screaming in the new year
I woke up on Christmas Eve with a little twinge in my back that, by the time I’d showered, had escalated into full-on agony. It was the worst pain I’ve ever felt in my life, and I could not walk or sit without bursting into tears. I was queasy and dizzy with the pain and I was very worried that I’d pass out in church and they’d think I’d been saved. Luckily this did not happen. I probably should have gone to the hospital, but there are a lot of back problems in my family, and the panel of experts I consulted all agreed that the doctors probably wouldn’t do anything except tell me to rest. I didn’t want to make the whole family sit in the ER for a million hours on Christmas Eve anyway, so I didn’t go. I think it’s a pinched nerve or a fucked up SI joint, but in any case, it’s been debilitating and I’ve done pretty much nothing but sleep and read this week. It’s gotten better and I can walk and sit and drive a bit now, but I’m not 100% yet.
Jamie and I are on our own for New Year’s this year. Sammi is with her boyfriend doing something involving a bonfire, and Mom, Dad, and Ginny are in Ireland, where Ginny and the JMU Marching Royal Dukes will be performing in the Lord Mayor of Dublin’s New Year’s Day Parade. I am very envious and like to sit around planning ways to make them feel guilty for going on an awesome trip without me.
Jay and I had grand plans for New Year’s that included all-night roller skating, bowling, and floating on a door to Jamaica, but I’m still in no condition for roller skating, bowling, or door floating, so it looks like we’ll be chilling here at home. At this time the weather sucks anyway, so we’ll probably be getting a pizza and watching the ball on TV.
I’m not too sad that I’ll be missing out on our family’s traditional New Year’s Eve celebration, which generally involves getting really bored, going to Kroger at like 8:00 p.m. for junk food, and getting into a gigantic fight right around midnight. One year we got into a screaming match over who would get the champagne glasses out of the cabinet, which ended up with everyone pouting in separate rooms to ring in the New Year. It’s never fun or amusing while it’s happening, but we tend to laugh about it a lot during the rest of the year. Maybe I’ll pick a fight with Jamie just to keep things going.
Happy New Year to you all! Maybe I’ll get all reflective about 2006 in the next few days.
Arguing about who would get the champagne glasses? Hilarious. I wonder how often families actually argue about the thing they’re arguing about rather than taking care of subconscious tension via a wholly irrational surface argument.
In my family, the argument about the glasses would be everyone volunteering to get them in quick succession once one person has said, “I’ll get the glasses.” Then you’ll hear, “That’s all right, I’ll get the glasses,” or something like that. An hour later, no one would have moved. Then I’d get huffy and say, “God dammit, I’ll get the glasses!” and then someone would sweetly say, “I can get those” and I’d shout, “No! No you can’t!”
When I think of these things, I remember again why Jane Austen novels make me laugh so much. It’s the family interactions.
-cK
Happy New Year!!
Um.. you should check out this site (check out the first few topics, and then write about it… it’s pretty much the coolest thing EVER, and I totally want one!
http://www.architectureandhygiene.com/main.html