The Big Surprise

So tomorrow is my 16th wedding anniversary. Hubster planned something and then couldn't keep it to himself. He told me where we're going and staying, and I'm thrilled. We'll be in San Francisco at a place called the Mandarin Oriental somewhere around the 40th floor. The room is exquisite - we have a panoramic view of the Bay and both bridges, and all the good stuff between. Marble bathroom, hidden speakers so you can listen to the TV while you luxuriate in the tub with it's own private window overlooking the water, phones everywhere, thick robes, slippers, chilled champagne waiting for you, tea served when you arrive, maid service twice a day, fresh bottled water and fruit when the maid comes in the evening to turn down your bed and lay out your robe and slippers, binoculars, a chaise with a light right behind it (knitting in the night, here I come), a bed on a pedestal so you can look out the windows while you lay there on a down feather bed with a down comforter over you and your head on down pillows, and and and... Can you tell I'm jazzed? And we're going ice skating at a huge outdoor rink, and shopping in Union Square, and stuffing ourselves with fresh crab caught that morning (they cleared the crabbers so they can go out and fish), and and and... Shit, you'd think I'd never been to that city. Growing up here really jades you to the wonders of a world-class city. But when you stay at a five-star hotel and act like you're rich for a couple of nights, you appreciate all the wonders the city has to offer. There's no better time to see San Francisco than close to Christmas when all the trees are up and lit, the window displays hearken back to a simpler time, and everybody is happy. I can't wait. So when next I blog, it will be from the desk in our room while I look at Alcatraz and the boats gliding across the water. Heaven. It's too bad that I have to come home.

No pictures tonight, just some general gab. We got our truck back tonight, which is a blessing because we weren't supposed to smoke in the tin can we've been driving. Hubster was embarrassed to drive up to the hotel in it LOL. So I told him we would have taken the Bird. I'm glad we got the truck; I don't really want to drive the Bird in that kind of traffic. Besides, I don't smoke in the Bird, either.

My prison visit went really well this week. My boys are going to put me through some sort of initiation rite, one which they have to set the stage for. I'll be at the prison on Xmas Eve for a few hours - some of those men don't have anybody to come see them, so I couldn't let them be alone. Besides, they invited me to join them for their Xmas thing - the prison does some buffet and entertainment extravaganza - and I can't tell them no. I was going to go this Saturday to participate in a sweat lodge ceremony, but we're staying for two nights in the City. I don't want to come back Friday and turn right around to drive to Folsom. What a long day that would be. And true to their word, my boys were waiting for me right outside the door when I entered the yard so I didn't have to walk it alone. They're good to me. It's easy to forget what they did in the past, but I'm finding out that people can change their lives if they have a real desire to do so.

I'm getting my orders put together to submit to my vendors for the shop. It's so exciting! I'm still mulling over my business card design, but they'll be ready before Stitches West comes so I can hand them out. That'll be scary. I'll probably be too busy shopping to remember to hand out my cards.

It just doesn't feel like Christmas to me. Maybe it's because it's the first one away from our home. Maybe it's because I now know how and why Hubster was going to give me a Corvette as my gift last year. It's the memories. It's the weather. It's everything. I'm having a hard time forgetting, a hard time not seeing our old life in every single corner. I'm having a hard time. Period.

So I have to select clothes that I don't have, find something nice to wear to dinner which I don't have, pack sweats which I do have, do laundry, and get ready to hit the road (wow... we're going for a 20-minute drive). But I still have to get everything together. It'll be so nice to be gone from here. I can escape the reality for a couple of days. But it'll be here waiting for me when we get back. I'm trying to hang on - I've even completely stopped spending, if you can believe that - and it was so depressing when the mail came and there were no packages. ARGH.

Wow. This post has gone right into the crapper. I think I'll go knit now.

I hate Christmas.