So Long, Farewell... NaBloPoMo

What a long, strange month it has been.

Big Daddy T has been absent for most of the month and, as it turns out, he will be leaving us again on Sunday. 10 more days in Singapore. The month of December is now defiled with this incessant business travel, but at least he'll be back in time for Jack's preschool Christmas Program.

Looking back over this year's NaBlo, I realize how much faster it has gone by. It's a different year, and life is getting busier with each one that passes. I had high hopes for 2007 and, while it wasn't the worst year or even a bad one, really, it certainly has not lived up to some of my high expectations.

We'll pretend, for argument (and sanity) sake that this is the fault of the year and not any fault of my own. Because we don't want to sully NaBloPoMo with accusations of "fault" or "blame", now, do we?

Besides, by the time I finish this post, pop a few ibuprofen for my back, and climb under the covers for a little Dr. Mario to put myself to sleep (Nintendo DS plays Game Boy Advance games. I can kill candy-colored germs with multicolored Panatol to my geeky little heart's content) it will officially be December.

I shall celebrate by taking the weekend off from Blogging, and returning to you on Monday - hopefully refreshed and raring to go.

I leave you with a little game we like to call "5 things you didn't (want to) know about me."

1) I used to have my belly button pierced. When I got pregnant with Jack, I took out the ring. I got stretch marks all over my belly, but around the hole from the piercing the stretch marks formed in the shape of a star. I spent the last part of my pregnancies looking like a stretch-mark-star-bellied sneetch. Which I thought was awesome. (Still do.)

2) I cannot abide the taste of eggplant. I have tried it baked, boiled, steamed, grilled, and fried. Also as part of parmigiana, mashed with garlic, and on pizza. I hated it in every case. This continues to mystify many of my relatives, as they absolutely love the stuff. I find the texture snot-like, and it tastes like I imagine boiled cardboard would. I am subsequently a target of suspiscion and disbelief, as they are mystified that anyone could possibly harbor such a vile opinion of poor, innocent eggplant.

3) When I was a little girl, I used to curl up in my blankets at night, cover myself up entirely, and pretend I lived in the hollow top of a mountain. There was a hinged lid which I could open to gather supplies -- usually snow to melt for water and maybe some wild berries or a rabbit to skin and eat. All of this was, of course, entirely imaginary. I may have read a few too many Laura Ingalls Wilder stories at around the same time.

4) I often sleep in a t-shirt that my niece, Victoria, made for me when she was 10 years old. She is now 15. It has a tracing of her 11-year-old hand print and drawings of flowers and sunshine. She made it when she was still a little girl, all stick-figure drawings and knobby knees. Now she's turning into a teenage girl - chasing boys, weighing invitations to the prom, looking forward to getting her learner's permit. But I have this t-shirt that proves that she wasn't always the adolescent heartbreaker; once she was just a little girl who made a t-shirt for her aunt because I was the epitome of cool. You know, before I got old and, like, totally lame and whatever.

5) I got my first spray-on tan today. I no longer have the remnants of my Summer farmer tan to ruin the lines of my pretty party dress. Also, it did not turn me orange, for which I will give thanks to the Artificial Sun Gods. It was a risk, but it turned out well. Thankyouverymuch, Amen.