Into the Light

Well now, that wasn’t so bad after all, was it? I came out from under the covers, where I had curled up in a little ball, moaning, on election day morning, to find that my internet provider, in its infinite wisdom, had decided to “upgrade” my service by making it unavailable for the entirety of the workday. I had to use my phone’s hot spot to do my job. Thank God for my senior unlimited data plan.

When my connection was restored, what to my wondering eyes did appear but a senate still blue and no wave, not this year!

Then, a few weeks later, a Thanksgiving miracle had me indulging in a little appetizer Champagne (first drinkie-wink in seven months!), wine with dinner, sweet potato/carrot puree made with an obscene amount of butter and some creme fraiche, plus some punkin’ pie and a few punkin’ mini-pies with graham cracker crust made in a muffin tin (had to do something with that leftover pie filling!) with a net weight gain of only 1.8 pounds (after some skillful maneuvering of the scale on the floor, to find the sweet spot that gave the most favorable reading.)

And today that same scale, unmaneuvered, reports I have lost the 40th pound. Plus my blood pressure has been in the blissful blue zone the last several times I checked.

Reaching even an interim weight loss goal just as the holidays swing into full gear is a double-edged sword of a mixed blessing. I’m pretty sure I’ll fit into each of the red dresses I’m planning to wear (one to the work celebration, first day I will have worked at the office in nearly 3 years) and the one I’ll wear to church (a red dress, in church, you Jezebel!) a week from tomorrow. And given my Thanksgiving track record, I’m pretty confident I won’t blow all the hard work and gain back more than a few pounds.

Because triple-demic or not, I’m feeling a sense of urgency about getting out there and living the rest of my life. By some astonishing act of divine intervention, the perfect companion for Angelic Daughter replied to a flyer I put up, and bonus, she could turn out to be the source of an ongoing pipeline of good companions coming along in the class behind her when her grad school program is over and she moves on to her professional life.

So in the words of an old Bing Crosby song featured in a film that has now probably been “cancelled’ for understandable reasons, “I’ve Got Plenty to Be Thankful For.”

I haven’t got a great big yacht
To sail from shore to shore
Still I’ve got plenty to be thankful for

I’ve got plenty to be thankful for
No private car, no caviar
No carpet on my floor
Still I’ve got plenty to be thankful for

I’ve got eyes to see with
Ears to hear with
Arms to hug with
Lips to kiss with
Someone to adore

How could anybody ask for more?
My needs are small, I buy ’em all
At the five and ten cent store
Oh, I’ve got plenty to be thankful for

Still missing that “someone to adore” part, but I’m ready to start working on that again. And I think that five and ten cent store is more like a ten and twenty dollar store, now. But still.

Next week, I’m easing up on myself a bit to enjoy that company party, take Angelic Daughter to see the holiday light show at the nearby Botanic Garden, wear that festive red dress to church (where the two of us get to read the text for the meaning of the fourth advent candle), go with Angelic Daughter downtown for our first holiday excursion in two years, and bake until my new cookie tins are bursting at the seams. Let’s just hope I can restrain myself enough so I won’t be splitting my seams as well.

Until then, I remain,

Your holly jolly, beginning to look a lot like Christmas, grateful, hopeful, and substantially shrunken (in a good way!)

Ridiculouswoman