And coincidentally, the day after Mom decides to not see the PITA's, she got the official invite over to my cousin Tammy's house for Christmas.

(To clarify: the PITAS usually have us over on the 24th, and then Tammy has everyone over on the 25th. Tammy is an actual sane and nice person in that family.)

Mom didn't know what to say, so she asked me for help. This is what I suggested, somewhat tongue-in-cheek:

"Dear Tammy: Thank you for your invitation. However, this has been a hard year for Jen and I, what with Bob going into the hospital and all, and both of us are feeling like we need to do something different this year instead of staying in town and feeling sad. We will be spending Christmas Eve at my sister's and Christmas Day at the hospital with Bob. Perhaps we can get together with you and Les at a later time? P.S. And if either of us has to listen to your mother going on about her arm with the year we have had, one of us may very well lose it and start yelling at her. We'd rather not do that!"

Okay, I didn't seriously think Mom would go for the last part. But she ended up sending most of that- except for the last part, "just in case it gets back to D&B." She wrote something along the lines of "I'm just going to spend the day crying and bringing everyone down with me."

Tammy said she understood and how about we get together after Christmas?

Of course, the real test is going to be, do D&B put us on the shit list for it? I guess we shall see...

In other news, I am frantically working on various crafts for Christmas presents (as can be seen here, and it's just a wee bit crazy. I volunteer at the campus craft center, so I get to use the labs for free. However, if you want time in the glass lab without a class going on, that means either you come in during afternoons (most of which I work during) or weekends (which for me are iffy). So I've spent my lunches in there almost all of the time lately, working on glass plates.

I'm trying to do a "four seasons" set of tiny square plates for Nice Aunt and Uncle, and the first two have come out really cute. I've finished putting together the other two, but they still have to go through the kilns a few times before they're done. Who knows when that'll be, because the "to be fused" cabinet is SO FUCKING FULL right now, it is amazing. Especially since most of it can't get fused until the weekend because class nights get first priority. Everyone's doing tons of plates for gifts. The "final fusing day" before they close for the holidays hasn't been announced yet, but clearly everyone's nervous about getting stuff done ASAP.

I am currently working on two more (round this time) plates, which will probably go to someone on Dad's side of the family depending on how they come out, and I am trying to make a photo frame for Mom to boot. I finished gluing one plate together and stuck that in the pile too yesterday. Go me.

And in addition to THAT, and working on the poncho from hell for Mom (this has kind of fallen by the wayside lately), I am trying to make a doll for Mom. I took a dollmaking workshop this weekend and have become obsessed. I haven't even finished my own doll quite yet, but I am now also trying to make a doll for Mom to sort of surprise her, since she's seen about every other present she's getting this year so far. (Which is to say, when she saw certain things I made, she wanted one.)

My own doll needs to get the skirt made, the wings sewn on, and hair put on, and then she's done. As for Mom's doll, I've managed to get the head about half painted and all of the parts stuffed, but still need to sew up the parts and get ahold of some damned buttons so I can put the thing together. This, alas, requires someone to haul my ass to a fabric store this weekend. But since Mom's going to be in the area Sunday for a hula show, this might be managed.

Towards the end of the quarter at the CC, they want you to pick what shift you'll work next quarter. As in, I had to pick a first and second choice last night, and then they make schedule adjustments next week. I am kind of undecided on the issue. I usually end up working Wednesday nights because that's about the one night a week they don't have any classes I'm interested in taking. However, I kind of want off Wednesday nights because Lost and Veronica Mars are on at the same time and I can't tape 'em both. (Thank you, iTunes, for selling the episodes.)

Mondays I am definitely taking continuing crochet on, but there are classes on Tuesday and Thursday I might be interested in taking. Both are massively expensive ones, so I'd want to use my free class (again, since I volunteer) on one of them. But one of them is a lampworking class, and those aren't being allowed to be taken as free so easily any more. To wit, they now draw names out of a hat as to who will get to take them for free. So if I want to take glass marble making on Tuesdays, I'm only doing it if I'm one of the names drawn. As for Thursdays, that's maquette class (a new one!) and if I don't get into marble making, I might want to take that.

So, you get the idea that it's kind of hard to pick ALREADY before I even find out if I can get into the marble class. (The drawing for who gets in is supposed to be Monday.) Then I found out from one of the managers that "oh, my entire team from Monday night wants to move onto Wednesday nights with me. But one of them might not do it or something." Considering that the one time I worked a Thursday night shift was because of "oh, my entire group wants to stay together," that means I probably won't get on Wednesday nights.

(Plus when I was submitting my request for times, I saw two of these girls's papers. They seriously had "pick this one!" for Wednesday and "nooo, not this one!" and sad faces for their second choices. Good lord.)

So.... what night I'll actually end up working on, who the fuck knows. What a headache.

Tomorrow night is the staff party and fundraiser auction, so that'll be my entry for tomorrow. It's mostly a silent auction- you write down your bids up until the night of the auction, then they have bidding start in person at whatever the highest number is. I have been kind of nervous about it. I submitted stuff to it this year and have been freaking out ever since that most of my jewelry was likely to get no bids and I'd be sitting there embarrassed in front of everybody when this was announced in public. But I checked last night and EVERYTHING I put in has gotten a bid! Hooray! I won't be embarrassed after all!

Today's holiday stress level:

previous entry - next entry
archives - current entry