Ringing It In, Baby
I am prepping for the annual New Year's Eve party my friend Suse and I throw every year. Okay, this is only the second year, but it's getting buzz. Maybe not
buzz, but at least a few people are looking forward to it. Everyone else is either going to be staying home because they are afraid to drive with the drunken hooligans or they will be somewhere awesome like
Times Square.
My friend the fourth Susan, who I call
Suzi Quatro in my head, will celebrate her New Year's Eve birthday watching the ball drop in Times Square. How cool is that? My niece will also celebrate her ninth birthday on New Year's Eve. I will miss her soiree in Charlotte, however, since I am having my own party in Raleigh. I am also the world's worst aunt, because I never get her birthday card in the mail in time.
People with holiday birthdays always get ripped off, unless they have one of those hyper-attentive families who bend over backward to ensure the birthday gets equal billing. My own birthday often falls on or around Mother's Day. My little family tries to make it up to me, but it's just not fair to have to get your party on two days in a row (or twice in one day), when other people get to spread their fun out over the year. Some people I know have embraced the
half birthday concept, but I'm not sure that would work for me. Six months away from my birthday would be one day away from my wedding anniversary. Pity. So I guess I'll stick with my current situation and be grateful for my family's indulgence in trying to make both it and Mother's Day special for me.
In any case, I'll be happy to be surrounded by friends and family on New Year's Eve and to ring in the new year with lots of love and laughter. I hope everyone has a festive time and a safe and happy new year!
Giving Blood, Saving Lives
It is a well-known fact that the need for donated blood increases dramatically during the holiday season. To anticipate this need, the
American Red Cross is calling past donors. I am a past donor. As a matter of fact, I gave during a blood drive held where I work in early October. I hadn't given in a long time and I felt a sense of duty. I am fortunate enough to be blood type O negative, which not too many people are. We O-neg people are the true
univeral donors because we can give to any blood type/Rh factor combo. That is a beautiful thing.
I am also borderline anemic all the time. That is a bad thing. Curiously, many people I know who are O-neg are iron-challenged. Many have had experiences like the one I had after I donated blood in Ocotber, which went a little something like this:
- Caren gives blood
- Caren catches funky early-season flu and is deathly ill
- Caren, barely recovered from flu, gets flu shot
- Caren is sick yet again
- Caren has respiratory problems until today
When I caught flu (it's a rare occasion when I am ill
at all), I remembered why I stopped giving blood. Last time I donated (several years ago), I was sick for a couple of months and it took at least six months (rather than the usual 8 weeks) before my iron built back up. This time, it has been 11 weeks and I am still fighting a cold and popping vitamins with iron.
The Red Cross called this morning and I had to tell them "no". Now I feel guilty. As do many other borderline-anemic O-negative people out there. I want to give, I wish I could give. It is simply too much toll on my body. So, if you are a healthy person with nothing besides busyness or squeamishness stopping you, please go donate - for
me, if not for you. You can find a convenient donation site at
www.givelife.org.
Anyone else dying to give blood and having to say "no"?
Labels: Life
Gearing Up For the Holidays
It is one week before Christmas. The time of year I always look around and wonder, "What have I gotten myself into?" Thanks to my husband and kids, the tree is up and has lights. Thanks to me, it has a few ornaments. I tried to institute a rule over the weekend that whoever passes through the den must put an ornament (or four) on the tree. So far, I'm the only one who has done so (though the girls have thrown a few up there).
I have managed to squeeze in Christmas shopping here and there, on my lunch break, in the evenings, and between dropping off and picking up my middle schoolers. I was incredibly grateful, I recall, when my son began driving himself around. Although he had to get on the beltline to get to his high school, the worry was worth it! Only 2-1/2 years until the next one is driving. Woot!
I have our annual Christmas dinner and gift exchange tonight with my wonderful and talented friends:
Sabrina Jeffries,
Liz Carlyle,
Claudia Dain and Debra Bess. We have extra fabulously exciting news to celebrate tonight. As of Friday, Debra Bess is now a
Harlequin Mills & Boon author!! Although, as a fellow aspiring writer it might seem that envy or self-pity would be natural reactions to Debbie's success, in fact I am nothing besides thrilled and proud. She is a wonderful writer and deserves her success! You will be glad to know her book is headed into production now and is scheduled to be a November 2007 release under her new pen name Deb Marlowe. I'll be sure to let you know when it's available! Meanwhile that leaves me as the sole unpublished member of the
Biaggi's Bunch. Must keep working on that.
I managed to get all the gifts wrapped in time for this celebratory soiree. Also to get gifts wrapped for a couple of special teachers at the middle school, to help daughter number 1 to assemble gift bags for her friends and to make daughter number 2 clean the kitchen, since she baked cookies for her friends. It is sometimes a challenge to be the mother of a chef-in-training. Especially since
culinary school is still five years off!
I am sure Christmas will be wonderful, just like always. Immediately afterward, I will begin to panic about New Year's Eve. Yes, you guessed it, we are having a party. My dear friend Suse and I were disgruntled about never getting invitations to any parties until we realized none of our friends ever
had parties. So we decided to have one last year and make it a tradition. Only now her beloved father is ill and she may not even be at the party. Which leaves me to scurry about and make sure everything gets done. Panic!
The good news is, my darling
Liz Bemis is coming to town for the party. Yay! The world's best handyman,
Steve Gatewood is at my house today, installing new (desperately needed) lighting fixtures I rushed out and bought yesterday. My husband and I have been scrambling to clean out the attic so we will have space to store things we clean out of the dining room. It's a
Catch-22 for us with the cleaning, but we're making headway.
In two weeks, Christmas will be over, New Year's Eve will be upon us, and (hopefully) our house will hardly be recognizable. Anyone else hoping for a "new" house for the New Year?
The Payoff
We always hope there is a big payoff after we slog through a lot of hard work. Well in my case, there was. I recently finished my latest book, "CrossTalk", and took off for 5 glorious days on
Royal Caribbean's Splendour of the Seas. I was pampered, very well fed, entertained, and waited on hand and foot. Let me first say, I never wanted to go on a cruise. Ever. No interest at all. But I said yes to this one and I am so glad I did!
Our lovely waitress at dinner each evening, Maria from
Romania, had the world's most charming mannerisms. Every time I thanked her, she would say, "My pleasure, madame." Which could seem obsequious or perhaps even a bit sarcastic, but from Maria it seemed sincere and lovely. Our stateroom attendant, Clinton, was equally fabulous. He magically procured things like ice for our champagne and extension cords, remembered all the scheduling details we couldn't seem to manage and folded our bath towels into interesting animal shapes when he turned down the beds each evening. We love Clinton!
Then there was Charlie. After we went parasailing, my friend Jenn and I grabbed a cab to head into downtown
Cozumel. Instead of a regular cabbie, we were gifted with Charlie, who offered to take us on a private tour of the island for a very reasonable flat rate. Not only did Charlie take us to the ruins at
San Gervasio and down the lovely, mostly
undeveloped Caribbean side of the island, he also stopped every time we wanted to take pictures, toted purchases, took pictures of us (complete with the optimum breaking of waves in the background) and told us where the best guacamole on the island was (the beach restaurant at Palancar, if you're interested). Before our tour ended (much too soon, but that was our fault), we were all fast friends and Jenn and I promised to look him up when we visit next.
Not only did I parasail on this cruise, I also climbed the rock wall twice (but didn't make it to the top either time), rode an ATV through the jungle (very fast--thanks, Carlos!) and toured some cool Mayan ruins. Thanks to our tour guide on the bus, Francisco, we learned more about the history of the state of Quintana Roo than you could fit into a History channel documentary. It was all fabulous!
So great, in fact, we are attempting to plan a cruise to the
Mediterranean in 2008. Cruising, I have found, is like a sampler platter. Once we nibble on a few ports of call, we will find out where in the Mediterranean we would like to explore more. Then my darling husband and I will jet there and spend a week exploring.
My recommendation to everyone is to finish your book, then celebrate with a cruise! Anyone else had great cruise experiences?
Labels: new books, Vacation
