Goodbye, Travel, Television (Resound11 Dec. 8 – 10)

December 8

Goodbye: Did you have to say goodbye to someone in 2011?  Did they move away or did you lose them unexpectedly? How did you react? What would you say to them now if they could hear you, or read your message?

If I had any doubt about my inability to deal with emotions and grief, this post would be it. I had plenty of time to answer the prompt yesterday (I was stuck at home waiting for FedEx to drop off Hubby’s Macbook). What did I do? I watched The Help(great movie, by the way), baked oatmeal chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin cookies, watched how-to videos for updos on YouTube (which somehow ended in me watching how-to videos on self-administering Lovenox injections), dug out my lightbox and  took pictures of the shoes I was wearing to the holiday party later that night……..

But I didn’t want to answer this question because it was going to make me cry and crying sucks. (Note: The Help made me cry, too, but it wasn’t too bad).

Anyway, here it is.

I kicked off 2011 with a rather unexpected loss: my grandmother. I mean, it wasn’t unexpected in the sense that she was in her 80s, but we weren’t expecting it to happen right then. She was relatively healthy. I got a text from my mom on Monday that grandma was in the hospital for a minor surgery and she was going to be OK. A few days later, I found out she had developed pneumonia. She died the next morning.

I dealt with it the same way I deal with most unpleasant emotional scenarios: I don’t. When I found out she wasn’t going to make it much longer, I was at work in the final stretch of a deadline project. I threw all my emotions into that project because I didn’t want to think about my grandmother. I made little changes here and there, doing anything I could just to hold onto the project a little longer and push of dealing with the inevitable.

Eventually, though, the project was done and I had to go home and figure out what I was going to do. I don’t think I cried until I got home. It was easy to fake a “nothing to see here” attitude around a bunch of people who had no idea what was going on, but I couldn’t do it in front of Hubby.

The week leading up to the funeral was spent passively-aggressively dealing with the grief. I cried, but tried to avoid any situation that I’d have to do it in front of others. I’m sure my family thought I was awful that I avoided contact with anyone at the funeral and bolted to the Olive Garden for a glass of vino as soon as it was over.

Maybe I’m saying this for my own benefit, but I don’t believe my grandma would’ve wanted me to sit around feeding off everyone’s sadness. She’d want me to celebrate life, not death.

I’ve thought about the second part of this prompt – what would I say to her now if she could hear me or read my message? I don’t know. I don’t want to think about it because it’s going to make me cry. Crying sucks (I think I’ve explained this before). But I don’t think I need to say anything. In a way, I think that says more.

Weird.

December 9

Travel: Where did you visit in 2011? Who did you travel with? What did you learn while you were there? Where do you hope to visit in 2012?

After I read this prompt, I had to ask Hubby, “Did we go anywhere in 2011?” He replied, “Yes. We went to Prosser for a week.” (Prosser is about 30 minutes away and where his family lives). I was confused until I realized he meant the week we lived with his parents after our old house closed but couldn’t yet move into the new house.

It was a pretty glamorous getaway in the heart of wine country. We even got a free spa treatment when his little sister spread butter in our sheets as a prank (a strange, strange prank).

I’m not sure what adventures 2012 will hold, but I would like to get out more – even if it’s just day trips. I realize we have a lot of upcoming expenses, though, so I’m not getting my hopes up on going anywhere fancy.

 

December 10

Television: Which television shows, series, program, or otherwise did you discover this year? What resonated with you? Did you finally decide to start watching “Modern Family”? Or, maybe you followed Oprah to her new network? Whatever it is you stumbled across, tell us about it.

I’m a little surprised our DVR hasn’t exploded under the pressure of all the shows we record during the week – especially Monday through Wednesday. Yes, I know. We’re those awful TV watcher people. Whatever. It’s kind of a bonding thing we do – snarking about characters we hate, brainstorming possible plot twists, guessing how much weight a contestant on The Biggest Loser has lost before the scale reveals it (competing who can guess closest to the actual weight).

We had (probably) too many shows already when, for whatever reason, I got all fall lineup crazy and picked a bunch of new shows I wanted to check out. I have a tendency to pick shows that eventually will get canceled, so I wasn’t really expecting so many of them being pretty freaking awesome.

I couldn’t decide which was my favorite because they’re so different, so I had to pick two.

My top pick of the season for a comedy would have to go to 2 Broke Girls. I don’t think I’ve laughed so hard at a sitcom since…ever? The plot surrounds two girls (obviously, broke): Max (Kat Denning) and Carolyn (Beth Behrs). Max is the street-smart Queen of Snark. Carolyn is the former-rich girl who loses her ass (like my mom at the casino) after her father is arrested for some sort of Bernie Madoff foolishness. The show is prettymuch 30 minutes of one-liners (mostly from Max to Carolyn) with some sort of plotline about the girls starting a cupcake business occasionally thrown in – but they’re damn good one liners.

(Honorable mention goes to The New Girl, Whitney, and Up All Night).

Non-comedy? Hands down American Horror Story.

I’d throw out a plot line, but that would just be confusing because it’s so twisted. Basically: Family moves from Boston to LA after the husband (a psychologist – big surprise there) cheats with one of his patients. They buy a house with a long history of tragic deaths (and other weird things) and with extremely interactive ghosts. Now the wife is knocked up with twins – one of them is her husband’s and the other belongs to her daughter’s psycho spirit boyfriend and is prophesied to bring about the apocalypse. I feel pretty neutral to the cast (they aren’t bad, but I could see other actors playing them just as well if not better), but Jessica Lange as the neighbor (and former occupant of “the house”), Constance, makes up for them. It may be the most compelling performance I’ve ever seen on a TV show.

It’s from the guys in charge of Nip/Tuck and Glee, so they kind of know how to push the envelope and take simple concepts (plastic surgery office, Glee club) that you wouldn’t think could keep an interesting plotline through multiple seasons, but does.

 

(Honorable mention goes to Grimm).