School party night

All but a few of the girls were gone as of last night but the dorms do not officially close until noon today. One of the science teachers was loading up one of the school vehicles for the evening ride to JFK Airport as soon as the holiday banquet was done. Good news is the dining hall is open through lunch today. Then faculty/staff holiday party at the "Head's House" which is a puzzle to me since she and her family now live in an apartment above the infirmary and her new big house is under construction...all I care about is that if we do have it at the new house, it is heated! But after the party tonight, no food service until January 7. I will have to figure out where food comes from for a couple of weeks. Tomorrow I have lunch plans with my former co-worker, co-walker and my former co-worker, now subsistence farmer and then our office party at our boss' on campus house so I have a reprieve for a day of food foraging.

I woke up to the best email this a.m. A former PCV co-worker, now Texas resident who I saw for the first time in 30 years during the last twelve months, found a present I gave her when she was going through things at her house...a calendar from1978 -it had a notation from January of the last time she saw me in Ecuador. Wow. I love that kind of stuff. I love it when memories of me come at people out of nowhere. Makes me smile, I hope it made her smile. My history with other people is what I am all about.

Last night we had the holiday ride at school. Holiday pageant on horseback. I walked over to the barn with one of our prospective students and her dad and stayed to watch. Must say it was a unique take on the normal Christmas time pageant I might have seen in the past. After the ride, I headed to Big Y to buy some items for Christmas. Including egg nog for my son and I - it has history with us. My refrigerator is always empty, so I told my mother I would stock up on some items since her refrigerator is always full. I also picked up two snow globes as "party favors" for my lunch tomorrow and now that I say that, I better wrap my secret santa and hostess gift tonight for tomorrow night.

Last night I skipped Vespers and instead went for a good walk between work and the ride. It really was beautiful up on the ridge by the observatory with all the snow and the sun going down. It is a very good thing that old man winter throws me some visual prompts that keep me going when the cold tries to overwhelm me. (Why do I always have to use spell check on the word "overwhelm"???)

Just heard that the police are going to be out in force today to ticket people who have not cleaned the snow and ice off the top of their cars...it is against the law in CT under the "failure to secure your load" requirement. I guess I better check "my load" before I pull out of the parking lot.

Good cosmic guidance for this week and today, respectively. Of course - for me - the first one is easier to "buy" than the second.

"The coming months will be a favorable time to work hard on improving your number one relationship: you know, the one between you and yourself. So I hope you'll have a lot of long, deep, sympathetic conversations with yourself in 2008, even as you cut way back on the scattered, careless, unloving conversations. To get your pep talks off to a hot start, go to a mirror that makes you look your very best and unleash a hail of wild praise and outrageous compliments toward the gorgeous genius gazing back at you."

"December 19, 2007 -- The advice you get from a friend may not be the advice you were hoping for but there is no doubting it is good advice, so listen carefully to what they tell you, then act without delay. It's okay to learn from your own mistakes but it's much smarter to learn from other people's."

Taking it a bit easier this a.m. than the last few. I do need to find my "comfortable, but festive" outfit for tonight per the email from the head's assistant. I think my christmas tree lights necklace and my candy cane earrings are crying out to me.

Keep your fingers crossed that I do not have any "lampshade on the head" moments at the party tonight when my gorgeous genius approach to life comes over me!!!