Field Roasting on an Open Fire

 Friendsgiving was fine.

No, really. 

We were welcomed with open arms by our neighbor, and our neighbor across the street (whom I'd never formally met) attended as well...along with about thirty other people crammed into a house about half the size of our own, if not smaller. Aside from the neighbors, we knew nobody. We mingled a bit, I drank a glass of pineapple juice (one of the few drinks there without alcohol in it), and after about two hours made our gracious exits twenty-five feet back across our front yard. It was a fun little get-together with a bunch of people we'd never met, but by the end of the time we were there, our social batteries had run dry -- likely mine more than Daisy's, but dry nonetheless. 

I can say now that I have gone an entire week back-spasm-free. I have had some twinges of pain here and there, and some soreness, but absolutely nothing like the pain and spasms I'd had a week ago. Do I know what it was at this point? No, I absolutely don't. I'd like to chalk it up to a kidney stone, a pinched nerve, or just plain getting old, but I've got no explanations and none of those symptoms quite fit the bill. I just don't want it to happen again. 

Friday was payday for us -- it is always payday for us, one of us or the other -- and we celebrated by paying down a bunch of bills and by Daisy taking a few hours off in the afternoon so that we could go get a quick "date lunch" and make a trip to the Dollar Tree and Lowe's to get some household supplies. I love going on little adventures like this with Daisy, especially when I have the time and energy to do so. Saturdays tend to be over before they start, as Daisy will sleep in, and I'll run myself out of energy by mid-afternoon. On Fridays, though, it's a different story -- I will almost always have slept well on Thursday night, and I use Fridays to take care of errands and household tasks that need to be handled when I have no other time to do said tasks. 

We have begun preparing for the holidays, finally. I have three gifts now for Daisy, the latest one being delivered yesterday, and Daisy picked up a number of gift bags at the Dollar Tree on Friday. Additionally, yesterday morning we ventured out to Natural Grocers and picked up the vegan Field Roast turkey that I traditionally get for Thanksgiving:

Trust me, it tastes much better than it looks, and for $20 for a two-pound roll of seitan, it damn well better.

"If it's just going to be the four of us," Daisy said, "maybe we could do like a Thanksgiving brunch."

I visibly recoiled at this. "Like...how?"

"Like early in the day, brunch time," Daisy said.

"...if you want to eat earlier in the day, like 1, I'm sure the parents would be fine with that, but I can tell you that it's Thanksgiving and I personally want an actual Thanksgiving dinner."

Not to mention that I know Dad will as well. Dad is traditional and loves the holiday feasts, despite eating like a bird most of the time now since he's aging quite rapidly. I remember when that man would pound down two giant pork chops and multiple rolls and sides, and now he picks at his food and eats very little, very slowly. 

Also, Christmas dinner? I don't give a shit about Christmas dinner; it can be whatever. But, Thanksgiving is the high holy day of Gravy Season™, and as such I am a very big fan of it. On the other side of that same coin, I know it's a lot of work for Daisy and a huge pain in the ass. She calls it "a day of service" for her more than anything else, and then dreads doing the same a month later for Christmas dinner, usually for a much larger party of people. And I absolutely see her point and understand that.

Pete is holding steady; the old man seems completely normal. Most days he still comes upstairs to sleep with us, and we've been giving him his subcutaneous fluids every other day, 100ml to 150ml at a time. He seems to be eating, drinking, and going to the pan normally, and getting around ably enough -- leaps and bounds improved from a little under a month ago when we were expecting to lose him. He could, of course, take a turn at any day, and we're waiting on that other proverbial shoe to drop and for him to be like "okay, it's time, I'm done now" and it will eventually happen, but for now? He seems perfectly fine.

Over the course of the next few weeks, we're going to attempt new Christmas photos with all the kids; I ordered another Santa hat and scarf for the cats because I'd like to get the double trouble boys together in the same photos wearing the same apparel. It is, after all, their first Christmas with us. It is also, very likely, Pete's last Christmas with us -- if he makes it that long -- and I want one last set of photos of him in the scarf and hat while he's still doing well and still looking and feeling relatively like himself. 

Hank's eye is almost completely healed now that we've had him on the steroid drops for about a week and a half. The improvement was almost immediate, and he is almost back to looking like his normal, orange eyed self again. He gets three drops a day -- one non-steroid drop in his good eye to keep it from going bad (or something; it was never really clearly explained to me why we're putting drops in his good eye) and two steroid drops in his healing eye, once in the morning and once at night. He no longer really fights us on it, as I do honestly think he can logic enough to put together that it makes him feel better and he can see again since the steroids began. I am looking forward to the new Christmas photos with him as well, since he'll be able to show off two pretty eyes again. We take him back to the eye doctor for a check-in a week after Thanksgiving, and at that point we'll figure out where to go from there in regards to dosage and the like for the foreseeable future. However, sometime over the next couple weeks we will need to get a refill of the steroid drops, since I don't think they're going to last until the next appointment. 

I have but seven days left to work before Thanksgiving, four this week and three next week. It is coming up so much faster than I thought it would. After Thanksgiving, of course, begins the headlong rush leading up to Christmas. Aside from the cards, I am woefully underprepared this year. When I'd normally be doing "holiday work" on the weekends around this time of year, I've been sleeping a lot more or sidelined with an injured back, taking care of sick cats, or attending Friendsgivings. I don't know when I'm going to be able to finish shopping for Daisy. I don't even know what else to get her at this juncture. Normally I have some grand plan, an amazing or creative idea, and this year I'm just burnt out and find it difficult to plan and function.

It is not, of course, her fault -- she herself is the greatest gift I could ever personally ask for, but I also get the feeling that the next time she asks "so what do you want to do for your birthday this year?" the answer to that question is going to be "find somewhere I can finish Christmas shopping for you so that I don't feel like an inadequate asshole."

Yes, I know, I have well over a month. But usually I'm far more finished than I am now, too.