Aw. yay for fun hangs and hot soup!

I dreamed last night that I bought two little baby sharks at the grocery store -- all wrapped up like packages of smoked salmon, except that they were whole entire sharks -- and then let a stranger drive me to a different grocery store, all the while stressing out about having left my sharks to start going off in my car that I had left in the parking lot of the first grocery store, and also how was I going to get home from the second grocery store?

My anxiety dreams are just French tests and breaking my ankle!

Those are some anxiety dreams. Mine usually involve my teeth falling out.

My niece is bringing her family over from Wisconsin on Wednesday, so my sister will have her kids, their spouses and their kids, her husband and me all under her roof for extended periods of time. She’s so happy, and I’m looking forward to it, too. The Rancid Cheeto has driven even the most conservative members of my immediate family towards my way of thinking, so we can even talk politics and religion without tears now. My sister’s husbands’s cousin has a huge Thanksgiving gathering every year (20+ people, 2 turkeys and a ham), so I’ll be bringing squash puffs as an appetizer. And over the next week we’re expecting 8 inches of snow, so I'm hoping we can get the kids upside for snowball fights.

Back at work after a week off to assist with father having ankle replacement surgery (at 82!!!) and I’m exhausted.

Hosting 4 or 5 for T-day. Already have most stuff, but will grocery shop tonight for the rest. I have tomorrow off and will clean, make the pies, and make the cranberries. Everything else will be done Thursday.

At the office. I thought I had the department to myself, but the dropship logistics manager showed up. He's in his office, though, so I still have the floor to myself, basically.

When I was at the sale on Saturday, I ended up checking out these two guys with carts full of expensive stuff who were vying to pay for each other's stuff "I'm Stanley's son-in-law, let me pay" say one (Stanley is our owner, we are all on a first-name basis here) so the other says no, he is, I just hold out the device and let whoever is able to tap something pay and, lo, there actually is Stanley standing in the open space about a foot from my register but not paying attention to these shenanigans. Surreal.

Ope, couple other people have shown up. My brief territorial dominance is over

Dominate, t!

I do not want to be working. But I do actually have some work to be doing. Grump.

My brief territorial dominance is over

You had a good run, though. #neverforget

I had decided to cut back a little on my responsibilities for Thanksgiving this year so I wasn't running around frantically for three days. Had asked Emmett to bring a side dish, EM was coming on Wednesday night to help clean before hand, and only had one guest besides the fam.

Then between last night and this morning, Emmett couldn't do the Mac and Cheese because he's working late shift all this week, EM isn't coming until Thursday morning and Matilda asked if her boyfriend could come for Thanksgiving.

Also, Matilda's not coming home until Thursday morning. I am glad to have her boyfriend here, though.

But my plan to cut back and delegate and recruit help has come to nought. At least I've learned to start two days out and I can brine the turkey, make some stock, do the stuffing, do the cranberry sauce and prep the mushrooms and maybe do the Mac and Cheese.

I am going to be hanging with my downstairs neighbor, Jamille, for a bit today though.

Now I'm hoping the furnace repair guy shows up at 10 because I've got to go pick up my turkey between 10-11.

Update: Furnace guy is coming between 1-2, so I'm off to get my turkey bird.

Is there a courteous, team player way to say "When you talk to me, you order me around, and I'm beginning not to care for it?"(Is that it?) Because I know, by signing up to be on the precinct committee(there were petitions...it's a whole thing) my "yes" is...kind of implied, to the district chair,at least some of the time. And I feel slightly bad that she joins the list of people that I can't "touch base"(argh) at night with because of the whole attendant thing, even though I need another working Zoom like another hole in my head anyway. But my problem is that she has absolutely stopped asking, like,ever--she presents me with some plan she made up, deadlines included, and the people who can talk to me like that, like actually pay things here(and I secretly hate their guts, but we don't need to talk about that again) But she knows I'm juggling a bunch of stuff(and maybe she doesn't get that putting me to work can, at times, give Mom a job, too, which she will help with, but is not as into as I am.) Also, the whole Bossy Cow thing from above, which I know we are collectively re-framing as "female leadership potential" but personally I'm finding a big pain right this minute. I've sucked it up a few times, but if I do it forever, I won't feel good about it.