Merry Christmas, everyone! Wishing you all the joy of the season from across the miles with glad tidings to you and yours this holiday season. May this Christmas season fill your home with warmth, light, and joy, and may the joy of the season extend into the new year. I hope your Christmas is full of love, joy, and all your favorite things!

🎄Merry Christmas! 🎄

True friends, close in heart, will never be far apart. 

❄️ Happy Holidays! ❄️

I had a plan for today. I was going to get up around 5:30 am, have breakfast, shower, get dressed and be out the door in time to be at the grocery store shortly after it opened. None of the grocery stores had everything on my list, so I planned to go to one grocery then go to a second one that had the rest of what I needed. Then, my plan was to go to a few stores that were in the same shopping center as the second grocery store. The plan was to come home and put up the groceries in my now working refrigerator. Then, I was going to finish my shopping in West Lebanon, NH. (Most major stores are either in Burlington or West Lebanon. I prefer West Lebanon because there is no sales tax in New Hampshire.) I have already put in orders at Petsmart and Target to just drive up and pick up. Then, I had a few things I am looking for at HomeGoods, one of my favorite stores. Im sure I’d have lunch down in West Lebanon before heading home and getting some rest.

But…as the saying goes “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” First off the bat, my refrigerator did not get fixed nor did I get a replacement yesterday. I called to get an update, but never got called back. So, now I have to wait until I can get in touch with someone to know what the hell is going on and to emphasize how imperative it is that I have a refrigerator today. So, I won’t be doing my shopping early and getting it out of the way before the crowds get too crazy.

This morning didn’t start out too well. I woke up at 3 am (no fault of Isabella’s) and could not go back to sleep. So I finally got up and made some tea. I waited until at least 4 am before feeding Isabella, who, surprisingly, seemed okay with that. With the way this morning is going, I’m afraid my plans are going to be even more derailed than I expected. 

Best laid plans…

Quick Update: They just finished installing my brand new refrigerator, and it looks great and is quickly cooling. Now, two hours later than I had planned, I’m going to start my shopping trip.

There’s not a lot to say this morning. 

Fingers Crossed 🤞 I have a working refrigerator when I get home from work today.

It’s my last day at work for 2023. Our holiday break starts next week. The holiday break is one of the best perks of working at a university. The museum (and campus) will be closed from December 22 to January 2. I won’t actually go back to work until January 5 because I’m taking some time off after the first of the year. All of my coworkers took time off this week, and since I wasn’t going anywhere for Christmas, I didn’t mind having the museum to myself for a few days.

Lastly, it’s the first day of winter. It feels like it, too, at least temperature wise. Right now, it’s 22 degrees. However, it doesn’t look like winter. With the rain and moderate temperatures earlier in the week, there’s very little snow on the ground. While it’s cold today (our high will only be 27 degrees), it’s going to be 42 degrees on Christmas Day. It feels like I’m in the movie White Christmas, which took place in Vermont where there was no snow. Unlike White Christmas, I don’t think we’ll get any snow at the last minute to make a picture perfect movie.

When I called about my refrigerator no longer cooling, I was told to unplug it, wait 15 minutes, and plug it back in that sometimes that works to reset the refrigerator, and it will begin cooling again. It did not work, so I called back and let my maintenance guy know. He called me back (albeit the next morning) to say he would remove my old refrigerator and put a new one in. Then, several hours later, he called back to say that the owner of my complex had overruled him and said they’d have an appliance repair person come in to look at it. Grrr! It’s even more aggravating (and thoroughly pissed me off) that the repair guy can’t come until Thursday. I stressed that I needed a working refrigerator by Friday. I explained, though I really shouldn’t need to, that I had people coming for Christmas and I had to have a refrigerator so I could stock it back with what I needed to cook for my guests. My maintenance guy, who is very nice and I like a lot, said he would make sure my landlord knew that I had to have a working refrigerator before the end of the day on Thursday. If it could not be easily fixed, then they would switch mine out for a working one. 

What I think they should do (or have already done) is to go ahead and switch it out for a working one and then have someone repair my old one. If I do not have a working refrigerator after the repair guy leaves, and there is any problem getting a replacement, I will call and talk to my landlord myself. I will abide by the decision to wait on a repair person, but I will have either my refrigerator working or a replacement refrigerator by the end of the day on Thursday. 

Sadly, I can’t be at my apartment when the repair person comes. I am the only person at the museum today and tomorrow as everyone else is taking time off for Christmas (I’ll be taking two days after New Year’s). I trust my maintenance guy to be at my apartment when the repair person comes. He said they would not be left in my apartment alone.

…it’s another. Why can’t things just go smoothly? Last night, I noticed that my refrigerator and freezer had quit cooling, instead it’s blowing warm air. Ugh! Several things spoiled and left a bad odor. I called my maintenance person this morning and left a message, but I am still waiting to hear back from him. I hope it can either be fixed simply and quickly or that I can get a replacement. 

I am hosting a Christmas lunch on Christmas Day, which is only a week away. I have the menu all planned:

• Roasted Chicken with Croutons
• Cornbread Dressing
• Collard Greens
• Corn Casserole
• Sautéed Green Beans with Garlic
• Cranberry Apple Jello Salad
• Coconut Custard Pie

How am I going to get this meal prepared without a refrigerator? I’m looking forward to having friends over for Christmas and getting to cook. I love cooking, and it will be nice to host my own little Christmas party since I am not going anywhere for Christmas this year.

If it’s not one thing, it’s another. *🤞fingers crossed 🤞* Nothing else will go wrong. (Famous last words…I know.)

Dreams can be such strange things. I often don’t remember mine, but last night, I had an interesting one. I dreamed about a guy I used to know in high school named Brandon. I can’t even remember his last name. The strange part is that I haven’t even thought about him in years. We were in the same class but never particularly close nor do I ever remember finding him attractive. He also wasn’t gay as far as I knew, but I also don’t remember him dating any girls in high school either. He wasn’t ugly and was “masculine” for a teenager (I’m pretty sure he’d been on the football team), but honestly, he just wasn’t that memorable (although, apparently he was in my subconscious?). I remember in the dream though that he had a kind of quirky smile, almost a smirk. He was a bit of a joker and class clown. That’s all I really remember about the guy.

Anyway, in the dream, I was planning a date with him. I was going to make him an Italian dinner. I asked him if he liked chicken piccata, and he said he didn’t know. He’d never had it. I explained what it is, and he was intrigued but said the only Italian chicken dish he’d ever had was chicken parmesan. So, I said, “In that case, I’ll make you a sampler of three different Italian chicken dishes: chicken parmesan, chicken piccata, and pollo al vino.” Normally, with all three of these dishes, I’d have usually preferred to make them with veal not chicken, so I’m not sure why chicken it was chicken in the dream. I also told him that I’d make risotto because I suspected he’d had pasta before but never risotto which I explained is a rice dish.

Then, I woke up before I could plan a salad, vegetables, or a dessert to round out the meal. It was around 2 am when I woke from this dream. I thought, this would make a good blog post, but if I waited until I woke in the morning, I’d have forgotten it. Plus, I needed to pee, so I got up with my phone and typed this out and check the progress of our snowfall before going back to sleep.

I wanted to check the snow because it had not started snowing when I went to bed last night. The rain we had all day yesterday was predicted to turn to snow sometimes after midnight. We were forecasted to get between 5-10 inches of snow overnight. The original forecast a day or so ago had said 9.45 inches but when I’d looked just before I went to bed, it said 5.15 inches. I checked as I was writing this, and the current prediction is 4.95 inches. I’m always intrigued by how specific (not necessarily accurate) the snowfall was in this weather app. Anyway, when I looked out, it was less than an inch of snow.

Then, I went back to sleep wondering how the meal would have actually gone, and what would have happened after the meal.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas
Everywhere you go
Take a look at the five and ten, it’s glistening once again
With candy canes and silver lanes that glow

…or so the song begins. I had a very easy going weekend. The main thing I did was bring my Christmas decorations up from the basement and set up my Christmas tree. Since I’m not going anywhere for Christmas, I decided to give my apartment a little cheer. Plus, I may have a friend come for lunch on Christmas, and she tends to really decorate, even her office is decorated. Mine is not a lot of decorations, and I probably won’t decorate too much. I hate having to take it all down, pack it back up, and store it away again, but I enjoy decorating for Christmas.

Overnight, we also got about 6 inches or so of snow, so everything is covered in white. While I don’t particularly relish driving to work, it does look beautiful outside. I love watching snow fall. For me, it’s very calming and quiet. I prefer not to have to go out in the snow, but needs must. I have some things that I need to do at work today, so “over the river and through the woods” I will go as I head to work today.

I woke up early as usual this morning, but I took today off. I usually take a vacation day on my birthday, but because I had to teach, I had to go into the museum yesterday. With that in mind, I decided to take a vacation day today. I rarely take vacation days, but I’m trying to do better so I don’t have weeks of time near the end of the fiscal year that I have to take or lose. Anyway, I plan to largely relax today, and I’ll likely go back to bed in a bit. I need more sleep, but I got up early to feed Isabella and make my own breakfast since I was also hungry.

Tonight, I have plans to go to dinner at one of my favorite restaurants with a close friend. For my birthday last night I celebrated with a prosciutto pizza from my favorite local pizza place, but my real celebratory birthday dinner will be tonight. I may even splurge and get dessert. 

I hope everyone has a great day and a wonderful weekend ahead.