It is 2018 and we are snowed in...upstate New York will be seeing wind chills at below negative 20 in the next week. Christmas was fantastic! Having a week to dedicate to the family, cleaning the house, making food, was soul fulfilling. I made a vegan Christmas dinner for Josh, Noah, Janet, Dave, Adam, and Shawna. Vegan Lasagna, Vegan stuffed peppers, roasted brussels sprouts, roasted herb potatoes and a salad with radish sprouts. Everyone enjoyed it and no one had anything negative to add about it, Jannet said it was good and so did Shawna.... nor was there even a single hint of negativity in any reaction. Which is absolutely positively...great for the way I can be about things. New Years we went to the Desmond for the New Years Ship Wreck party, which is normally $300.00 a ticket but because Josh was doing sound I got a 'wife free pass', All food and drink were included. There was a DJ among the main floors with tunnels leading to the two conjoining spaces, skits, drag queens, a giant pirate ship, multiple bars, 2 ball rooms with different themes of underwater and two different bands. It was really fun because it was free, and something I would not normally spend money on attending, but since it was free... i was extremely delighted to watch rich drunk people do rich drunk people things...varous degrees of drunk dancing and swaying. I ate vegetarian vegetable chill, fried plantains, pita bread, and I drank a few cranberry, vodka drinks with a hint of blue added to them to look sea-ish. All week leading up to New Years we got a free hotel room at the Desmond and the Blue Indigo. After the New Years event, we went to a dive bar on Wolf Road called Maxines and we stayed there till 3 a.m. ...again watching drunk people with drunkbeams of smiles swaying to bad and sometimes brilliant karaoke renditions of songs spanning 40 decades. I ate fried green beans and a over soggy salad that I picked at politely in the begging ,but then full on rejected as I realized no one's feelings would be hurt if I don't eat this. We watched Josh's co-workers expose their after work selves, I grew anxious and ready to leave anytime a person decided to come near us, sit and chat with long rambling drunkard type of ranting that is full of self grandiose balking, with tones of belittling others for ego feasting...I recoil... over and over, whispering "I am ready when ever you are", with an intense stare into Josh's soul eye look smiling kindly but clearly not wanting to be around.... more drunk people. New Years day came and went, I received a head wound from my keyboard up on a high shelf that fell on me when I was reaching for it to check the chilly weather forecast. Which swelled up and cracked open to a red aggregated lighting gash, Harry Potter like, only without any dark mysterious glory attached to the wound. I am hoping for no scar, time will tell though what I am left with on my forehead. Dogs have been a bit stir crazy due to the lack of time to be playing outside, it is just too damn cold. It's too cold for their paws, and they wince with icy toe slivers when outside too long. I am just finishing up the book "My Absolute Darling", by Gabriel Tallent. I feel disgusted and intrigued...I feel...swept up in the detailed descriptions of the North West landscape...and I feel my self start to speak to Turtle and tell her to...do it...break free. I am reading Love and Math by Edward Frankel, well I am listening to the audio book... it is fascinating, because I am not mathy, but always dream of being a magical mathy type. I have finished How Not to Die by Gene Stone. Frighting. People don't eat meat...don't eat dairy...and just really think about the quality, amount, and variety of plants you are eating daily! 2018 goals: To support heart felt humane industries, to reject and discourage all others from accepting the status quo of animal cruelty, to donate to clean water missions, to give money to homeless people, to have crackers in the car to also give to them, to be artsy every so often, to pick another marathon in a new city as a way to explore that city and set running goals that keep me interested and engaged in the training schedule...to read more, listen to more books, to cuddle lots, to teach online, to save up money to get a new car, mechanical turk when I have down time, to blog, to write cards to others...to keep working on my hair project...to aim to be like jesus and look to spiritual heroes like Allan Watts and Eckhart Tolle, and try and wrap my mind and spirit around their message. I hope to put up the two recipes for Vegan Stuffed Peppers and Vegan Lasagna with in the next week. peace