Greetings and salutations from chilly but sunny New Jersey. Please disregard the remaining leaves on the lawn... they blew there from the neighbors' yards. Really. (Ok, maybe half of them did.) It's getting so late in the season that they may not be raked until spring. Because there is the off-chance that the wind could blow them BACK into the neighbors' yards and then we won't have to rake them at all, right?

So I got home Sunday night, and I spent virtually ALL DAY Monday catching up on email. Because, you see, I did the unthinkable. I didn't turn on, think about, or get near my laptop the ENTIRE FOUR DAYS I WAS GONE. Yeah, go back and read that sentence again. I know it's unbelievable. I usually at least download my emails even if I don't read them. But I realized I really hadn't had "vacation" time this year... even when I'd been traveling, I was still working and extremely connected. This was my first real time for vacation... where it would be perfectly acceptable and understood that I would not respond until Monday. So I took advantage of that fact... to the extreme. It was blissful and wonderful, but it also meant a LOT of catch-up on Monday when I finally did turn the thing on.

And I've spent the past two days frazzled and crazed at my day job. This is supposed to be a quiet time of year for me. Things are supposed to be winding down. Two of my bands have holiday albums out and they are both touring in support of them, so to say things are a bit nutty is grossly understating the entire scenario. So I may be a little bit... incommunicado... over the next few weeks. I'll do my best to post here, because, frankly, I find it way fun to just mouth off at nobody in particular here. Therapeutic even. But you might not see me here every day. I'm sure you won't shed crocodile tears over that one.

So I had a nice Thanksgiving trip, but it flew by. Lots of time spent talking with family, laughing together, playing with all of the kids in the extended family, and taking a few outings (no, I didn't get anywhere NEAR a store on Black Friday!).

Everyone gathered at my grandparents' house that Saturday morning to figure out who was getting what and to do it all together so that it would be fair. It was bizarre and weird, and I felt like I was snooping as I went through things. It was three hours of adults trying not to cry in front of the great grandchildren, basically. You never knew what item you found that would set you off. For me, it was the bowl my Grandma always put her tuna salad in, and she ALWAYS made it for me because it was my favorite. So my cousins and brother decided among themselves that I should have it, and then when I saw it sitting on the kitchen table, I had to go into the bedroom and sit there for a few minutes to compose myself.

We came home with a car loaded to the gills with stuff. But as I said to Mike when I finally broke down and really bawled on the way home, I don't really care about the stuff. I'd rather have the people back. He said that it would make them happy to know that I had some of it and would give it a good home and remember the good times when I saw those things.

Anyway, the whole thing was very sad and difficult. I'll be going back over there one more time at New Years to go through some things I ran out of time to go through. I took really random, strange stuff in additional to the sentimental and family-related things... like a slew of old keys and game pieces, which I thought I could use for crafting.

They've decided to sell the house, so I think that saddened me even more. I was hoping it would be able to stay in the family somehow, but I just don't think that is possible. I wish it was possible to bottle the way their house smells. It has always smelled the same and it's one of my favorite smells in the world.

Aieeeeeeee.... I've gone all sad and weepy now...