Nowhere to go but up

2008 has not been a year that I'd want to live over again. It's had its bright spots, but overall I'd have to say it sucked. No where to go but up.

And the icing on the cake for the year is I'm ringing in the New Year without heat. I'm not kidding. While I was out of town, a fuse blew, which then caused the transformer on the heater to melt, so they had to turn the heat off to replace the part. Of course, because of the holiday, they couldn't find anyone available to come and do that until Friday. So I'm spending New Year's Eve and Day trying to keep warm with 3 space heaters, blankets, hot tea, long underwear (thank the lord for Patagonia capilene!) and wool socks and slippers. Layers, lots of layers. I will say that it was lucky that one of the other tenants was home and reported the issue before it caused a fire.

My Aunt and Grandmother sent me home from my visit to Michigan with a can of green beans, a can of black eyed peas, and a small ham so I could have my traditional New Year's Day meal. This is a very good thing since I didn't have a chance to get to the store today with all the heat issues. I'm pairing my meal this year with baked sweet potato fries for something different. In addition to the meal fixings, they also sent me home with an insane amount of cookies, chocolates, and other goodies.

I did have a wonderful visit to Michigan for Christmas. My new baby cousin is adorable, even when he spits up on me (which he did more than once) and cries all over my shirt. I spent 7 days completely offline, with little to no cell phone reception, forcing me to disconnect from the world for a bit and just focus on the time with family. It was wonderful. I really wish I lived closer to them.

Anyway, I'm going to curl up on the couch with the pets and a mug of tea and wait for the ball to drop so 2008 will finally be over. I can't wait. I really think there's nowhere to go but up from here (especially with the lack of heat) so things must improve in 2009.

Finally don't forget the New Year's Rules people!! Don't you dare do any laundry!

Small victories

It really is the little victories in life that carry you through. Yesterday I had two small victories, in addition to the big victory of my asthma drug cocktail kicking in so my painful coughing stopped.

Victory #1: I successfully trimmed my cat's nails with no bodily harm to my person and a minimal amount of yowling and squirming. The last time I tried this I only got her two front paws done and had lovely scratches on my arm that are just now fading. The key? The element of surprise. I snagged Capri with a towel, wrapped her up, sat on the edge of the tub trapping her body between my knees, and had one front paw done and was half way through the second before she realized what had hit her. Seriously. All. Four. Paws. Trimmed. Even her dewclaws. A victory indeed.

Victory #2: I finally managed to get my cell phone number switched to a local Philly number. I hadn't changed it from my previous city of residence due to all the identity theft issues. But that's (hopefully) over now, so I'm free to finally separate myself and stop paying taxes to that previous city so I can keep the number. Yes, they really were charging me both a city and state sales tax as well as a business license surcharge, for a total of over $7 a month. Ridiculous!! Once again I had a very pleasant interaction with the customer service at Verizon, making the whole process smooth and easy. Somehow I also feel a bit more "settled" in Philly by having all local numbers.

What small victories will I have today, I wonder.