmas storage area, AND allow us to add to the collection throughout the year when we find things. The main bonus to having the curio cabinet is that it is that much less stuff that we have to unpack and pack every single Christmas season. The woman from whom we bought the cabinet was very sweet and when she heard about my white elephant collection, she had me follow her into another room where there was a large bin FULL of elephant knick knacks. “Take whatever you want,” she said. Apparently her mother had been a lover of all thing elephants and had them displayed all throughout her apartment. I found four white ones and thanked her profusely, telling her it would be my absolute pleasure to remember her mother by keeping some of her elephants in the display cabinet she once owned. But that’s not all – I’ve asked someone at work to build a wooden display structure for me! He’s an avid woodworker and I saw a picture on line and asked him if he could make it. He said yes, and that he’ll only charge me for the wood and supplies to put it together – SOLD! He plans to have it done for me by Thanksgiving weekend. Once I get it home I’ll figure out what I want to display in it. It needs to be something non-breakable in case the cat decides he wants to explore and knock things down.

4) The kids have been struggling through their annual “we don’t care about school grades” period. They have it EVERY year about 2/3rds of the way into each semester. It hit them hard this year though, resulting in a harsher punishment than usual this week. It must have worked though, because last night CootieBoy was all over his homework and made sure to show me everything he was working on, while CootieGirl told me about the tests she had this week and the progress she was making on studying for them. The third 6-week period of this semester starts on Monday and I’ve told them it’s their LAST CHANCE to make sure they finish the semester strong. They both could easily have straight As if they can get over this semiannual ennui and refocus their efforts.

5) In other news, CootieBoy has decided to take off a year from taekwondo, with his last class being the first week in January. Once reaching his three-year goal of obtaining a black belt, he decided that it was time to take a break. And I don’t blame him – three years is a long time for a young teenager. So part of the agreement is that this is definitely just a GAP YEAR and that in 2020 we’ll be signing him up to continue, with a new goal of reaching 2nd Dan by the time he graduates high school in 2022. During his gap year, to make sure he is still getting some exercise, he’ll be going to the gym with me a couple times a week. Admittedly, I have not been going much over the past month. CootieGirl, for all her talk about going, does not like the gym. But once CB is done with TKD we’ll be coming up with a schedule so that I go 2ce with CB and 2ce with CG each week.

And that’s your hodge podge post for the day. Prepared to be dazzled (or horrified, depending on your holiday decorating esthetic) in a few days with plenty of pictures of my Christmas house, all geared up and ready for my favorite holiday of the year!