Three-and-Thirty: The Cash-In

I want to check in with you right now because I specifically want to note how good I'm feeling. It's not that many things have changed day-to-day, it's that I go through times of greater or lesser frustration and satisfaction with what I have, and usually this blog catches me in those low ebb moments.

But honestly I'm on something of a several-day high. After a few busy weeks at work heading into the Holiday season, I'm in the midst of my vacation -- actually technically this is the first day of vacation, since it was just Thanksgiving weekend previously.

The week was perhaps a little "off" given it's Mel's first week after finishing her job, so she's been sleeping later and then hanging out on the couch. I realize I didn't mention it at the time but man did they run her ragged on the way out the door, including an entire weekend spent working 10-hour days. I think she said she ended up working 80 hours in one week. It wasn't just her, it's that the whole project is being run on an accelerated timeline and frankly the further it went the more it seemed untenable. But she's out now.

Anyway, the "Offness" resulted in some late nights because Mel's sleep schedule was off. I actually managed okay. I'm sleeping good most nights right now, and for a while we changed it up by sleeping in the spare bedroom. This lifestyle made possible by Work From Home.

On Friday we went grocery shopping to get everything we needed for the weekend, which was a lot since we had agreed the previous weekend (at Nonna's) to host some people for a pseudo-thanksgiving. I was going to make the carrots and turnip, and we were also doing brussels sprouts with onions and bacon, and had planned on some potatoes, and of course a homemade pumpkin cream cheese pie for dessert. Saturday we spent cleaning as much as possible and making room for us to make this pie. We ended up being a little late to Dad's for his birthday, which was convenient as I had been asked to pick the guys up, but I had already asked that Brandon find his own way the weekend before and this made that beneficial. Eric was there, as he was taking some time off from work for wellness, a move we all applauded, after sort of bottoming out recently. He thinks he might never drink again, I say take it one day at a time.

It was a nice night, except that the Jays lost their wild card bid, as Brandon had the updates on his phone. The evening wound down with dad nodding off on the couch. He's been working in Brampton lately, and I think he's a little fed up about it. They're also going to California after Christmas, which I know Deb has really been looking forward to being able to do.

Sunday, I power-cleaned and Mel and I completed an important task for the day. Though the place will never been 100% ship shape it looked really good by the time people started arriving. Mama H helped with the dishes, Unc helped me chop carrots, everyone seemed to have a good time. Poor Nonna had a black eye from a fall earlier in the week. Otherwise it was a great day, very successful.

Yesterday was sort of a pajama day. I got up and did some writing, making a ton of progress in general these days. Mel wanted to move a shelf that we had said we would do forever ago but kind of forgot about. I didn't really want to do *anything* chorelike after the busy weekend. I thought maybe that disappointed Mel, but she seemed to understand. Then I suggested maybe going for a walk in the bright autumn sun and for a bit she seemed into it but preferred instead to go nap, as is her right. That was her turn to feel bad but I assured her it was okay, we are having our days off any way we see fit. Wednesday we have plans to go to the Falls. (Nonna, when we saw her last week, asked if we were going and suggested she could come along, which was very cute and hard to say no to. She didn't press the issue this past weekend so we're just going to quietly go without her so that we don't have to spend the whole time at the casino. Another time, I think/hope.) Having finished everything of the Walking Dead on Netflix, we cleared out our PVR of TLC shows... I don't know what else to watch when the time comes!

Today I think we'll move the shelf, and also I'll probably shower and put on proper pants.

Like I said, I'm happy. This is already the exact staycation I wanted. I know Mel had really hoped to contrive a way to get to one of the Fairmont properties but there ended up being reasons we couldn't that extended far beyond simple cashflow or my reluctance to plan. We did, however, resolve to take a Mexican getaway in January, which will be our long-delayed honeymoon.

Things are just going right, right now. But now, having let Mel snooze probably well past what she wanted, I am going to go wake her up and see if she wants to get started on our day.

Ciao and keep on rockin'

-Scotto