Falling down on the job

Sigh.  I had meant to do this every day, and I TRIED, really I did, but some mornings I was just too fuzzy from lack of sleep and some mornings, I put my hands on the keyboards and.. nothing. 

So , today was supposed to be the "End of the World"  but that appears not to have happened.  It should have started yesterday anyway in Australia, right?  I always said they just ran out of room on the stone.  So much for the Mayan Apocalypse. 


I have been reading a lot about the Kennedy Administration lately.  I got the book and the recordings Jackie and Arthur Schlesinger Jr made in the months after the assassination.   Listening to her was like stepping back in time.  She had a cultured voice, her tone carefully measured.  I wondered how much she was holding back in those conversations.  At times she sounded tired, sometimes laughing, sometimes you can hear her straining to remember something.  Fascinating and quite brave to talk about things that were, to preserve them for future generations.  It could not have been an easy task.   There are some surprises in in, I had to rewind when she said she loathed the French.  I am sure she meant the French leaders, not the French people.  It's funny really, as in my mind I closely align her with things French, but she was more concerned with American history, although as a woman of the 50's she was not educated in that way.  I get the sense that women of her background were taught things they would need to host dinner parties and to run a household, not to discuss politics  or even to exercise critical thinking.  The fact that she went back to school after her marriage to Jack Kennedy speaks loudly to the type of woman she was and the type of marriage they had. You get a glimpse of that classic 50's mindset when she talks about NOT asking her husband about  his day and creating a perfect place for him to relax. Such a different time.  I don't think I could have done that, but then I was educated in a different manner. I am also trying to read "Death of a President"  which was the authorized book on the event. It is well written, but a difficult read right now.  A bit heavy for the holiday season. I remember exactly where I was when I heard about it; in  the back of my parents' green Pontiac at the corner of Bartee and Van Nuys.  My mom pulled the car to the curb and wept.  I was five.  I did not understand but she kept wailing about "that young man" and his children. 

Anyone want a fruitcake?   I seem to have one extra.  The first person reading this and responding can have it!  I love the fruitcake, but I have too many of them. I forgot to take it to a party I was going to, I took something else.  Chris and I shouldn't eat everything I bake.  We are almost done with the cookies. I gave most of them away or sold them at the McGroarty bakesale last weekend.  THAT was a great success, I think.  The place was packed with happy chili eating shoppers.  I sold the baked goods out- just about.  I was exhausted afterward and in a lot of pain.  It does my arthritis NO good to be standing in the cold for 8 hours.  The things we do for love, right?  I love the work we do in the Community, so this is part of my gift to them.