Better and better

Yay! Hooray! I made pancakes today!

You still don't want to sit next to me on the bus (cough, sneeze, snort, snuffle) but I'm feeling great compared to the last couple of days.

I got up early and drank coffee and undecorated the Christmas tree. This is a job that I usually do not like to do, but it was okay this time. I'm sad to see those coloured lights go away, but I can turn on our little white patio lights that we have on the deck year-round, so I don't go cold turkey on twinkling stuff in the dark. Today I was supposed to get up, get dressed and take Alex out for a long practice drive but it's snowing! So we're still all in our pajamas at half past noon, and I made pancakes and waffles for the kids for lunch. I'm still eating that citrus salad (I made a really big batch). Maybe it's the secret to my recovery?

Next I will put away all of the Santa pictures, which I display in a bookshelf every Christmas. It's fun to look at the kids growing up with Santa. I have all of my usual pottery and candles and vases and stuff in the boxes that I took the Christmas ornaments out of, so I just switch them back. I'll say goodbye to the ceramic nativity set, the crystal bowl full of fake red apples and gold-painted pinecones, the dried pomegranates (my big find this Christmas). Dried pomegranates are about 1/3 the size of fresh ones and hard as rocks. They are really beautiful though, displayed in a simple china bowl with some nuts. The dog found them when I first put them out, and tried to eat one, but gave up. I'll put away the candles that smell like cranberries and almond biscotti (the ones that we didn't burn up over Christmas). I'll put away the advent candles - almost burned down anyway. I'll get out some gorgeous blue and pearly stuff, and new table runners and mats. The house will seem bigger and cleaner and more open. The snow is an inspiration - all clean and white and fresh.

The other good news is that the poltergeist has loosened her grip on my stuff. When I'm tired or stressed or just for no reason at all, I have this thing that takes my stuff away, then returns it to totally obvious places where I have looked. The P.G. has taken my cell phone, my keys, clothing, books, movies, money, jewelry, event tickets. Invariably these lost items turn up (eventually) in precisely the place where I searched for them, so I know they were really gone. The most extreme time was when the P.G. took my house keys for one whole year, then returned them to the pocket in my knapsack where I always keep the keys, exactly one year later. I looked in that pocket a dozen times. It was a big set of keys and a small pocket, used only for keys, and it was empty for a year, then POOF there were the keys again. That was a couple of years ago. This time it took my season's tickets to the Playhouse, my favourite sweater, and a CD I had just bought and not even listened to all the way through. That was the last week of November. My tickets showed up a couple of days before Christmas (on the table beside my bed). The CD showed up yesterday (in my nearly empty briefcase which I have cleaned out and searched a couple of times since I lost the CD). Now I need my sweater. But I'm sure it will turn up. I just have to talk to the P.G. and tell her that I'm tired of the game and I want my stuff back. P.G. is full of mischief and also annoying, but usually she's telling me I need to make a change. Having a really good rest is the change I needed this Christmas. I'm convinced that getting sick and really resting - flat out - brought back my music. Now I just have to enjoy these last few days of holidays and figure out what I really want to do, and my warm, smooshy, beige marshmallow knit sweater with the zipper on the front will come back.

question: did your stuff ever disappear and reappear?

mompoet - give me back my sweater now, please