Good News and Good Friends

First of all, I'm sure you will be pleased to know that my tooth -- the same tooth I had such a rough root canal on -- is about 99.5% healed up.  I still feel a twinge every now and again, like when the weather changes.  You know how old people can feel the weather in their joints?  Yeah, I can feel it in my teeth. Weird, huh?

Alrighty, then...

I'm sure you will also be pleased to know I did not, in fact, have to work today.  I'm glad of that.  I'm already dreading all the overtime when peak season hits.  How tired I'll be, I mean.

Not dreading those overtime paychecks.  Not at all. 

And what did I do on my Saturday off?  Not much.  A bit of laundry.  A trip to the store.  But mostly I declared today to be a day for watching Christmas shows.  When you work 12 hour shifts, you don't have time to do much in the evenings, so I've gotten a bit behind.   I may have to save some for the week we have off between Christmas and New Year's Day.  Hopefully, they won't take that away from us.

Now for a bit more good news.  Cody will be able to come home for Christmas!  He'll come after his shift on Christmas Eve, and will go back on Boxing Day.  Best part is, he wants to cook Christmas dinner!  Yay!  I went ahead and bought all the ingredients he'll need today, so I don't have to worry about it next week.  You know, the closer to Christmas it gets, the crazier the stores get. 

OK, I have to catch you up on what's been going on.

There I was at work, on my break, when my phone buzzed.  It was my friend Kristine, sending me a message.  It was a puzzle -- just a long string of numbers.  No other clue.

I sat there puzzling over my puzzle for a moment, trying to decode whatever those numbers stood for.  I puzzled and puzzled until my puzzler was sore.  Suddenly, it hit me.  It's a tracking number!  It's a tracking number!

I can neither confirm nor deny that I may or may not have shouted it aloud in the plant break room.

I messaged Kristine back, "You know I'm going to be stalking the mailman like Hyacinth Bucket until it gets here, don't you?" 

Fortunately, I didn't have to wait long.  The very next day, the package arrived.  And what was in said package?  My very first Christmas card of the season!

Well, I got one from the guy who sold me my car, but I'm not counting that.  Inside the card was a real, old fashioned hand written letter!

I said a while ago, I was going to start writing letters by hand again.  I finally did it.  I'd sent her one, and she wrote back!  The question is, who will get the next handwritten letter?  Nobody knows...

Back to my package...also inside were Christmas presents!

Kristine told me not to wait until Christmas to open them, because it was close enough.  I did wait until after dinner and my shower, then I tore into them.  First one had some really cute patches she found for me at the con.

Yeah, the same con at which she met Adam Baldwin.  And she gave me a candle!

 The same candle she gave to Adam Baldwin.  The same candle Adam Baldwin reportedly loved.  Sometimes I wonder how I got so lucky to have such good friends!

Today was supposed to be my day off, but apparently Rylea didn't get the message.  She did let me sleep until 4:30.  That being said, I'm going to show you this one last thing.  It's my new Christmas ornament.

It's got a bluebonnet etched onto it.  I mean to hang it onto my tree, as soon as I remember what safe place I put it into.

I'll look for it tomorrow.  For tonight, I'm going on to bed.