Heaven is a secret

11F – That was the temp as I walked in this morning. I am one of those people who don't really care about the whole lack of sun in Michigan in winter issue because I find that when it's sunny, it's bloody f***ing cold. And when it's cloudy as it's been for the past few weeks, it's been into the 40s. My lovely cloud cover is now gone and it's back to being colder than a well-digger's something or other. I know I’m in the minority but I'd rather have it grey and raining, than bright and snowy.

I have been following this case since it occurred and I have no clue if the police officer should have been acquitted or not. My concern is that if this homeless man's family was so worried and concerned about him, why was he homeless? I can't imagine that my family would let me sleep on the streets of Detroit instead of finding a spare bit of floor or couch.

Related to yesterday's story of the parents who left the kids home alone while they partied in Vegas (the father's attorney says that it's not as bad as it sounds – whatever), I was remembering a time in the seventh grade when I was home alone after school (I wonder where my siblings were) and the phone rang. The person asked for my mother and I knew I wasn't supposed to say she wasn't home or that I was alone, so I said she was unavailable (does anybody who gets a child on the phone believe that?). The person was very very persistent while I was equally persistent about taking a message. I ended the phone call abruptly after he said, "I can't tell you that" when I asked for a name. I ran screaming out of the house scared out of my mind that someone was coming to the house. Thank God it was September, so the weather was nice and that it was 1976 so I knew all my neighbors and there were people home. I think I ended up across the street trembling while the neighbors took care of me until Mom got home – she might have just started working at Burger King and she probably got home shortly at 4:00. This was during the time of the Oakland County Child Killer, so I think the whole "Be wary of strangers" had been even more prevalent.

It turned out that that the caller had been a friend of the father's (FF) from work who was trying to play a prank on my Mom (it was her b-day) because of something FF had done earlier in the day. I guess he went into FF's office and said, "I think I just scared the crap out one of your kids." I wouldn't return to the house until someone else got home (preferably an adult), but when I found out I was quite embarrassed. I think my parents actually commended me though on not losing my head or telling a stranger I was home alone. And I think I got an apology from the co-worker. I can't even imagine being left home alone at that age for five days (although the kids in SF were only alone for just over a day, before they were rescued).

Oh, look, here's a surprise! Pat Robertson is proving himself to be an ass, yet again.

On to New Year's weekend! While driving to Lansing on Thursday I got a phone call. I didn't recognise the number, but for some reason actually answered it. It was the fiancée of LB's best friend calling to tell me that they had planned a NYE's party at the last minute and had sent out the e-mail on Tuesday (which I didn't get as I didn't turn on my computer the entire time I was off), but figured a lot of people weren't checking e-mail, so were making calls. Now, I had thought they would have a party since he has done so for the past however many years. I had decided not to go though and spend NYE at my aunt and uncle's. That was until the fiancée said, "Party starts at 7:30, the wedding will be at 11:30." HUH!?! "I thought the wedding was Feb. 11."

They decided that in order to have the wedding where they wanted it, they would have had to cut 60 people (not that there was anywhere near 210 people at the house on NYE) – for some reason there was a 150 person limit. The moving up of the wedding date meant that the LB was coming to town though. She said they were using him as bait to get my family to the party. I told her that all she had to say was "Wedding's at 11:30" to get me there. I didn't want to go to the party, but wasn't going to blow off their wedding – even if it was at the last minute and expressly to get the tax break.

It was good to see LB and a few of his friends whom I haven't seen since YS's graduation party in August, but I would have had more fun at my aunt and uncle's house playing Sorry! with my youngest cousin and kicking his butt.

Oops, forgot to tell you about Friday. I think I did nothing during the day (except knit, of course) and although I'm usually very good at avoiding parties where I know the host and one other person, I had agreed to attend an old friend's New Year's Eve Eve party. Pamela had invited me to the party and then when I saw Andrew at the bar on Thursday he said, "You're coming tomorrow night, right?" "Oh yeah, where's the house?" I got to the party and knew only Andrew as Pamela had gone out to dinner. I love that feeling of not belonging – reminds me of high school. After about a half hour Andrew's ex-girlfriend showed up so I knew one more person. Pamela finally showed up (I had been *this* close to leaving – I felt like such a loser – for some reason, I have always felt as if I'm not cool enough for Andrew's friends) and everything was fine. I ended up staying until 2:00 a.m. and then had to drive Pamela and somebody else home. The funny thing is that I'm the way that Pamela knows Andrew. Pamela actually says I'm her Kevin Bacon, although she can usually get back to me in fewer than six degrees. Craziness!!

I actually had a good time and the only people who ended up treating me as if I were invisible were the people who were there when I first got there. Everybody else was very nice and friendly.

Saturday I slept in, knitted and watched my Sports Night DVDs until it was time to head to the party. YS called me multiple times (I had the phone on vibrate and as it was in my purse on the kitchen floor and I was in either the bathroom or the bedroom, I kept missing it) to find out what I was wearing. I was in that lovely female mode called "I feel fat and ugly" which makes it exceedingly difficult to get dressed and want to leave the house. I think YS set me up though. She said that she thought the house was going to be warm with all the people in it, so she was going to wear something light. Yeah, I wear a really cute spaghetti strap top and she shows up in a turtleneck. Thankfully I had my new Casual Corner fleece, so I ended up wearing that all night long as it was FREEZING in that house! I swear YS hates for me to look better than her (it rarely happens). If I show up wearing something sleeveless, I look stupid and she looks smart by wearing the turtleneck. Whatever.

YS had her beau come to the party. He lives in another state and she met him through his sister whom she met at one of her jobs. They've been emailing, IMing and talking on the phone for months now and they had met the week before Christmas as he came back to Michigan for the holiday. She had spent a fair amount of time with him, so I guess she liked him in person and well enough to introduce him to her family. He was nice enough, but I didn't get to talk to him that much. He seems infinitely better than her last one (who ended up putting GPS on her car after she broke up with him and admitting it about a month or so ago and not understanding why she was upset – we won't mention the fact that I told her he was a jerk from the very beginning), but as you can tell that's kind of damning with faint praise.

My Sunday plans got messed up because since LB was in town YS wanted to move Grandma's Christmas to Sunday so that LB could see everybody (aunts, uncles, cousins, Grandma, siblings, nieces, nephews). I couldn't very well be snotty and say No. I gave the gift for the Secret Santa Gift Exchange to the person hosting the party on Thursday night (just in case), so I didn't have to worry about being there at 5:00. Which was a good thing since we didn't even eat until 6:00 p.m., although we got there at 2:00 p.m. I finally said my good-byes at 7:00 p.m. and we hadn't even thought about presents yet. My aunt and Grandma gave me my presents and I ran out the door. Grandma gave me a check. Woohoo! My aunt gave me a very pretty and unique bracelet.

I raced to the friend's house who was holding the party even though I really wanted to go home and change out of my clothes (I was still in my church clothes), but I knew if I stopped I would be in big trouble because I was so tired I just wanted to go to bed. I don't think I missed anybody at the party, but if I had been another half hour I would have missed one of the babies (and I would have hated that). I received the Tenth Anniversary DVD of Toy Story (yay!) and To Sir, With Love (double Yay!!!). I love frivolous gifts! The last two nights I spent watching the Toy Story DVDs, although I must confess that I gave up on the extras last night when they started getting really technical. Some of it was included most definitely for the computer animator geek types.

LB left on Monday and I had called him Sunday night to say that if he needed a ride to the airport (I thought Mom would be working as she loves to work), but he never called. I was a tad upset when I talked to YS later to find out that they had gotten up early to have breakfast with him. Would I have gone? Very likely, but it's hard to be included when you don't get invited. I remember that they did the same thing the last time he came to town. Since I live on the other side of town (not that far, really, it's not like I'm on the East Side), they don't think to invite me. It's like they're keeping him to themselves. You'd think that when he got the message from me saying that I'd get up to take him that he'd say, "Hey, let's call the middle sister." BAB and SIL think they don't get invited places because they have kids – I must not get invited for some other reason…oh, yeah, selfishness. ;-)

I spent Monday on the couch watching my Sports Night DVDs. I barely knitted as I think I really wanted a break from it. I started a scarf for me (one of my splurges on Thursday $8) and then started the scarf I owed a woman at work, but I was just not motivated and didn't get a whole lot accomplished. I guess I needed a true vege day. And now you're all caught up on my Holiday Week. I do live the brilliantly exciting and enviable life, don't I? ;-)

Monday I'll tell you all about the Finishing Class I'm taking tomorrow morning. I hope it turns out better than I think it will!