Very Random Updates

Here we are... December 11th. How did that happen?

Well, let's see. What have we Stewart's been up to?

We had a lovely Thanksgiving holiday. We were home and invited two people over. One is a cousin - or the son of a cousin - whom I had never met. It was a joy to have him for a few days. The second was a student in the MA program at Notre Dame. Also a joy to have over. I spent the day cooking. I made low-cal versions of many dishes. We all enjoyed the meal.

That night, however, Aron threw up. It was fun. We spent the whole weekend kind of lazing about. Aron didn't really start feeling better until Sunday. By Monday I was down.

Then this past Friday Aron was sent home from school with a low-grade fever. That turned into a very high-grade fever (105) over the weekend and Eric took him to the Emergency Room.

He has recovered and has a normal temperature and is back at school. I'm hoping this will end our holiday illness.

I'm starting to think about Christmas shopping. My list is surprisingly long.

My parents and one of my brothers are coming into town next Wednesday, which conicidently happens to be my 14th anniversary.

Eric and I are spending the night at a B&B on Friday.

The following Sunday I'm cantoring at both services. Monday is Eric's birthday and also dress rehersal for the Christmas concert.

Wednesday is the Christmas concert. Thursday is Christmas. Saturday my other brother and his wife will join us for a few days.

I guess this all means I'd better clean up my house.

I've reconnected with a bunch of high-school freinds this past week, that's kind of fun.

I felt like I should post, but I'm realizing I didn't really have much to say.

High School Memories

When I was in High School I lived overseas - England. I actually went to two different High Schools in England - moving between my Sophomore and Junior years.

In High School I was a geek. I ended up as a cheerleader, but I was still a geek. And a math & science whiz (apparently - at least that seems to be a theme from the comments written in my yearbook.)

I was kind of a fringe member of some groups. The fringe of the "in-crowd". My Freshman and Sophomore years I had a close knit group of geeky friends. But the school was tiny, so everyone knew everyone. (There were 300 students total K-12).

My Junior and Senior years were different, it was a slightly larger school (400 students 9-12). And I had groups I was a part of at different times throughout the two years.

I realized as I was reading my Senior yearbook last night (the end of everything) that I had decidedly pulled away from pretty much everyone, perhaps as a defensive measure because I knew I was leaving.

So there isn't anyone from High School that I'm still close to. I didn't have life long relationships with anyone there. So finding people now is going back, mentally at least, to life then. No one from that point in my life saw me grow up and grow out of being a geek.

Anyway, thinking on all these things combined with actual contact with some of these long lost people adds up to a very weird place mentally and emotionally.

I'm a strong, independent, business leader. I'm the mother of two kids. I'm a pretty awesome wife. I have close ties to family and a few very close friendships.

But my brain is a 16-year-old tounge-tied geeky teenager and I don't love it.