All right, dangit, let's blog!

When last we met, I was in a very unhappy place.  Since then, I've been diagnosed with major depression (un-yay), started seeing an awesome therapist (major yay!), and started taking some meds that don't make me happy, but rather balance me out.  Which is more important, pills that make you happy aren't really fixing the problem, just messing with your internal chemistry.  I'm still not perfect, but I am getting better.

I'm also writing this on my third dose of cold medicine for the day, so if I seem a little weird, it's because of that.  Bleck, this cold, I think my nose has leaked out about four gallons of snot today.  At least that headache is finally gone.  Oy.

Anyway, back to things.  My grandparents on my dad's side have made their way to Omaha, which is good, I like having them here. My grandma is weak and has been having a few issues, but for the most part, she's still rocking life at 93.  I hope when I'm 93, I have her sass.  Grandpa on the other hand, is pretty healthy (though he managed to lose a bunch of weight since I saw him last, what the what?), but he's been having some memory issues, and the move kind of threw off his groove.  My first visit to see them kind of freaked me out, since he thought I was his niece.  But they put him on some different meds, and once he settled into the new place, he seems to be back to normal.  Still a bit addled, but he'll be 88 on Friday, not everyone can be as with it as Grandma.  

Let's see, in other news I've been working out with Adam and his brother Jacob.  I need to run more, I've been pretty good about running a mile at least once a week, but it's starting to get cold, and I'll run when it's cool, but not cold.  The weight lifting has also been an adventure.  Compared to what Adam and Jacob can lift, I barely lift anything, but they say I'll get there.  Eventually I'll be able to lift more than just the 45 pound bar.  After tonight's workout, my arms feel pretty noodly, but Adam says that it's good to hit the breaking point.

On Monday, Cecily and I decorated the place for Christmas.  My mom had bought a little Christmas tree for my grandparents' apartment, but on further reflection she thought it might get in their way, so she gave it to us instead.  It is just the right size for our living room (and conveniently fits in my trunk).  Eric helped me get a tree stand for it, and after a trip to Target for ornaments and an extra strand of lights, Cecily and I decorated our new friend Sir Albert.  He looks awesomely festive in red and silver.

Tuesday was also adventure filled in its own way.  Cecily left with her parents for Germany in the afternoon, and I went out that evening to get my hair cut.  Raven did an awesome job as she always does.  Seriously, I'm so glad I found her.  Then I picked up my brother Jack and we went over to movie night at Kaleb's house.  We watched the Dark Knight Rises, which I wasn't sure how I would like.  It was very long, but I have to say I really enjoyed it.  There were lots of nerdy tie-ins for me and pretty much any other fan of the animated Batman series, plus all these random actors that made quick appearances.  I loved Anne Hathaway as Catwoman, and Tom Hardy was really cool as Bane, even if the voice was a bit goofy at times.  And it all came full-circle in the plot quite nicely.  Kudos, Mr. Nolan, it was a great series. Jack was also pleased that they finally backed away from the spaz fight sequence so you could actually see the fight sequence for once instead of a bunch of moving limbs.

Afterwards, I brought Jack back to the house because he didn't actually know where we lived, but when I went to go down the street in front of my house, I was blocked by two police vehicles and a considerable length of crime scene.  After a little trouble, I managed to get to our parking spot in the back, showed Jack around for a minute, and then ran out front to speak with the cop parked near the house.  The middle of the street had been blocked off because there had been a shooting, as the nice policeman told me.  I probably should've been more freaked out by it, but really I wasn't, and Jack put it in great perspective saying that whoever had done the shooting had probably shot at the person he was looking for and left, and I was clearly not the target, so nothing really to worry about.  He still did the noble brother thing and offered to stay with me, or let me stay over with him if I was worried, but I wasn't all that worried.  It was nice of him all the same, but we were both tired, so I took it home, and then went home myself.

Wednesday was Dad's birthday, we still feed him and we still need him, now that he's 64.  Jack and I went over to the 'rents house and then we all went out to Dad's favorite Mexican restaurant where all the food is spicy.  Seriously.  All of it.  It is good food, though, and my dad was happy because they hadn't been able to get in there for a while, but no trouble that night.  I was pretty stuffed up in the sinuses, so I didn't mind a little spicy food, but I was feeling pretty crappy by the time I headed home, despite the enormous pile of sopapillas we eventually nommed.  Also my parents took the whole shooting on our street thing better than I thought they would.  After a little bit, I headed home, went to the store, checked in with Adam, took a smoking hot shower to try and clear my head that was all stuffed up and throbbing with pressure, and went to bed.

To no avail, I woke up a crap load last night, and I went into work still feeling gross and horrible, so I did an hour's worth of work before the whole team insisted I go home.  I made a quick stop to the CVS first though for cold medicine and more tissues, and the impulse buy of Vogue magazine.  Anne Hathaway was on the cover, looking ravishing, I caved.  After that, I went back to the house, made tea, took my meds, put on my jammies, and lounged for most of the day.  At about 11, I had a major craving for toast, so I tried out our toaster oven that's been sitting under the work table since we moved in.  It's a pretty awesome toaster oven, lots of settings, but not too difficult to figure out.  After four pieces of toast and several cups of tea (I've had way too many today), my headache subsided and my icky gross feeling mostly went away.  I'm still pretty stuffed up, but I don't feel nearly as awful.  It was a pretty good day to stay indoors, when I finally looked outside in the afternoon it was windy and rainy and cold, and I decided to stay in my jammies for at least another hour.  But I managed to get out and lift tonight, read for Sherlock, and worked on thank you notes.

Still so much to do.  Grandpa's birthday this weekend, chili making, book club, and I really really really need to start Christmas shopping.  It's also eventually going to get really cold and wintry, so I hope this sinus junk goes away sooner than later.  On the whole, however, I think I'm getting better.  Now that it's December and we're in the home stretch of 2012, I can't say whether it was either a good or bad year, but I can say it certainly has been an eventful year.  No wonder I feel so tired some times.  Oh, well.  Bring on the Christmas carols!