There are those times in your life when you look back and wonder
I am never at my best during November and December. Holidays are my least favorite pastime and two of them fall very close together during that time. Growing up my parents did not act very nice during holidays and it rubbed off on all of us. Mom had to make Thanksgiving and Christmas look like a Norman Rockwell event while Dad only wanted to buy more presents. That resulted in two months of terse conversations or dead silence between them. I tried for the Norman Rockwell thing but it was a lot of work and I usually just prayed January 2nd would come quickly.
I was so good at procrastinating about the sample costume I was to make for the ice show that it threw most of November into a panic. With no suitable patterns to be found I decided a class in how to draft a pattern was in order. There was only one class to be had on that subject but it was an eighteen month course at the cost of $6,000.00. I did not have eighteen months - only eight days. Lucky for me Wally was going to his Dad's for Thanksgiving so I did not have to be June Clever in the kitchen. The auditions and the costume were scheduled for the day after Thanksgiving so I spent my day sewing and ripping apart what I had made several times.
Driving to the arena the next day I wanted to just turnaround and go home. Why was I doing this? No one had been very friendly in the last show, the sample costume was horrible, I would probably fall down during the auditions and I was terrified of the director. But by that time I was in the parking lot so I just decided to go for broke.
As I walked in the door someone smiled and said they were glad to see me back, I did not fall down although I was so nervous I didn't skate all that well. The director, Ron, only said I needed to make the belled sleeves bigger. WOW! That wasn't so bad especially since I got put into two numbers instead of just one. I went home feeling just pretty darn good.
The first of December I became aware that I needed to do something or I would be very unhappy come Income Tax time. Seems like I would be hit with a pretty steep capital gains tax for my portion of the house we sold after the divorce. So after a week of looking all over the Detroit area I found a house in East Dearborn that did not need a lot of work or so I thought. The neat thing about it was that it was what they called a two-flat. There was an apartment downstairs and another one upstairs. Since Wally and I really had no intention of moving to Dearborn, I was now, after some work, a landlord. Sounded rather fun and exciting at the time.
Wally came home from being with his Dad one day and Wes walked in the door with him. This was the first time I had seen or talked to Wes in a year. He decided when I divorced Dennis that I ruined his life. When he walked in he just said "Hi, Mom". There are several ways I could have handled his sudden re-entry like run to another room and hide, give him a terrible time for his behavior and all the tears he had caused or just say "Hi, Wes" and go from there. I chose to say hello and let it go at that.
Wally and I got out all the Christmas stuff and decorated the house up even with a live Christmas tree. We invited Wes and Charles over for the big day. Charles, being Jewish, never had a Christmas tree and all the decorations. He did wonder where we were going to hang the stockings since we had no fireplace. So we made one.
Charles arrived on Christmas morning with presents for everyone including the Bowser.
I had a great time being like my Dad and buying too many presents. I know Wally got snow skis and Wes got a new guitar. Hopefully I also was like Mom with the perfect Norman Rockwell day. At least it was one of the best Christmas' yet.
I was actually looking forward to the New Year which ended up being the usual fun along with the calamities.
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