Oh. The holidays are upon us. Well, upon me. I still haven't bought a turkey. A wee bit of self-sabotage, no? Showing up for Thanksgiving with a frozen turkey. Today, without fail, will find me trotting through the streets of New York City toting a fifteen pound frozen turkey. For joy. The day itself shouldn't be all that bad. I mean, I'll be cooking, which always lowers my heart rate and gets me humming. And then eating an L-tryptophan rich banquet. Then napping. So with hope, there won't be a lot of time spent dealing with my stepmother's descent into oblivion.

Here's the question that's plaguing me: what do I get my stepmother for Christmas? What do you get for a woman who has everything except time on this planet? Probably something to eat, no? But even there... One of her meds makes her begin every meal whith a nice purgative yuke when the first forkfuls hit her stomach. So that must take some of the enjoyment out of meal time, right. And my Dad. On election day a few weeks ago, he had what his doctors called a 'mini-stroke.' ("They said it wasn't even a minor stroke; it was a mini-stroke.") He's spent a lot of time in the hospital going through lots and lots of tests lately, and by all reports he's in great shape. Good heart, good arteries, good lungs, good blood tests. So that's reassuring. Except for the stroke part.

And then there's those other stressors: money I owe to people. $215 for the assessment on the roof of my condo building; $148 monthly maintenance fee on my condo; $1000 for rent on the first of the month; a whopping $1552 for car insurance downpayment; $575 for my car lease payment; $3000 to get the work started on my condo; $150 for boarding my dog while I'm at that conference I don't want to attend in Seattle; and a miscellaney of credit card and utility payments.

So today is, or ought to be, Stay Home and Hide Under the Covers Day. Alas, it's not.

But some good news! Past President is proposing we share a room for Mid-Atlantic Leather. Everybody seems to be going to this, coming in from all over the country. Wonder if there will be a LeatherNavigator get together at some point. And I have one playdate lined up thus far for that fateful weekend in Washington DC. So there's that to look forward to.