Spare Some Change?

Let me try to remember what happened whilst writing.


Christmas eve I drove to Fremont to visit Libby and Craig. We talked about their beautiful TV.  I was blown away. When fish came on the screen, the TV turned into a real aquarium. When the Real Housewives of Atlanta came on, the TV turned into a real sanitarium. I still watch the very same TV that was brought over on the covered wagons by Art Linkletter, Mitch Miller and Lawrence Welk. I can finally say that my TV's "butt" is bigger than mine. These flat panel things are amazing.


I got an official tour of the house. I drank a cup of tea while we discussed suicide and the clarity of the TV screen. It will be two years this coming March 11th that Craig's son committed suicide. Matt left no note and was only 20 years old. As sad and horrific as suicide is, it was refreshing to hear Craig talk about his feelings on the subject. I was quite surprised. As a family, they've attended a few functions with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and this organization has been a huge help to them.


After leaving their house, I drove across town to Newark (by "the lake") and went for a Christmas Eve dinner at Debbie and Chris' house. They recently bought this new house. I had an official tour of this house too. The house has huge, tall ceilings so they had to kill a huge, tall tree in order to decorate the huge, tall space. This tree was the biggest indoor tree I've seen within my circle of friends (which is a tiny little circle). (Come to think of it -- most of my circle of friends didn't even bother with a tree this year.) I'm sure the huge, tall tree cost a month's wages which explains how they can afford to feed us all for Christmas Eve dinner. The food was delicious. I was invited last Christmas Eve, and since they mentioned cioppino for next year, I've marked the event on my calendar for next Christmas eve too. I took my mom home around 9 pm. The weather was pouring down rain. The freeway had tons of traffic - half of them drunk I'm sure. My mom held on for dear life because at her age, that's just what we do. When I reached for a breath-mint, she tried to offer me one of her breath-mints so I wouldn't be distracted. I wasn't distracted. I was trying to get a breath-mint.

Throughout this holiday season I only made one batch of eggnog fudge as opposed to the hundreds of batches I ate made last year. I gave away most of what I made this year. I ate one piece of fudge (or the equivalent thereof) and threw out the rest. I can no longer drink festive holiday coffees such as eggnog lattes or pumpkin whatevers. When I think of them, I nearly gag. Why did it take so long? I'm nearly immune to See's candies though please don't say anything to See's until I confirm.


I tell ya - I'm a changed woman. And change was one of the best gifts I received this year.