Merle Haggard said it best, I think. My father quotes the song often, usually this time of year but anytime things start to look bleak. My past few days have been pretty icky in the work world and lack of sleep world. It's been getting me down. So I keep thinking that if I can make it through December, it will all be good. Today has been looking up, though. I purposely left work at 5:30 even though I hadn't finished all of the stuff I really should/could/would have done. It will wait til tomorrow. I informed Jeremy that today was Genie day and we would be going to the Mall to buy things that made me happy.

I bought a $5 book on pottery basics on sale. Then we trekked off to Williams Sonoma to buy a Cookie Blaster 2000 (which was overpriced like everything in that store but too neat to pass up). Then it was back to the bookstore to buy 1001 Cookie Recipes on clearance (that's less than $.02 per recipe). Our shopping spree ended at the music store going out of business where we bought only two blank tapes at $.99 each. It was bargain city for Sweetpea and me. We tried to find me a cute sweater in Dillard's but realized they only sell old lady or teen slut clothes there - neither of which really suit me well. Maybe we were on the wrong floor and stumbled into the Housewares and Fuck Me Shoes department. So we cut our losses and headed home.

The tapes are for a specific purpose. I found the audio tape my mother made of our family in Christmas of 1981. This tape, despite it's horrible quality, is like a precious jewel to me. It has my whole family on it opening our presents in our new house (the one my parents still live in today). Sweetpea said that were it not for my father's occasional comments he would say it was another family as everyone sounded completely different. My brother was 11 at the time and I was 4 and a half. I had the most horrific Southern accent north of Carolina on this tape. I believe at some point I drawled "Look what he bring me!" to my mother.

My mother, on the other hand, had this crystal clear voice. She had thyroid surgery in the late 80's and it paralyzed one vocal chord. So for the past 15 years she's sounded a little raspy. Were it not for this tape, I would have forgotten what she sounded like. Like I said, this tape is like gold. I'll have to find a way to get some sound clips into MP3 format.

Oh, and the icing on the cake tonight was our neighbors are throwing out their recliners. Our neighbors who have no pets and don't smoke and don't eat in bed and cut their grass with scissors and put moth balls in their flower beds. These chairs are in mint condition and are sitting on the curb waiting for us to retrieve them. I think it's time to go fetch them and do a little redecorating. Don't look down your nose at me. You haven't seen these chairs. They have not a tear, scratch, stain or piece of lint on them. We'll soon fix that! Muahahahahaa.

Yep, I think we're gonna make it through December. We'll be fine.