Read my griping: Win an award

Sometimes a girl just needs an award. And Alexandra over at Running Just As Fast As I Can must have sensed my need because she sent me just that. Lookee here:


Isn't that fabulous? It is to me, particularly since I am feeling slightly less than fabulous lately. I am tired.

Tired of the holidays for the moment. I'm pretty sure buying Sophie the Alvin and the Chipmunk's Christmas cd was a mistake. If I listen to it again I might just drive off the road.

Tired of being president of Sophie's school P.T.A.-like group. I'm burned out. I just don't give a shit any more. And with the state budget in the crapper and school budget's on the chopping block, the school really needs someone who has the passion I had for this the past two years. It's a great school, a great group of parent volunteers—but I'm just done, and I have until June to go. When I think of the spring auction, I want to weep.

Tired of serving as the designer for my MIL's house remodel. Husband is the general contractor, which is good because he really is a general contractor. But I am an editor. And a sometimes not very patient daughter-in-law. It sounded like a fun project: The MIL has an almost unlimited budget, is pleasant and agreeable, and happily moved out of her house to a residential facility for the duration of the project. But the scope and details have proved overwhelming to her, and in addition to choosing (for her approval) bath tile, floor tile, grout colors, paint colors, counter surfaces, window treatments, and the like, I have also had to take on sorting and packing an insane amount of what looks to me like total crap but represents to her a lifetime's worth of memories. I've been trying with little success to get her to dispense with some of it. Does a person who no longer bakes or cooks very much really need six glass measuring cups?? "Oh, yes! I use those all the time!" (Really?? At the same time????) And I've fought mightily to prevent her from remodeling her house to look dated before it is even finished. No on floral borders. No on rose tile (they don't even make rose tile anymore, thank goodness). I'm letting her keep her horrible chandeliers, but they've got to be washed before they go back up (probably by me), and that's as generous as I'm prepared to be. Being the designer is not nearly as fun as I thought it would be.

And so tired I can't narrow it down to the five bloggers I am to pass this award to. So I will do this: Anyone who has hung with me through these paragraphs of pathetic griping is granted this award. Is that more than five? Well, probably not. 

And just to end things on a positive note, here are two things I find fabulous this time of year:

Apples are nice, but few things beat a perfectly ripened Bosc pear. I poach them, roast them, chop them up to add to a green salad, and eat them endlessly throughout the winter. 

Another of my favorite winter fruits is the Satsuma Mandarin. They are so sweet and easy to peel that Sophie will happily accept one as her dessert after dinner. And my local produce market always has a bin labeled "stems and leaves." As Sophie once pointed out, "a reminder that they can from a tree."

Congratulations on your award. Enjoy it in good health.