MONDAY DIARY: GOD BLESS MOM

Now I get it!

Thanksgiving always seemed so easy when Mom did it.

I hosted Thanksgiving for the first time in my life for about 20 members of my family. To be honest I did not even have to cook. I just had to provide the house and some plates. If I had to cook too you probably would have been reading my obituary at the moment.

How do you people do this?

For some reason (I blame the devil) the work load at the parish increased incredibly as Thanksgiving neared. My desk looked as though a dump truck and backed up to it and unloaded itself after gorging itself on its own version of Turkey Day. And my desk, because of lack of space in the rectory, is in the living room. So that just would not stand. Besides, where would the drinks table be then?

So as the magical hour arrived for people to start showing up I got the biggest box I could find and just shoved EVERYTHING into it and hid it in the closet. My desk looked fabulous.

But unfortunately nothing miraculous happened. Reality did not match the illusion. The box did not disappear. *sigh*

So, it was time to play vacation – a game I only play in extreme emergencies. No, that does not mean I jumped into my car and drove to Niagara Falls leaving the work behind; while fun for a day that just makes the pile that much bigger when I get back. “Vacation” is when the doors are locked, the blinds are drawn, the cell phone is left upstairs, and items are taken out of the box one by one and handled immediately and without interruption until every last scrap is gone as if tomorrow I was leaving on vacation and wanted it done before I left.

I was so happy to legitimately see the top of my desk that I brought people in to look at it. Now all I have to do is catch up on 75 Emails and a number of phone calls. (You may have noticed a distinct lack of posts last week!)

But for the rest of Sunday, I will enjoy the illusion that I am really all caught up from the looks of my desk and pretend that Monday will be a lazy day.