Catching up on the weekend

Good day at work on Friday, followed by a good walk around campus in mild weather. Then home to watch NewsHour, Washington Week and NOW. NOW had a very interesting feature on a parcel of wilderness land in Idaho and its political fate being decided. Carole King was one of the opponents of the pending legislation. NOW is a very interesting show and I have missed my Friday line up of late so it was a nice way to end the holiday week on my NewsHour, WW and NOW line up.

Saturday I did a quick stop at the parents. They had more relatives due in at some time this weekend and I wanted to make sure the house was back in order after all the company left. I did a quick cleaning sweep of the bathrooms and the kitchen. Asked about taking the tree down, but I guess that will be next weekend.

I did finish another book on Saturday morning. My Antonia by Willa Cather - our January book club book. I picked it up Thursday night and finished it Saturday a.m. It was a great book! I can't wait for book club. When I came back from the parents' I began to wander. I left my house about 1 p.m. and got home at 4 p.m. As I walked I talked to sisters #4 and 5. #5 said we missed something in NYC when we were there. In addition to the confetti deal, Times Square had a "shredding" area where you could bring bad news from 2007 and shred it. It is probably good I did not know about that...I could have become mesmerized by that process. Not that I have a lot of bad news for 2007 but watching others go through that process. Sister #4 was cleaning house getting ready for her house renovation project. I asked her if she needed help packing up stuff before the kitchen guy showed up, but she was still fighting with paper goods - "should I throw away my swimming class lesson plans from 1983?" I knew if she was still at that level of de-cluttering, she was not at the dish and pan packing stage yet.

I also got a call from a cousin and she is having a memorial mass for her sister who passed away 15 years ago so I will head to New Haven for that this a.m. The weather is supposed to be mild during the day today so I hope to get a walk in when I get home and stop by the grocery store before the snow starts tonight. I do want to stop in at work tomorrow, but it may be a bit later in the day than I had earlier planned based on having to shovel out first. I also hope to read another book before work starts up for real - Unafraid of the Dark by Rosemary L. Bray.

I watched the first quarter of the Patriots-Giants game, then listened to the rest of the first half on the radio. Last thing I knew was Giants were up and it did not look like either team was going to be pulling any starters. Not happy with the results this a.m. but I am glad nobody got hurt. UCONN did not fare very well in North Carolina. 24 unanswered points by Wake Forest in the second half. I am glad I was wandering around enjoying the balmy day rather than watching that game. I watched a bit of the UCONN women's basketball game against U of Hartford coached by one of UCONN's former stars. It did not look good for U of H.

I also called a family friend to say Happy New Year while I was on my walk. I love talking to her and we talked about her trip to the Women's NCAA Final Four in Tampa in 2008 - she and some of her college classmates make the trip every year. Her daughter is the AD at our town high school and her late husband was a big sports advocate in our town so we always have lots to talk about from education, to politics, to sports, to smart growth for our small town.

Hard to believe 2008 is 48 hours away! I love the new year's process of mentally setting a new - or improved - course for my life. Not that there is usually any major leaps, but as long as I keep spiraling up. Seems like forever since this time in 2005 when I was working my way from North Carolina to Connecticut. On my wandering yesterday, I walked to Barnes & Noble to read a bunch of magazines that feature "cosmic guidance" for the year ahead. Seems like "home" is a theme. The setting where I live and bringing people into that setting...that is a good theme in my mind but never one I have ever pulled off at any point of my life...

Went to church after my walk yesterday, today in New Haven, 5 p.m. on New Year's Eve, and 9 a.m. on New Year's Day. Good thing for me to have this hour each day of peace and reflection at this time of year. I can sometimes accomplish the same thing when I get into my reading jags like I did this week, but the setting helps deepen the experience sometimes.

Here is to a great lead up to the new year.