Christmas, New Year's Cards And The Unmarried, Unpetted, Unchilded

 Can't Follow the Rules and Making Up Words Too

I have been thinking about Christmas, Hanukkah, New Year's cards - because well it's that time of year and if I don't do it this week, it's probably not happening.

I love getting holiday cards. I love getting cards. I love sending cards (though if my birthday cards to you are on time, well, it's almost unheard of).

I have received a few cards already - Bev is always the first - usually right after Thanksgiving. Aunt Jan and my friend Julie have sent theirs too. I got my sister Shane's today! I love them - thank you! 

Where I struggle is that I love the updates and the pictures of my friends and family and the sweet notes and I want to return that - with updates and pictures. Um, pictures of what? I don't have a husband, pets or children. Me in a yoga pose? Me running? Me in a kayak? Me in my sailboat I don't sail yet? Me with a palm tree? Me and my never-going-to-be-finished condo?

Honestly, I have been sick or injured or post surgery practically all year so I haven't done a ton of these things - especially the past 6 months. I have just gotten completely out of shape and added pounds of flesh. So I'm not terribly excited about pictures of me anyway. 

So funny. Or not funny. You just have to have a sense of humor and realize things could be worse. Right?

I want to be able to tell my far-away friends I'm happy and healthy in my finished condo, with my sailboat, training for the half marathon in January that I signed up for but now can't run, out fishing and kayaking. 

I'm happy. There are things that would make me happier - but aren't there always? I'm happy with much in my life.

With B (truly lovely).

With friends (though not with Jess and Chris moving next week!)

I'm not so healthy and that's my biggest obstacle.

Vicious cycle: asthma, allergies, sinus infection, steroids, SIBO (think pain, giant bloated belly, missed work, malabsorption of nutrients so there's never any energy for cleaning, running, hockey, work), antibiotics for SIBO.

Working on it all though and hoping my vein surgery will help at least get me back to exercising. Right left vein surgery was first. Left leg is Dec. 28.

My condo may never be finished.

One day, I'll get my sail on.

I'm incredibly lucky to have friends who want to get together, friends who visit and family coming soon - they keep me busy and pushing off chores at my house so I can hang out with them. haha. 

I try to do too much - always - because life is short and the dust will be here tomorrow to clean up.

And with that, back to the holiday cards (no I'm not afraid to say Christmas cards or Merry Christmas so don't get all fired up out there - but mostly since mine are always late, I combine and say holiday to include New Year's, MLK Day, Festivus, Kwanzaa, whatever). I want to write everyone a nice note - doing too much or at least as much as everyone else. 
Here's what is more likely happen: if any get purchased and sent, they might just say Love, Kyle. 

Or this blog might be my greeting. So know you are loved and missed and wished a happy Christmas, Hanukkah, New Year's season.  

Here are some pics to catch you up and show you I don't whine ALL the time:
GOING AWAY PARTIES

At Glen and June's house

At Marek's

At Pelican Pier

At Karl's

Green and red solos - and Q!

ASTHMA, SURGERY, KNIFE-WIELDING DISHWASHER

Knife-wielding dishwasher - poor B

Christmas bicycle!

 Tour de Taverns bike pub crawl charity event aftermath

Happy night with friends

Sometimes Shawn Cassidy makes the day 

 Grandma Matlock traditional Christmas candy and my Wildcats

Happy yoga with friends

When You Hit A Wall, A Complete Hair Style Change Can Boost the Spirits

Happy Hair - Happy Moment

A new hair cut. A new color. Why not both?

It won't change your life, but it will definitely change the moment - and sometimes that's all you have control of. Ask any of my friends, they have all seen my cuts and colors - from University of Kentucky blue (GO CATS!) to purple to pink (breast cancer awareness fishing tournament) to the current pinkish/red.

Unhappy about the election? Can't change the outcome. All you can do now - happy or not about the result is to affect the policy changes by voicing your opinion AND by remembering we are all human beings living on this earth and we should be nice to each other regardless of race, creed, accent or hair color.

Can't get the credit cards down enough to refinance your home? Be patient and work hard for the future - and get a hair cut NOW.

Have to work on Thanksgiving? I don't this year, but some colleagues do and everyone at Publix does, and Oscar at Wake Up Marco, and my friend Dougie at Pelican Pier - and so do a lot of people in this country including those serving B, his parents and I at dinner at the Marriott this year (Thank you). Make the best of it and be nice to those who ARE working.

Don't get a long weekend like nearly everyone else you know? (I don't). Do it with a smile and wish everyone else you are working with a happy day!

Stuck in a relationship you want out of? (Not me I'm very very happy!)

Stuck in a house you can't finish? (That IS me, as you know).

Sick of Facebook and rising health care prices? Who isn't?

Missing family? Need a new car? Need a new job?

Best friends moving far far away? (Sniff Sniff)

OK, you can't change these things right this second. I can't change the things above that affect me right now.

But you can change your hair! I did!

This seems so simple and silly, I know. But I'm silly, for sure, and simple things can change my mood, my outlook in a minute - or 90 as it took for the new cut and and color.

I gave my friend and hairdresser Jess carte blanche after I said I was bored with it long and without any real style and was open to color - the pink was fading from the fishing tournament (that my team mate Barb put in a couple of days before the tourney in October).

Jess got a twinkle in her eye and I could almost see the light bulb above her head. She mixed the color and put it on without telling me her plan. She rinsed and washed, showed me a hint of reddish/pink and began to cut.

It turned out to be by far my favorite hair cut and color combo of my entire life. Well, possibly the Dorothy Hamill cut in the third grade is close - very close - to my favorite. But as an adult, THIS is it.

Thank you Jess!

It has breathed new life into a worn-down me.

Sending love and wishes of  joy, peace and kindness into the universe.

Catching Up

The Picture Wall and More

I have been struggling to write an update - busy with work and friends (yay for having those though work is a huge source of stress these days),; anxious about money (in a nutshell - the refi is a bust - we'll try again in January and hope for higher appraisal; I sued J for the loan he owes me but he has run away from his problems so I'll have to hunt him down for it; I guess I'm going to have to keep working a second job);  love and life - happy happy happy but freaking out a bit about possible changes and definite ones - best friends here are moving north - way north; my health (the never-ending fun of asthma and SIBO); my out-of-shapeness (see previous); the election - aren't we all stressed out about our country's future?  I wonder if doctors are handing out more anti-anxiety meds in this presidential year?

I kind of want to crawl under the covers for about a week or seven. But I won't - I can't. I'll just keep running (though I'm very bad at it these days - more of a run/walker - seriously?!). And I'll keep getting myself to yoga - beach and otherwise. And I'll keep smiling.

And now on with the blog! What am I writing about again? Oh yes, healing my home, my heart and my sailboats! 

*Home projects

I mostly finished the picture wall - except for some pictures I want to hang up high and can't reach. It makes me happy as I walk up and down my stairs. Jennie in Boston and my sister Heather in Tennessee were inspiring and encouraging. Good peeps and good memories on this wall. 

*Sailboats

I moved my Sunfish from Capt. David's home (thank you David and lovely family) onto an unused jet ski lift at my parents' house (thanks Mom and Dad) and put her in the water to see if she was seaworthy. She is mostly - there was some moisture in the cockpit after my test run. I bought some Flex Seal (Karl recommended) that I still need to spray on to waterproof her. I say I moved her but really it was Karl and Brendan. I supervised (I'm sure you suspected as much).

Still need to rig the Sunfish and actually learn to sail (haven't I been saying this for a while?). I did watch a great video on rigging a Sunfish https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zspatJufR5I - This teenage girl is amazing!

Brendan was taking pics in case I fell in! 

Just paddling my sailboat.

My still-not-sanded wooden sailboat remains at Riverside Club until all boats have to be moved from the parking lot for tourist season. Where I'll put her after that - I don't know - but I hope I can keep her close so I can actually work on her.

Looking futuristic - but really the peeling 1971 Enterprise Dinghy is under here!

*Life, my heart

B is out of town again and I miss him. 

Jess, Chris, Max, Finley, Paul and Annie are moving North - and soon! I'm really down about it. They're my Marco family.
Chris is selling the marina where I work in weekends - my fishing, beer drinking, Packers watching family. 

Marco family

Halloween

Fishing family

*Other good things

Happy little sea horse from Oscar

Visit from besty Bevie Lou

If you're going to run/walk a 5K because you can't breathe, good to have Bev there to tell you you might not die and to get you beer and make you smile.

Little Moves, Big Changes

In My Castle

I know I've said it before but I will say it again, sometimes the smallest projects make a huge difference. It can be as simple as adding a lamp or hanging a piece of art in a bathroom from my one and only Bermuda trip.

The other day a friend was supposed to drop by to catch up so I left my late afternoon and early evening open. She ended up canceling and I decided to tackle a project I have had the goods for for at least six months - relocating the TV/cable cords.

I took all my pictures off the chest under the TV and grabbed the long white coax cable and those awful but wonderful cable/nail hook things. You know them.

 I moved furniture, stood on step stools, crawled under my desk, cursed, hammered my thumb - but finally got it done. From this:

To this:

B came over and made the final disconnection and connection between the modem and the cable box. Yay! It's a crazy improvement.

As I cooked dinner, B started and completed another simple and small task that makes my condo feel more like a home.

Excellent right? (from Magnolia Market - "Fixer Upper"). And how awesome is B!

I may not have all my broken mugs to put on here - these are all special too. Tea anyone?

Artistic Interpretation

Making A House A Home - Or Trying Anyway

Inspired by my darling friend Jennie and motivated by a planned visit from lovelies Jeff and Allen, I have finally started the stair wall adornment process.

I have been wanting for two years to hang family, friends pictures and art along the stairs to my second floor to make my place feel homey. I have been talking about it, buying frames, keeping pictures sitting on the floor in the upstairs hallway to step around for about as long.

These Facebook posts from Jennie got me moving:

Jennie and friends wrote on Facebook how this stair project really made her new house feel like a home. I want that feeling. I want friends and family to feel welcome and comfortable here. B feels pretty comfy here - and home is coming together more and more - if super slowly.

A few months ago, I brought out smaller pictures and created a homey space in the living room.

Family, friends, a view from a Delaware trip, a sleeping 7-year-old Kyle

Jess came over to help with the stairwell yesterday. She asked: So have you mapped it out? Are we measuring? Making a plan?

I laughed hysterically. I'm sure Jennie had a plan? I'm not that prepared despite all the time I have had to think about this project. It's my art so I'll wing it and the final result will represent me appropriately. Judge away!

Neither Jess nor I had a lot of time, and I realized I need more frames and enlargements and reprints of some photos. I also need to find the pictures of me at 2 - fat and bald - that my Grandma Ken Ken had printed for me many years ago. (This is where actual planning is good?)

Here is what Jess and I accomplished in an hour:

Yes, that's only seven pieces - I know!

I think it's a good start. Now let's see if I can finish this project this week. I don't want to have to step around those frames on the stairs for weeks. Art takes time - no? Ha ha.

Wish me luck. Send frames.