The Snowday

In my line of work, there's one thing that makes the winter months bearable: The Snowday.

Often, any kind of slightly inclement weather will make the county roads slick. You can't have buses full of kids out on those slick roads. And when buses full of kids don't come to school, I have no one to teach, so I get to stay home. And it's awesome.

But, Snowdays can become a sickness. An addiction worse than any kind of drug. Okay, maybe not any kind of drug....maybe they're about halfway down the list.

On the first Snowday, there is rejoicing. Sleeping in. Usually with me, there's a feeling that I can finally accomplish those 20,000 things I never get to on the weekends. Laundry. Cleaning. Baking. Organizing cabinets. Boxing up old clothes. Cleaning the attic. Rearranging furniture. The list is endless.

So I work, the kids play, and we spend the day away. As the end of it nears, though, I start getting anxious. I mean, yeah this Snowday was nice and all, but will I have to work tomorrow? Will we have to get up early? And then my mind races.....

I didn't finish my list! The attic cleaning is only half done!! My bedroom isn't clean!!! Oh, no! I didn't clean the bathrooms! I meant to!

And then, I haven't done anything to prepare for tomorrow! Lunches, clothes picked out, bookbags packed...I'll be late! "Oh, for the love of all that is holy, call off school already!" I scream in my head.

When they do, I instantly calm. Finally, just one more day. One more day to finish everything I didn't get done today, I sigh.

However, as the end of the second day nears, I panic again. Things are still not done. I never did organize the toys in the playroom. Oh, and there are those walls that need painted.... Regardless of how many consecutive days I've missed, at the end of everyone there is an urgency to have just one more...just one more.

It's an addiction. Just like an addict who's supply is cut off, when the snow melts and it looks like I might have to work again, I go through several feelings.

First, it's denial. I mean, the roads could still be bad! Don't they see that? I still have an icy patch here...it's down the street, and about the size of a letter, but seriously!! They'll call it off, I know they will.

When they don't call it off, I get angry. What do they know! Fine! I sure hope nobody wrecks in the morning.

I also start bargaining with God. I offer Him lots of stuff if He could ensure that school would just be cancelled!!

But eventually, I do have to go back to work. It's really hard at first, especially after an extended "vacation." I do it, though, and my Snowday addiction eases........until the next storm.

My name is Tracee, and I am a Snowday-a-holic.

Why chocolate creme oreos will always remind me of Edward Cullen

Most people that know me understand that I have something wrong with my head. Most people that have known me a long time understand my tendency to get obsessed with stuff.

The list is long and stretches from Rainbow Brite to Star Wars to hippie clothes to Mercedes Benzes to Twilight. Being my friend on any teensy part of this journey will make you believe that I just have unhealthy feelings toward a few things...being someone there for the long run, you'll see that the objects of my affection change, but the obsessive feelings remain constant.

A couple of days ago, my husband and I were watching one of the six Star Wars movies and I said, "Wow, like fifteen years ago, I could have told you the names and types of all those aliens...and what planets they were from."

He seemed a little concerned. "Really?"

I laughed, and told him about my adolescent years, when I lived, ate, and breathed Star Wars. I could almost recite original three movies line by line. I made my parents buy me anything Star Wars that I saw at the store. I read about ten thousand Star Wars fiction books that took place after Return of the Jedi. I dreamed I was a Jedi. I was pretty sick. "It was worse than Twilight," I told him.

Since I am in the middle of the Twilight addiction, he couldn't visualize it.

When I fell into my third Thanksgiving break sickness, a feverish sinus infection coupled with dehydration from the stomach virus and the still present kidney stone, and a huge muscle cramp in my back that I was sure was the beginning of a heart attack, my mom came to visit and make sure the girls didn't set the house on fire.

That day, just to comfort me and keep my mind off of the false heart attack, I had started reading Eclipse again. Lucky for me, the Spike channel was running a Star Wars marathon, so I got to spend the day with Luke, Leia, and Han, and Edward kept me company during commericals.

See, my obsessions are like "loveys," those blankets and toys that two year olds have at their sides to offer comfort and protection. If I'm knee deep in sickness or bad stuff, something that I've come to love will at least hold me over until I feel a little better.

Mom brought Oreos, the new chocolate ones, and although I hadn't eaten in days I wanted them. Bad.

She watched me eat, and then wanted to know what in the world was on TV. "Return of the Jedi!" I said, a little grumpy. When Rob came home from hunting, shocked to find out I thought I was dying and Mom was there, she confirmed what I said was true- my Star Wars obsession was a lot worse.

And this got me thinking, while eating the oreos and reading about Edward professing his love for Bella, about all of my past obsessions. When I was thirteen, I became obsessed with this cartoon called "Bots" or something like it that only came on at 5:30 in the morning. I religiously got up every morning and watched it with my cereal.

And then when I was obsessed with soap. Well, not really soap but the evils of it. I banned soap from my house and spent a ton of money on special bottles of castile soap in order to protect us all from the evils of sodium laureth sulfate. I researched it thoroughly on the internet.

And then I started thinking about what it would have meant to have the internet when I was mid-Star Wars obsession. Harrison Ford would have definitely had an internet stalker, that's for sure.

Why am I like this? I'll never know. I know I can calm it some when I've been taking my meds...I'm able to resist reading Breaking Dawn for the thirtieth time (well, at least straight out- I can allow myself a page a day or something). But it never really goes away, and in times of stress I revert straight into crazy-land.

When I reached for the chocolate creme oreos this evening, I suddenly felt the urge to continue reading about Jacob and Edward fighting over custody of Bella...and there I am. Oreos. Edward. It all connects somewhere in the rusty, oddly working gears of my brain.

Thanksgiving will be a dreaded holiday from this point on

The plan was to go to my Dad and Step-Mom's house for Thanksgiving, with a stop at my Mom's.

Unfortunately, fate had other ideas.

On Wednesday, the day we were going to leave, I had a list of things to do, and I had to pack. Two things happened simultaneously...my husband checked the weather for his Thursday morning hunting excursion and my stomach started hurting. With the weather being bad and me being sick, the decision was made to leave very early Thursday morning instead.

After confirming this with my family, we settled in for an evening of relaxation and TV watching...until Story puked all over me. I convinced myself that it was a fluke...or something bad she ate.

Just to be safe, I ran to the kitchen to grab a bowl after I'd changed her and cleaned up the couch. As I bent down to the cabinet where the bowl was located, I received a searing pain in my left kidney.

Oh. No.

I have a long running relationship with kidney stones. I get one stuck about once a year or less that involves heavy drugs and a trip to the hospital. There's nothing I can do about then, I just won the genetic kidney lottery.

But this pain meant the worst was coming...a trip to the hospital, along with a puking baby. And an impending trip.

A frantic search of the purses in my closet revealed that I had one pain pill left. I took it, and waited for the results to take effect...and as it started to kick in, Story puked again.

This was not just a random puking event. I was pretty sure she had the flu.

So, I stayed up until two a.m. with her puking every hour while Rob and Ivy slept. At two, my drugs wore off, and I had to go to the hospital. A sleepy husband came in the living room to sit with the puking kid while I turned on my hazard lights and made a speedy trip to the hospital.

It turns out the night before Thanksgiving is an excellent time to visit the ER. I was in and out in no time...and then I drove home under the influence of some nice little shot they gave me.

Story hadn't puked any while I was gone, but as soon as I sat on the couch next to her, she puked again.

The next morning, we had a come-to-Jesus meeting about our trip. It wasn't happening. So, we bought a turkey and some other stuff and spent the day cooking turkey dinner by ourselves for the first time ever.

Which our kids refused to eat.

Friday we took the girls to the movies and bought some Christmas decorations. On the way home, I started feeling strange...and have spent the past 24 hours with the stomach flu. Luckily, this wasn't the worst flu I've had, and since neither kid was a baby and breastfeeding, my husband was able to take care of them all day.

Still, I'm waiting for everyone else in the house to get it...and I'm pretty sure I'll have to take Monday off to recover from my vacation.