Grats, in no particular order...

1)Money is not Random...
No matter how good a year I have, it always comes back to the same anemic money situation from about mid November to about a week before Christmas. Seriously, if I am doing well at the time, I will end up needing car parts or getting a traffic ticket or something just as a sort of Karmic great equalizer effect. I often get sick around the same time also. Not sure what my particular psychic baggage is with this time of year. Anyway, the point of it all is that just because I can't always control the tides of fortune, doesn't mean I can't be aware of them as they roll in. I think I have a grasp on this finally (she says with about $80 left in a $150 budget for the week...and it's only Sunday...)

2) Sometimes you just have to stay up until the dawn...
Every year my friend Jesse throws a party the day after Thanksgiving, and there is a bonfire and turkey chili and scotch and at about midnight the guitars get plugged in and the drum set set up and we play and sing until the sun comes up. I was having a really run down, stressed out, crappy week and didn't think I'd make it all night this year. But I did. And it was worth it.

3) My kids kicked ass at their piano recital. Sarahcorbid was very possessed and elegant and Maggiecorbid seemed to forget that people were watching her and just poured her heart into it.

4) I am lazy and did not make it to the grocery store yet this weekend but magically remembered I had half a box of potato pancake mix in the pantry, so we feasted this morning in spite of it all.

5)The Clash,X,& Flaming Lips on webradio this morning (thecurrent.org) to make me lighthearted enough to persist against the rising tide of backed up housework.

6)We put up our Christmas tree yesterday - it's a 2 foot tall fake that we have placed on top of the TV cabinet where curious dogs cannot reach. Bonus points because it is easy to decorate and the perfect size for a short and therefore inexpensive strand of twinkly white lights. It only took one box of cherry flavored rainbow candy canes to cover it. It's Yuletide, Baby!

7)Just finished listening to "The Graveyard Book" in the car with Sarahcorbid - it's been a nice morning drive to school ritual for a couple of weeks. We'll totally do another audiobook after this one.

8)Gradually am adjusting to all the damned vitamins and bottles of V-8 I now have to ingest on a daily basis in order to keep my electrolytes in check. No longer think I'm in danger of imminent death. Still feel less than perfect, but we're progressing in this area.

9)Have figured out once and for all that my real creative calling in life is in editing, producing, promoting or enhacing other people's ideas. You never really think about that as a talent, but it's one that I have and have downplayed. And there's a vast untapped niche for low rent PR help, the economy being what it is...

10)My girls are doing chores and not loudly bitching about it. And I didn't even have to really bribe them - I'm just splitting up the day into 30 minute chore blocks alternated with 30 minute free time blocks. Somehow it seems less punitive that way...