a long december

My husband and I are enjoying his first days off (not counting the ones he spent in the hospital as a patient), and my first healthy days, since December 4th.  Between my deathflumonia (that’s what I’m calling it, though Dr. Jon (I like to call him that since he sounds like blues singer Dr. John) says I can just call it the plain old flu) and his insane work schedule, our December has kind of been one of the worst we’ve ever had. It makes me want to sing that Counting Crows song: “a long December and there’s reason to believe, maybe this year will be better than the last.”

This is not to say that Christmas wasn’t lovely. In fact, Christmas was a bright spot in an otherwise crappy month.  I got to spend several days at my parents’ house an hour from where we live (Jon joined us in between shifts in the ER), and my middle sister was in from Nashville with her adorable pug, and my lil’est sis was amped up on kid excitement about Christmas.  We drank Russian tea and played with the pug and I got stomped at gin rummy.  My sister, mom, grandmother and I all do-si-doed around the kitchen getting a big Christmas Eve meal together, and at church that night I caught up with a lot of old friends.  I was, as always, showered with far more gifts than I deserve, and generally had a lovely holiday.

Now we’re just enjoying our down time between our first Christmas and our second one, which will be in Colorado with Jon’s family.  I’d say we’re being hermits, reading quietly in the living room while sipping tea, laughing at the dogs’ antics, but the truth is, Jon gets stir-crazy after a few hours of that, and so we’ve also done some cleaning and bookshelf purging.  We both even managed to stop coughing long enough to go see “True Grit” which was wonderful.  I realized afterward that I can’t remember the last time I saw a movie featuring a strong woman who wasn’t involved in a love story, who was just being a badass, and not some sort of “sexy” badass.  You should definitely see it.

And, in between reading and cleaning, I’m reflecting on this past year. It’s been a big one. We found out we were moving back to my home state, put our house up for sale in a terrible market, and drove halfway across the country to our new home.  I started grad school and tried and failed to find a part time job, though I flourished as a student.  I’m so thankful that Jon encouraged me to pursue my love of literature and really feel I’m in the right place.  Jon started his fellowship and has received confirmation again and again that he’s chosen the right subspecialty, that he really does like the ER.  I’ve enjoyed being back home, having “my people” again in the form of friends old and new, and being able to drive to my parents’ house on a whim should the mood strike me. I’ve seen my family more in the last 6 months than I did in the entire previous 3 years.  We realized our house in Charleston wasn’t going to sell nearly as quickly as we’d hoped, thanks largely to Wells Fargo, our lender, dragging its feet, but after a short sale process that was anything but, as of a couple of weeks ago we are finally no longer homeowners in South Carolina or anywhere.  Ask us right now and we’ll tell you we will never own a home again.  It helps that we love the house we’re renting now and have the world’s best landlord.

Though I wouldn’t mind a do-over on December, I definitely have no desire for a do-over on this year.  It had its ups and downs, and again we have proved to each other that we can weather anything together.  I’m looking forward to what the next year holds.  I want to keep up my good work as a grad student. I want to keep challenging myself and trying new things in the kitchen, including learning to make macarons, and I want to do more food blogging. I want to do better about blogging regularly than I have this term.  I want to have people in my house more often, and I want to feed them good food.  I also want to finally find a part time job! Those are my goals for the new year.

2011. Bring it on.