Long time no see!
Pain Spectrum – a mellow-ish yellow
BM/RD Index – 10
Fuzz meter – 7
Sorry! Pretty lame of me to be gone so long, I know. Not quite sure how the month excaped me. I have plenty of excuses, but that’s all they are – excuses. Not even gonna bore you with them.
The start of fall is always a big time for me. In many ways, the High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are not just symbolic: they really are the start of my new year. Last year, bad weather plus complications from my arm surgery meant that I was unable celebrate with my family, and I feel that my year sort of suffered for it. Sentimental claptrap, I’m sure, but I was not about to repeat that performance. So when my great aunt suggested that someone else host a New Year’s gathering this year, I volunteered. Which is how we ended up hosting a dinner for twenty of our relatives and friends on Sunday.
That “we” is very inclusive: my parents, my cousin, my brother, and his fiancée all contributed immensely to pulling this thing off. Everyone cooked. We spent a small fortune in catering. We kicked our friends out of their ground-floor apartment for the weekend and took over their rec room (and yes, having a multi-level roving party within a five story building was very, very cool). K cleaned for HOURS. I am still waiting for the catering company to pick all the shit up. And yeah, okay, even with no one letting me do ANYTHING (this means you, brat) I am still pretty tired. But I think it was worth it. Our family is of the nominally dysfunctional type – there are some members I’d kill for, and some that I just want to kill. Fortunately, I am vain and petty so the whole thing was sort of fun. I got to see relatives whom I don’t particularly like envious of my emotional (great husband!) and material (great apartment!) well being, yet I mostly just hung out with those whose company I actually enjoy. Sometimes it is good to be a bitch. Added bonus: we had one cousin in from Katmandu who I haven’t seen in years. Nonetheless, I hereby promise that I am never roping everyone into something like this again. From now on, we only do cocktail parties.
Ok, all catty kidding aside, I actually do have more to say: about the great sermon we heard from the rabbi on Friday, about K’s studies and his subsequent growing self-confidence, and about how the pain patches and the editing are going. It will have to wait for later posts, however. I am still too exhausted from Sunday: even writing this much has left me drained. I’m not down about it though, because I have a feeling that this year is going to be better than the last one. After all, I now see how much I have to be thankful for - a realization that is due in no small part to this blog and your responses. Here’s to everyone having a healthy and sweet New Year.
BM/RD Index – 10
Fuzz meter – 7
Sorry! Pretty lame of me to be gone so long, I know. Not quite sure how the month excaped me. I have plenty of excuses, but that’s all they are – excuses. Not even gonna bore you with them.
The start of fall is always a big time for me. In many ways, the High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are not just symbolic: they really are the start of my new year. Last year, bad weather plus complications from my arm surgery meant that I was unable celebrate with my family, and I feel that my year sort of suffered for it. Sentimental claptrap, I’m sure, but I was not about to repeat that performance. So when my great aunt suggested that someone else host a New Year’s gathering this year, I volunteered. Which is how we ended up hosting a dinner for twenty of our relatives and friends on Sunday.
That “we” is very inclusive: my parents, my cousin, my brother, and his fiancée all contributed immensely to pulling this thing off. Everyone cooked. We spent a small fortune in catering. We kicked our friends out of their ground-floor apartment for the weekend and took over their rec room (and yes, having a multi-level roving party within a five story building was very, very cool). K cleaned for HOURS. I am still waiting for the catering company to pick all the shit up. And yeah, okay, even with no one letting me do ANYTHING (this means you, brat) I am still pretty tired. But I think it was worth it. Our family is of the nominally dysfunctional type – there are some members I’d kill for, and some that I just want to kill. Fortunately, I am vain and petty so the whole thing was sort of fun. I got to see relatives whom I don’t particularly like envious of my emotional (great husband!) and material (great apartment!) well being, yet I mostly just hung out with those whose company I actually enjoy. Sometimes it is good to be a bitch. Added bonus: we had one cousin in from Katmandu who I haven’t seen in years. Nonetheless, I hereby promise that I am never roping everyone into something like this again. From now on, we only do cocktail parties.
Ok, all catty kidding aside, I actually do have more to say: about the great sermon we heard from the rabbi on Friday, about K’s studies and his subsequent growing self-confidence, and about how the pain patches and the editing are going. It will have to wait for later posts, however. I am still too exhausted from Sunday: even writing this much has left me drained. I’m not down about it though, because I have a feeling that this year is going to be better than the last one. After all, I now see how much I have to be thankful for - a realization that is due in no small part to this blog and your responses. Here’s to everyone having a healthy and sweet New Year.
posted by KS at 1:14 PM
3 Comments:
Hey, good to see you back online again. It's been a busy month for us all. I'm sure you're support team was glad they could help you do what was important to you. I'm likewise sure they (we) don't mind not doing it again. Happy New Year, chronic.
Kipper = small, indigestible smoked fish, inexplicably popular in English breakfasts
Kippur = atonement
Copy-editing aside, your faithful readers celebrate your return to posting, and hope the New Year is treating you well shofar.
And yet -- if the mishpocheh mash went so well, why declare you'll never attempt anything bigger than cocktails? Seems as if the collaborative effort, especially for a family event, is an excellent solution to the challenge of entertaining, and a great way for you to show you care about them, while they show they care about you. If anything, this sounds like a pattern for future successes.
Also, inquiring minds want to know: what cocktails were served?
We had K and the Brat's homemade punch: start with oranges, pineapple, cherries and other fruit muddled with sugar than soaked for a few hours in (lots of) cognac and maraschino liquor. The resulting syrup was then poured over ice and topped with champagne. It all went!
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