My Christmas

As usual, any time spent around my family is interesting. This year wasn't too bad. I didn't get to see as much of my dad as I would have liked because he was working a lot and spent enough time with my mom to drive me crazy but not to the point of being homicidal. I'd liked to have spent more time with my brothers, particularly Caleb since I barely saw him at all.
The highlights of my visit home:

GRANDMA TIME--I went to my Grandma's early Monday to help her with Christmas dinner (we celebrated a day late because my paramedic sister and my dad, who works at home for troubled youth, both had to work Christmas day), so I got to spend a lot of time with just the two of us. My Grandma is the sweetest woman in the whole world. Sometimes she'll drive you crazy because she won't stop trying to feed you, but she has a heart of gold. And spending that time with her, I realized that we're alike in a lot of ways. My Grandma is what you would call spunky and she has this "Don't tell me I can't" attitude. She didn't get a driver's license when she was young (not that uncommon for women at the time), but at 40 got tired of being dependent on others, took driving lessons and got her license. Now she's getting older, her joints are getting stiffer, and it's harder for her to do things, but she still does as much as she can, even if it takes her a little longer. In one corner of her apartment is a little stand with a couple small power tools on it that she uses to repair small pieces of furniture she finds at yard sales. I think that I have not fully appreciated my Grandma for the strong, resilient woman that she is before, but I'm working on changing that.

COOL SIGNIFICANT OTHERS--I met my brother Josh's girlfriend Lisa and my sister Bambi's boyfriend Rich for the first time, and I really liked them both. Lisa is the first girlfriend of Josh's that I've ever met, but she's really cute and seems like she fits Josh personality-wise. And Rich is the first boyfriend of my sister's that I've actually thought was good enough for her. He kind of balances her out well, and he seems to be a stable and good-natured guy.

NEW CAMERA--Normally, I would never list a gift as one of my holiday highlights, since we all know that's not what it's about. But anyone who knows me knows what a camera buff I am. Still, I am about the last one in my family to get a digital camera because I didn't want to spend a lot of money to get a simple point and shoot one that wouldn't be what I really wanted, and I didn't have the money to get what I really wanted. So this year I told my mom that the only thing I wanted was a digital camera, told exactly which one I wanted, and said she could get the whole family to go in on it, that I would make up the difference if they fell short (it's a $400 camera) and if I didn't get a single other thing I'd be happy. I have my camera, and I am happy.

EXTENDED FAMILY TIME--Ok, there's only so much of this I can handle, because when my aunts, uncles and cousins all get together, it's bound to be boisterous, and there's bound to be questions about my love life (and really, how am I supposed to explain to people I see every year or two that there's someone I'm crazy about, but it's complicated because we work together and he's 20-plus years older than me?). I guess maybe the age thing won't be such an issue though, because my favorite aunt, who is about 15 years older than me, is determined to fix me up with a friend of hers from college who lives near me. So maybe my family is getting less rigidly conservative as they age, I don't know. All in all, despite the thinly veiled "when are you ever going to get married?" inquisitions, I had fun seeing everybody. Oh yeah, my best friend from high school was there too, since she's marrying my cousin in May. Which means I'll have to make another trip home to see my family in May...

License to Parent

Really, one should be required.
Last night, one of my co-workers had a Christmas party for all of our other co-workers and the volunteers we work with. This lady who used to work at the museum, but before I started working there, came to the party, and brought along her nine-year-old daughter--to a party that everyone knew was going to involve a lot of drinking.
But that wasn't the worst of it. The woman proceeded to get completely smashed while her little girl sat in the corner, watching TV and looking miserable. We didn't realize quite how smashed she was getting, because she went from acting a little buzzed to barely being able to walk within a few minutes. Meanwhile, we notice the little girl heading through the kitchen to the living room looking like she's about to start crying. Her mom followed her to "check on her," but was back to drinking a minute later. And... the woman had driven there and was planning to drive home.
At this point I'd had too much to drink to drive myself, so I found the party's host, who'd only had a drink or two, and told him that she was going to need a ride home. So he and I took the girl and her mom home together. I sat in the back with the little girl, who had tears streaming down her face, and tried to talk to her about anything--school, whatever--to distract her. From her reaction, it was clear that she's seen mom tanked many times. When we got to the house, the little girl had to help her mom get her keys out of her purse, and I had to help her to the door. At the door, she stumbled on the step, falling into me and knocking me over so that I almost knocked the little girl completely over.
I cannot remember the last time I have been so furious and upset. I just wanted to hug that little girl and tell her everything would be ok, but I knew it probably wouldn't be. More than that, I wanted to leave the mom to stumble her own way into the house and to bed and take the little girl with me. I may be barely making ends meet, but I could take better care of her than that woman.

I survived... but barely

This post is a couple days delayed, mainly because of the fact that since Friday it's been pretty uncomfortable to sit for more than a couple minutes at most. Today I can make it about 10 minutes before I have to get up and walk around--a little longer, even, if I'm sitting on a cushy couch.

I got a steroid injection in both hips Friday morning. The one I got in the left hip wasn't too bad because apparently the pain there was more superficial, so the injection wasn't as involved. The one on the right side, however, was another story.

I think I had steeled myself up for the whole process pretty well by imagining it to be as bad as I possibly could, so anything less was a relief. The injection itself was, as expected, very painful, even a little more so than the previous ones I've had. But I gritted my teeth, I scrunched up my face and I got through it, all with only a tear or two slipping past the barrier of my eyelids.

Problem is, that was the easy part. If you've never had a steroid injection before, it works like this--you get the shot to help with some kind of joint/muscle pain, but for a couple days afterward, before it starts relieving the pain, wherever you get the shot hurts a hell of a lot more. And this time, the after-the-shot pain was far worse than with any of the other shots I've had.

I got the shot first thing in the morning, then went into work. Normally, I might have just taken the day off, but my doctor's office is near where I work, which is 45 minutes from where I live. Since I had to make the drive up anyway, and since I doubted I'd feel like driving back right after I got the shot, I figured I'd go in. But as the day progressed I was in more and more pain. By the time lunch rolled around, from the back of my knee to the middle of my back felt like one big muscle knot.

I went to lunch with a friend to celebrate my new job, and the whole time I couldn't sit still because it hurt so much (standing and walking aren't too bad; sitting sends a shooting pain from the back of my hip down to my calf). He kept asking me why I didn't just go home, and I said because I didn't want to make the drive (driving is the only thing worse than sitting), and I was hoping it would let up by the end of the day. Eventually I guess I just looked like I was in so much pain that he offered to drive me home, which I finally relented to. I'm glad I did, because as I lay in bed that evening in a codeine-induced fog, the only thing I could think was I don't know how I would have made it home otherwise.

Anyway, this post has gotten much longer than I intended (which of course means my leg is going numb from sitting), so I'll wrap it up. I'm now back to about where I was before the shot and hopefully it will kick in and I'll start feeling a lot better over the next couple of days. I have to go back to the pain clinic in six weeks, and if I'm still having problems, I'll have to get another injection--so please cross your fingers that's not the case!!!

Merry Christmas to me!

I have a new job!!!
Ok, I have to admit, I'll be kind of sad to leave my old job, because I really do enjoy it, but I'm trying to get out of debt, and I really can't do that making what I make now.
So as of the first of January, I will be a working writing copy and doing some design for a marketing consulting firm. Besides the pay raise, I'm very excited because I think the company and the position are both a good fit for me. It's a small company, and it seems like everyone gets along really well. Plus I think it will be a really good environment for me to learn more about marketing strategy. When I left journalism, I was really looking to go into public relations. But my job now has ended up being a combination of public relations and marketing, and I've found I really enjoy the marketing aspect and would like to learn more.
Yay! Ok, gotta call/email a bunch of people and share the good news!

Dear Santa,

My mommy says I've been mostly good this year, so here's my list:
Bones
Treats
Bones
Treats
Thanks Santa! Hope you liked the kisses I gave you!
Love, Alex

They like me, they really like me!

So I must be doing something better with my cover letter now than I did when I last went job-hunting and it took six months to get my first interview and a year to get a job. I think it's because I made it very short and sweet. Plus I think the new types of experiences that I'm getting at my current job, which are reflected on my resume, are helping too.
I really just seriously started sending out resumes about a month ago, and I've had two interviews (both of which went really well) in the past couple weeks, and a call about another one a couple days ago.
Who knows--I might make it to the "middle income" classification yet!