Jen ordered Indian takeout for dinner. We brought it into the living room and put our plates down on a couple of tray tables. I reached out to pull the little table close to me and accidentally knocked the steak knife onto the floor where it……..
For 19 years I have worked at a company who gives a xmas gift to all staff members during the week before xmas. The gift is essentially xmas dinner. They offer a choice of turkey, ham, lasagna, or dessert pies. There are kosher and veggie versions available too. It’s a nice touch. Today is this year’s gift distribution day. It is also the basis for today’s haiku for you.
Holiday Gift Day.
No turkey for me this year.
I went with the ham.
A grocery store top five… well, pre-gastric bypass it would have been the three food groups: Chocolate, chips, and ice cream. Today? Post-gastric bypass? It’s a little different.
As the Disney movie song says, it’s a whole new world.
As weird, crazy, wacky days go… that was one.
My stomach was in and out of gastric bypass weirdness all day, including a legitimate yacking during dinner. Fun.
As mentioned in a prior post, I was also exhausted all day. I had six uninterrupted hours of sleep last night, but the way I felt through the day you’d think I was awake the whole night. Of course it’s 10:00pm now and I’m not tired at all. I’m just sitting up in bed watching Deep Space Nine ( my binge watch reached season five today) and wondering if I’ll be tired enough to sleep sometime soon.
Tomorrow is this week’s in-the-office day. The company is giving out the annual holiday gift. This year I passed on the turkey and went with the ham. When will we eat it? No clue. I offered it up to my sister and her husband for Xmas dinner but I think they are passing on it.
I have a doctor’s appointment on Thursday morning. It’s my 1.5 year check in with my gastric bypass surgeon. I’m compiling a list of questions. Today’s wacky-weirdness will lead to a few, I’m sure.
Until then… get some sleep, Trekkie-nerd-boy.
December… the holidays… winter… screw it all.
Not just xmas time,
Seasonal depression time.
Kiss my ass, winter.
I could mention family members, teachers, friends, co-workers, anyone. There have been many people who have positively impacted my life. No, there is only one answer. My father.
He taught me everything I know. How to work hard, how to put family first, how to sacrifice for the benefit of your kids. Hell, he basically taught me how to walk and talk and eat with utensils, and literally everything. There cannot be a more positive influence. As good as he’s been to me, I feel like I have been a terrible son to him. I feel like a failure in that regard. I need to do better.
He was married to my mother for over 55 years before she passed away. This has been such a hard year for him and I haven’t done nearly enough to help him through it. I am literally the worst son to the best father.
ADDENDUM: He’s going to Scotland for spring break!
As my father likes to say, S.S.D.D. Same shit, different day.
Okay, that’s both overly negative and overly dramatic, but the idea works. I am right where I thought I would be a year ago, because I am more or less in the same place I was a year ago. Same job, same staff, same schedule, same musical situation, same photography situation. More important than any of that, same immediate family situation. I wish the kids were home more often, but other than that we’re in the same boat as last year. My mother is gone, so the extended family isn’t quite what I was hoping for. I guess I was hoping that this year would produce a miracle cure for dementia, but we had pretty much the exact opposite result. Xmas is going to be painful
So what does this mean, really? I am happy, I am healthy, I love my wife and my step kids and I am happy with my family life. I still enjoy my job, especially when I work from home. Socially speaking, I have not moved on from the pandemic yet, but that wasn’t really part of the plan for this year. Maybe that’s something we can put on the agenda for 2024. 2023 has been a good year. Other than losing my mother and my aunt and uncle, I wouldn’t have changed a thing.
Here’s to more of the same in 2024. Minus the absent family members, of course. I can’t handle any more of that.
Inside the Red Head's Head 