……I’m celebrating my ability to handle all the trappings of Christmas on my very own and that includes taking all those trappings down and putting them away. Some women tell me once they are alone they scale down decorations, some not even putting up a Christmas tree.
…….Not me. Nope this girl gives no credence to the idea that because you are just one, that gives you a pass on the beauty of decorations of the holiday. If I am the only one looking at them, it’s OK. I am enough.
……But, it’s not easy. My late husband, Bill Kiefer, felt lucky to have a wife that did all the decorating solo. One Saturday he sat in the office working on something that needed his complete concentration. I counted 12 trips I made up from the basement; past his desk and up the second flight of stairs lugging the artificial tree in parts and all the Tupperware containers. At noon he broke for lunch and looked at the main floor in astonishment, “This is beautiful. When did you do this?” He swore he didn’t see me as I passed his desk. I can buy that. Surely though he heard me muttering under my breath.
……Back on my own again, I remind myself that I also can handle the two days I despise: New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. I’ve coped with aloneness many ways, none of them good. I read an article about 15 ways to spend New Year’s if you’re alone. It pains me that someone got paid for writing this and it pains me that I took more than a nano-second to read it.
……..What did the author suggest? Take a bath with candles and bubbles and a good book. Well, that was good for 15 minutes tops. What do I do for the rest of the night? Scrub the ring from the tub? Cook a gourmet meal for yourself? Why would I do that when DiCarlo’s pizza suffices and the only clean-up I have to do is throw the box out. Nope, I am an expert on New Year’s Eves from hell.
…..I could regale you with the New Year’s Eve I spent getting a truck to evacuate the old JMegy Plant during a flood when I was in the legislature. Getting home at 3 a.m., I was determined to at least have a glass of wine to mark the new year, / but the opener was in Charleston and I tried my best with a steak knife. The cork ended up in many pieces in the wine. Did I give up? No, I learned that night that if you put pantyhose over the bottle’s opening it strains the cork out and lets the wine through.
……I have New Year’s Eve stories that would curl your hair. But nothing tops the way I welcomed 2000. Doug and family were in from California and Shannon and her spouse had not been out for New Years……..like ever.
……..The kids were pumped. Mountaineer was at its zenith with great entertainment and food and an awesome New Year’s celebration. But what do two couples do with single Mom? “We can’t leave her alone on New Year’s?” Doug didn’t come in that often and he guilty for leaving me “Sure we can. About half way through the evening you’ll wish we did. She’ll sit there alone and look sad?” Shannon has always been the pragmatist.
………But there was another more nefarious reason my children wanted me to go. As public relations director, I had the power to comp the whole evening. Top rate dinner, drinks and even party hats. No discussion, we all were celebrating New Year’s together. I agreed until I remembered how miserable it was when everybody danced and you sat tapping your toes and smiling like you don’t hate everyone with a partner with whom to dance. And, oh yeah, when the ball drops at midnight and they’re all dancing and kissing each other, no one remembers that cranky person sitting at the table without even a New Years kiss. So I got sick. I said I just didn’t feel good enough to go.
………My kids had seen me do this before when I didn’t want to go someplace and they weren’t buying it. They continued with plans for us all to go out. Somewhere around 6 p.m., my whining became legit cause I really was sick and getting sicker. But, if you cry wolf enough,… even Shannon was convinced. I was faking it.
……When they departed about 6:30 I was glad to get them out of the house. But, then it hit me. I really was very sick and getting sicker by the minute. Within half an hour I knew something was really wrong with me. I called the kids to take me to the emergency room.
……Now this is where it’s get’s dark. Shannon agreed to humor me and take me down to the ER and then go on to Mountaineer. Douglas, already at Mountaineer, would be responsible for picking me up.
……That’s not the way it went down. Shannon dropped me off. Two hours later they declared me to have pneumonia and had to admit me. As they wheeled me into the room my phone rang and I heard the nurse say “No you can’t pick her up. We’ve admitted her, she has pneumonia.”
….Shannon tells me that Doug looked at her at that moment and said “****, we’re screwed.” They had just won the prize for the worst kids ever, partying away while Mom had pneumonia. I on the other hand, had just received the best story a Mom could tell on her kids.
…….It would be a fitting end to the story if the kids had to cough up the money for the evening, however, my good friend Rosemary Williams Director of Racing, spied them and comped their evening.
…….Happy New Year! My house is back to normal and so am I.
