gaerfindel

It's gotta be the stress.

Yesterday we held Thanksgiving at Mom's House.  Normally, this would be a happy time.  This year, however, the tension was so think you could cut it with a dull knife — or even a spoon! — and serve it up as Jello™.  Nene's kitcheon witchery gets all funkified when there are negative feelings floating around.  Thank Goddess we had C4 with us; his presence prolly prevented a poisoning!  As it was, the cranberry chutney was a little too tangy, and the turkey meat not quite as juicy as in past years.  (We brine our bird, so even the white meat comes out tender & juicy.  Yummage!)

To top it off, Mom decided to drive us all home as soon as the table was all cleaned up, and the dishes squaared away.  "Drive us all home" meant fitting five adults & one toddler into a 4.5-person sub-compact.  C4 sat on my lap, in the worst place a body can be: the middle back seat.  Ugh!  We [Nene & I] could have taken the train home, and Mom gone back & driven C4, Katydid, & Grandmere to our house.  But it would have been "a waste of time and gas" for her to do so.  *growl*

So now we, everyone not my Mom, are taking a Do-Nothing Day Off to decompress & chill out.  I needs must return on Saturday to the Hellhole of Stress to finish raking leaves.  Because that's what sons who give their mothers grandkids are for, don't ya know.  Hard labour.


OTOH Nene's giblet gravy is made of WIN!

UPDATE:  1714 EST – Sat, 28 Nov.  Back home from Mom's.  Pleasant enough.  She left me alone while I worked in the yard, and she left me alone to grade papers and pay bills.  For the first time ever, in my life, I used those 30 gallon lawn & leaf bags.  I'm actually impressed; they can hold quite a lot, if you make sure to compress the leaves regularly.  I still much prefer simply raking the leaves across the yard, despite the great length of time this takes.  I burn more calories that way. :-)

C4's downstairs waiting for Grandmère to finish watching her show so he can get back on the PS2.  The Kingdom Hearts series is his current addiction (again).  Nene is somewhere past the Gates of Horn and Ivory.  Datydid is sitting with Grandmère boobin' the tube.  All is as well as can be hoped.

Mistress was supposed to have picked up Gnome at c.1400.  She never came.  She called at 1720; she'd been unconscious under one of her cars she was repairing.  Best guess: Sugar coma.  She's diabetic (among other things...)  Said she'd call back from hospital when she knows more.

Still no word.

Her kids are fine; every one accounted for and staying with relatives.  Mostly their respective fathers.  Please send prayers, positive energy, etc. her way.

I'm sorry, love.  It's sometimes hard to hear the Truth of it when you say how much you love me.  Sometimes it sounds rote; as though "I love you" is just a phrase one says to one's SO.  I know it's not; that you really do love me.  No holds barred, all the way to the Moon & back again.

Y'know that old cliché?  "Absence makes the heart grow fonder"?  Well it's true.  I do miss you.  Yes, it's nice to have a quiet vacation from all the chaos that comes with a family.  What parent doesn't want that from time to time, eh?  That doesn't mean I love my family &mdash particularly you, Mizuki, my loving wife — any less.

But back to Mistress's comment.

I simply found it refreshing to hear "I love you for being you, Gaer" from someone else.  That's all.  Nothing more.

And y'know what?  In the immortal words of Fred Rogers:  "You're special, and I [love] you just for being you."

Mizuki's had a bad time, lately, fighting a deep depression.  She sees herself only as a "fat lump unworthy of anyone's love."  An image she projects with greater and greater skill; 'til it's almost become reality.  From my perspective, she's either sleeping, or she's on the computer blogging or playing games (or doing both) in order to, as she says, "Accomplish something.  If I can't do it in the real world, at least I can do it here."

I so rarely see her, my Nene; the warm & cuddlesome woman I fell in love with.  I miss her so.

Thus it came as some surprise to me when Mistress S. complimented me by saying, "Y'know that's the thing about you, Gaer — you're one of those rare people.  You have so many sides to you.".

Asked what she meant, she went on about the fact that I know when she's being serious or simply venting.  How I'm willing to be patient and listen.  There's the White Knight part of me, the gentleman, the husband, the father, the lover, et cetera.  All parts of a whole and all of them complimentary.  In short, I'm a Good Friend.

And it wrought me to my core.  I hadn't been told I was...treasured for so looong.

*weepy tears*

It's nice to be reminded.

Sweeny Todd.  The original Broadway cast.  I sing "Pretty Women while shaving.  Seriously!  Über props to Johny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, and Alan Rickman — and to Tim Burton for including Sondheim's music & lyrics — but no one equals Len Carou & Angela Landsbury.  No one.

Gacked from morilith:

Today, mithrigil is a year older & more awexome!

And since LJ doesn't allot enough space for it…

Music:  Overture to Der fliegende Holländer by Richard Wagner

Various Memes from Blogthings:

You Are ScooterBrainy and knowledgeable, you are the perfect sidekick.  You're always willing to lend a helping hand.  In any big event or party, you're the one who keeps things going.  "15 seconds to showtime!"  [It's true, it's true!  Oh, Dear Goddess, it's so, so true!]

The Muppet Personality Test

( Ah, but there's more! )

From Something Positive by R.K. Milholland:

Opportunities
Moments of Doubt

Jason, you fool.  As a father myself, I'm proud of you, man.  But you poor, poor fool...

So there's this love meme going around...

As has become usual, spent the day with the kidlets at Grandma's House; aka the Weekly Laundry Run.  Also got to spend time with my Bro, trying to jury rig a way to allow Mom to connect her cable box to her DVD/VCR (which we did) and figure a way to boost the wireless signal to her computer (which we didn't).  Due to the latter, no blogging or surfing yesterday.  Fail.

Lost him to juvenile bullshit.

*Glares directly at kittysroar*

..are acting spooty.

Katydid seems afraid of her bed.  This is understandable, since the POS is breaking down as the speed of rotting compost.  Thus 'tis easier for her to roll over and either fall off her bed or, worse yet, fall into the space between her bed & the Gnome's.  As with this morning. *sigh*

And they're whining.  Why, I can't figure, but I've lost all tolerance for it.  No yelling or screaming, this time, though.  Just "house arrest" — or more accurately, bedroom arrest.