Tale of a Shooting Star…

Well, I thought that I might finish the bottom half of Pretty Posies last night, but it turned into a wierd afternoon/evening. We had a power outage at work that, for various reasons I really can’t go into, caused everyone to go home. Unfortunately for me, Terry was in a meeting at another building nearly 30 minutes away. So, thankfully, I was able to hitch a ride with a friend back to his house and hang out until Terry was out of his meeting and able to pick me up. We ended up staying there for dinner, which was very nice of our friends. It was a nice little visit and I really appreciate them allowing me to impose on their daily life so unexpectedly.

Anyway, when we got home, I suddenly became very sleepy and actually went up to bed around 9 PM with nary a stitch to be seen. I slept in a couple of hours this morning, too, so I think I’m fighting off some bug; probably the one Terry still has that doesn’t want to go away. I would have worked from home today, but my laptop was still at work due to the power outage and not being able to go back in for it. Oh well!

Christmas is well and truly gone now for this year (actually, last year). We came home from work early on Friday to find my parents had just arrived and were unpacking their car. Good timing! Friday evening we called and ordered a pizza, then Terry and I ran out to the grocery store for the remaining provisions needed for the Saturday feast. By the time we got back, the pizza had already arrived, so we ate and then opened presents. Woohoo! More presents. 🙂

We were spoiled all over again, which was nice. The biggest gift, I think, was a set of sheets for our bed. That may not seem like a big deal, but we only have the set we bought when we bought the bed. When was that, a year or more ago? I don’t even remember anymore. I washed them on Sunday and put them on the bed. Terry can’t stand having the scent of fabric softener on the sheets because it aggravates his allergies, so they are a little scratchy right now, but they’ll be broken in soon enough.

I also got a sweater from my dad. This is an annual tradition. He goes out on his own and buys a sweater for each of his girls. He always picks such nice ones, too; it’s a treat to see them each year. My mother knitted me two cowls to wear if the weather happens to get cold again (it’s in the 50’s here today) and one has angora in it, I think. It’s just wonderfully soft and snuggly. I may end up pulling them up over my ears as a kind of headwrap if it ever gets truly cold this winter.

I won’t go on and on about what we got because I have other things to discuss. Saturday was our second attempt at a big meal. The turkey went into the oven at 11 AM and Terry went up for a nap. I decided to surprise him and got everything else prepped and ready to go into the oven when the turkey came out. I woke him when the little thermometer in the turkey popped up. I think it was nice for him to be able to come down and find everything ready to go into the oven. 🙂

Poor guy still has his cold. It moved down into his chest and is just lingering. He’s just been coughing so much. I feel badly for him, but, at the same time, I am determined not to get it myself. I’ve been going to sleep at 10 PM for the past few weeks, so I think it’s helping me to get enough sleep which, in turn, is keeping my immune system strong. At least, that’s what I think is happening.

But I digress. Back to the weekend news. My parents had to leave bright and early on Sunday because my mom forgot to pack her pills for that day by accident and wanted to get home by noon or 1 PM to be able to at least take the second dose and figure out how to get caught up on the morning ones she missed.

And then I sunk back into my depression. I’ve been on a roller coaster the past week, with Wednesday night’s relapse and then Sunday’s. Sunday, I think my mood sank due to the sudden exit of people from the house. We went from the excitement of having people on Friday night, then more people on Saturday, then no one but ourselves on Sunday. I did some exercise, which can help, according to my psychologist and I also stitched. I think the light from my Ott light might actually be helping my SAD, so I’ll have to keep up with the stitching this winter. That’s a good excuse, right? 😉 So I made some pretty good progress on Pretty Posies yesterday. I’ll have to take a picture of it when I finish the bottom half. That might even be tonight, if I’m good about it.

I hope you don’t mind the Pearl Jam reference, but I now have that song running through my head.

As if you couldn’t already tell from the silence on my blog, I’ve been in a real funk for several weeks. Part of it might be that I suffer from SAD, part of it might be adjusting to medication changes, or it could just be straight depression. Who knows? I’m starting to come out of it finally, but had a bad and sudden relapse Wednesday night which sent me back to the bottom of this long, winding spiral staircase that I seem to be climbing.

I do actually have a bit of stitching to show, but it’s at home and I’m at work, so I’ll post it later.

Christmas was strange this year. My dad got sick, so my parents couldn’t come down. That made for a change in plans, with an adjusted meal (ham, instead of cooking a whole turkey for just four of us) and just Terry’s dad and his new wife over for dinner. Unfortunately, the changes didn’t help my depression, which has really colored everything in my life with a gray haze.

As a result, we are trying to have Christmas dinner again tomorrow. I call it Christmas, Part 2. My parents should be here in a couple of hours and we’ll cook the turkey and go the whole nine yards (again) tomorrow. I know we’re nuts to do this, but Terry can’t eat turkey, so it would probably go into the trash otherwise. Besides, my parents have yet to meet Terry’s dad’s wife, so we had to get them back over to our house for a little bit. What better excuse than a big meal, right? I have a feeling I’ll be crashing on Sunday.

Other than that, I’ve been sleeping. A lot. I think that’s one of my symptoms of depression, as well. Lack of motivation, sleeping a lot, I even considered closing my ONS, but I know better than to make big decisions when I’m not feeling myself. Besides, I got two orders from new customers this week. That’s always good news.

On the work front, I started back on Wednesday. It’s been a quiet week here, as a lot of people took off the 3 days this week. We’ll be back up to full capacity on Monday, I suspect. I’m finally getting some more work in my new position. I’ve been pushing myself onto the guy whose work I’ll be sharing because a) I don’t have any more work to do in my old position right now and b) he’s so busy that if I wait for him to come to me, it’ll never happen. The busier I get, the happier I’ll be, though I suspect that’s still a while in the making.

I’ve been in a slump on the stitching side. Mostly because I’ve been feeling like hardanger lately, but the past two pieces I’ve done, I’ve accidentally cut threads in the outer buttonhole stitching when I went to cut the pieces out and I actually threw one of the pieces out, as a result. No fun. Of course, what I could do is to stitch them up but not cut them out. I’m not having a problem with cutting the hardanger sections out, just the border. I might just have to start something(s) new to get over the hump. We’ll see.

As I continue to fight to come up out of this depression, I would appreciate your positive thoughts and energy. 🙂