This month felt like it was never going to end. I mean come on January… 31 days seems excessive. Lets speed along to spring time, shall we? I have never particularly been a fan of January. It’s cold. We all look so pale and sickly. Holiday vacation is over but summer vacation still seems so far away. Sales prices are marked back up to their regularly scheduled prices. And most of my favorite produce, with the exception of grapefruits, are out of season. And it’s cold. Did I mention yet that it is cold? This January, like most months of my life was a roller coaster of emotions but we made it through and here is a quick recap of some of the highs and lows:
1. I traveled down to Florida to grab a quick sun tan, eat my weight in papayas, and pick up my sister and her kids and drive them back to South Carolina. A short visit but one of many road trips I plan on taking in 2015. I learned that Sirius radio is definitely worth the monthly subscription, papaya trees don’t do so well if you bring one back home to SC, and that riding in the car for 8 hours with two kids under two years old will make you questions your sanity.
2. I pretended to watch the Superbowl and instead planned my upcoming Oscars party. Is is bad that up until this weekend Will and I couldn’t tell you who was playing in the Superbowl but we knew when the Academy Awards was airing, who was nominated for an Oscar, and who would potentially show up in a custom Christian Siriano gown? Yes I am turning my husband into my gay best friend.
3. We embraced our non-existent Asian roots by making homemade Pho noodle bowls, homemade pad Thai, and (my favorite) homemade Bimbimbap Korean rice bowl. Something about a big bowl of noddles or a big bowl of warm rice on these cold days always does the trick. And this cooking thing is not so bad after all. Maybe I will try my hand at some Mexican dishes next month.
4. Sewing clothes, sewing bags, and sewing cushions. I was kinda all over the place. I finished a few outfits for myself, made a diaper clutch for a friend’s baby shower, almost finished my messenger bag for Indiesew, and FINALLY completed the cushion for our living room bench. Now to get started on some colorful pillows to match!
5. I bit the bullet and hired a cleaning lady. She speaks no English but will be coming twice a month to do what we clearly don’t have time for or just don’t want to do ourselves. I felt bad about spending money on a cleaning lady but then Will reminds me that we are helping someone be employed and for that I am happy.
6. Not sure if they all feel very supportive towards the civil rights or if the third weekend in January just fits everyone’s schedule but Will’s side of the family gathered together once again for their annual family reunion on MLK Jr weekend. Such a fun time every year. You see, I grew up with only 2 American cousins that I saw only in the summers so I never knew what it was like to have a large but close extended family. Add that plus a weekend full of oysters, drinking, and lots of laughing and you can count me in.
7. And lastly, my uncle had a heart attack and survived. I should of found a better way to lead into that statement but I’ll just blurt it out instead. He had to have a stent put into an artery that was 100% occluded. Due to the magic of modern medicine and the quick response time from my uncle who noticed that something was wrong, my aunt who calle d 911 immediately, the EMS who arrived as fast as they could in a snow storm, and the quick transition to the OR …timing is what saved him. And my favorite uncle is still with us today. It really is a blessing. And a reminder tell the ones you love how you feel when you can because you never know what tomorrow holds.
