11.26.2007

Sober Holidays

I have been dealing with continual chest pain for a couple of weeks now. When my blood pressure started acting wonky a few nights ago (really low diastolic) I decided to play doctor and see if I could figure out what was wrong, saving myself a trip to the heart guy. Having now given up caffeine and sugar, I feel much improved. The chest pain is only slight and the blood pressure is back to normal. I probably still need to go to the doctor and make sure that I am not killing myself, but eating and drinking NOTHING FUN seems to be the answer. Wow – this is a blast. First no alcohol. Then no fat. Now no caffeine or sugar. What is left you ask? Well, green leafy vegetables are out because of the blood clot medicine. That leaves chicken breast, carrots, and potatoes maybe? I could really spice things up with a little ground turkey or green beans… you know, if I need some variety.


So – the alcohol. I was wondering what it would be like to face a holiday without wine, beer, Baileys - all of the liquor I loved so much. It wasn’t bad. My father-in-law didn’t serve any with Thanksgiving dinner. I imagine he did this for me – and THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR THAT! I think it would have been much more difficult if everyone else had been drinking all day. We don’t have any alcohol at home, so it was not a big deal there…although Friday evening I was craving a bottle of wine. The feeling passed pretty quickly, and I didn’t think about it much after that. Overall, it was much easier than I had anticipated.


Thanksgiving was nice. After spending the day with Todd’s dad and his family, we hung out at home the rest of the weekend. It was unfortunately cold and rainy here, so the boys couldn’t go outside. This doesn’t sound like a big deal until you realize that they spend most of their waking hours playing outside. They come in to eat and take a nap. Otherwise, they are outside all the time. That posed a challenge for us. We tried teaching them to play Candyland and Chutes and Ladders. We made several unnecessary trips to the store in order to kill time. We bought them a few books, and we watched a LOT of Shrek. We were all quite happy to see the sun out this morning, and the boys were begging to “go walking” at 8:00am. It is cold out (41), but at least there is no rain, so I imagine they will spend a good chunk of the morning at the park making up for the many days spent inside with their boring parents.


I slept a lot this past weekend. Had many very bazaar dreams. And now I am left thinking about them trying to figure out where in the world they came from and if they mean anything at all. I doubt it, but it is fun to think about anyway.