Silence

I've been informed (and, of course, I realize) that I've been a bit silent as of late. Interestingly enough, many of my blogging buddies have been as well. Holiday planning, travel, stress - it all gets the best of us. To be honest, there hasn't been much stress here. Just not much...of anything. At all.

Routine: Get up ridiculously early to walk/strength-train/yoga myself back to a smaller, healthier Beth (4:30am - yup that's right). Shower/dress/yadayadayada, go to work. Work. Get home sometime between 5:30 and 7:00, depending on responsibilites for the day. Drink. Eat. Drink. Go to bed at grandma-early times, since 4:30 is freakin' painful. Barely get to sleep. Joe calls - forgets that 7 his time is 10 my time. Talk for 10 minutes. Sleep. Wake up to horrible interruption of REM 2-to-5 hours later when snuggly cats decide to play/fight/piss me off. Realize I have X number of hours/minutes/seconds left of precious sleep. Wake up.

Repeat forever.

It's not terrible - I really do appreciate that I'm not bugging Joe by (a) getting up at oh-dark-thirty and (b) having broccoli, crackers, and hummus for dinner. But there's not really anything blog-worthy, unless you like hearing about how the cats are acting lately. Because that's what it comes down to these days.

Except tonight. Where the Weather Gawds and Vacation Day Gawds aligned and All Was Good.

Because tonight, as I drove home in 33 degree temps and heavyish rain, I thanked my lucky stars that I booked a random vacation day for tomorrow. The intent was to do some Christmas shopping and whatnot.

This is the scene that greeted me at home:

Hard to see in this dark shot, but that is a hefty accumulation of ice on a tree branch near the porch. It continues to rain, and the temperatures continue to fall. Whatever ice accumulates on the cars tonight can stay there. For at 4:30 tomorrow morning, after I wake to feed the playing/fighting/hissing kitties, I will go back to bed and bury myself underneath our wonderful comforter.