Maintainers weekly chat September 12 - September 18

[clvquilts]

Today is errand day getting ready for our week long sailboat cruise of Long Island Sound in NY. We will be getting up very early tomorrow morning to ride with the tide through the East River in NYC. It's always an interesting trip seeing all the buildings and bridges, dodging the ferries, water taxis, and tug boats. The current is very strong and there are some big eddies that make it fun to steer the boat.

I'm also excited that I'm wearing my skinniest pair of jeans today. They're really dark indigo and look very stylish. And I was able to pick up the third pair of distance glasses that Walmart had to make me because the first prescription was wrong. It's so nice to be able to see properly again. This has been going on for two months. They made me wait two weeks each time saying that my eyes will adjust. The good news is they guarantee their glasses so it didn't cost me a dime to have a second eye examination and new glasses made.

I probably won't have much access to the internet on the boat unless we run the generator to power the laptop. So I'll check in next week.

[paperclippy]

Michele, I hope you feel better!

Saef, whether karma exists or not, I'd like to think that just doing something nice for someone else during this tough time might give your mood a boost. It's a very thoughtful gesture to send the album to the family. Do you have any information about how long you will have to live with your mom? Are they going to clean up your apartment and let you move back in, or are you giving it up and will need to find a new place?

[EZMONEY]

SAEF What an awesome gift for those people. I hope they appreciate it as much as you do!

There is so much I want to say to you in your posts from time to time, about the flooding, but I am afraid I may come off as "preachy" and I wouldn't want to offend you, so I will and give you

[saef]

EZ, you are a wonderful guy with a great heart -- and I would love to personally know a guy who walks a pair of golden retrievers and has a health-minded yoga-practicing wife -- but if I hear you tell me what some of my mother's neighbors have said, namely:

1) Everything happens for a reason.

2) One door closes and another door opens.

3) God only puts a heavy burden on shoulders He knows can carry them.

Then I will launch myself through my laptop screen & hit you with a stick of Peppermint Extra Sugarfree gum. (Which is the only weapon of choice I've got lying on my desk as I write this.)

(They mean well, they have the kindest hearts, they feed stray cats, but they don't sound like themselves when they talk like that. They don't sound like the loving, busy, immensely practical & caring women they are.)

You can say anything to me but one of those three phrases.

(Oh, and also, you can't say: "It is what it is." I've said before how much I hate that all-purpose phrase, which is actually meaningless, only people look so proud of themselves for having come up with it.)

Anything else, I'll listen to.

My therapist has given me some Therapy Speak about my resiliency, JayEll has offered some Buddhist thoughts, and I'm willing to hear out Christianity as well.

I'm trying to make a nest here, that I can live in for a while, and I will take any straw of philosophy or therapy or religion offered me.

[EZMONEY]

Why thank you SAEF

Well, since my wife is at a yoga workshop again tonight, Saturday and Sunday afternoon...and....since my golden retrievers are done with their walks for the day (ez when Reba can only go 1/4 a block right now due to her surgery) I will post to you...

under your conditions

However, I will make it a PM as I am not looking to have this turn into a religious debate....

not that I haven't tried here at 3FC before ...but that is for other threads

I promise to post a PM to you sometime tonight as I watch some football.

[saef]

EZ, thanks for your post and for your PM as well. I'm still reflecting on what you wrote.

In this small village where I grew up & where I am now living, there are many, many believers. This area is far more Christian (in the popular sense of the word) than the NY area where I'd been living for over the past decade. Today at the gym the side streets were jammed with the cars of churchgoers. I was thinking of you this crisp & golden morning while watching a pair of neighbors walk three Golden Retrievers and a chocolate lab.

[EZMONEY]

You are welcome SAEF...feel free to ask me here or PM me anything that concerns you in what I shared if you so desire.

The village you speak of sounds like a Thomas Kincade painting...I am jealous!

[neurodoc]

Well, I'm back, probably just in time.
I wasn't sure whether to start this post with "My oldest son is now a bar mitzvah (son of the commandment)" or to announce "2000 calories in 90 minutes (what I just ate)." Both are equally true, and definitely not unrelated to one another.

I've been largely absent from 3FC for the last 2 weeks, as the stresses of party planning and bar mitzvah preparation moved into last-minute high gear and every spare minute was spent talking with caterers, cross-checking rsvps against the seating arrangement, ordering balloon bouquets and attending rehearsals at the synagogue (among 100 other tasks). Whew. The big event was this past weekend, with the service itself on Saturday morning, and our party/reception the day after at a local Japanese restaurant (why Japanese you may well ask. Not exactly the typical venue for Jewish life cycle events. Indeed. But the son whose bar mitzvah this was has studied Japanese for 4 years, and is infatuated with Japanese food and culture). The whole family has been stressed and irritable for several weeks, culminating in a huge fight between said DS, my DH and I on Sunday morning, just 2 hours before the big party. Luckily, it blew over relatively quickly and didn't entirely spoil the occasion, but I've had insomnia and post-party stress ever since. Finally, today, after not packing enough food for lunch, having a long and challenging day at work and feeling sleep-deprived, let-down and HUNGRY, I walked through the door at dinnertime to find that DH had ordered pizza because he didn't want to cook and the kids had asked for it. Too much pizza was followed by too many chocolate-covered almonds.

I now have a stomach ache and am now completely disgusted with myself. I had actually been doing quite well with maintenance despite all the stress and drama (up about a pound compared to the end of August, but still well within goal range). Not after tonight though. Can't face weighing myself tomorrow, and I'm sure I'll be battling the salt-sugar-fat cravings for the next week. Ugh.

[BillBlueEyes]

Welcome back from your hiatus, Andrea, and congrats to you, your DH, and DS for surviving a bar mitzvah.

Since you've been gone, we've started a new weekly thread. Do join us over there so others can hear your story.

Maintainers weekly chat September 19 - September 25