What Do You Mean There's Only 15 Days Left?!?!

Surely it can't be December 10th. I'm still wondering what happened to October, much less November! I can't already have missed 1/3 of December. It's just not possible.

Life has been just way too busy recently. I vaguely remember it being mid-November I I was telling myself to just get through December 1st. By that time Mom and I would have travelled to Arizona over the Thanksgiving weekend, I would have attended my conference at the Arizona Biltmore (and finished my small speaking role), and hosted a slew of my friends at my house for an after-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving meal, turkey and all.

All of that happened. Mom and I had a great time traipsing around Arizona (Phoenix to Jerome to Sedona to Flagstaff, back to Sedona and Phoenix, to Tucson and Tombstone, and again back to Phoenix to drop Mom at the airport). Jerome is a great little town literally sticking off the side of a mountain. Sedona is beautiful and ritzy. The drive between Sedona and Flagstaff is breathtaking. Flagstaff brought back good memories of when we were there 22 years ago or so. Tombstone is stuck in its O.K. Corral past and proud of it. Tucson is the perfect size city, I think...while very Southwestern, it also reminded me of Louisville - very user-friendly. And that's despite all of the downtown interstate exits being closed for construction. Phoenix is just big, and bigger. But after dropping Mom off I did go and enjoy Taliesin West, which was the perfect preview for staying at the Biltmore, since Frank Lloyd Wright was a consultant on the project and his influence is evident throughout the facility. The conference went really well, too.

Less than 24 hours after my plane landed, the turkey was ready (there's a very funny story about the bird, but I'm not going to humiliate myself to all of the web, even if only about 4 people ever read this), and Lisa and I welcomed people in for a formal dinner. Thankfully it was a potluck, because we got to eat a lot of very good food and have a lot of laughs. The house hasn't quite recovered yet, but it was well worth it. What started out as me whining about wanting a real Thanksgiving meal (all the way back in July) turned out to be a great night of fun and food. Thanks to all who came and made the evening so much fun.

So things were supposed to slow down once the party was over. Except that I forgot that I had to organize an out-of-town meeting for my legislative committee members. So before I had a chance to do all of my laundry, I was repacking my bag on Tuesday to go to Fort Campbell U.S. Army Base on Wednesday and Thursday. My staff and I didn't roll into Frankfort until 9 p.m. Thursday night...UGH! It was a long trip for being less than 36 hours long. And I promptly came down with the crud in time to spend most of the weekend trying to recuperate from it all.

And now it's December 10th. I'm going to try to not stress (too much). I'm thinking Christmas cards are just not going to happen this year. Lisa's already decided not to put up a tree this year, so at least I'm not the only one going "Oh well, maybe next year." Tomorrow is the gubernatorial inauguration here, so I get the day off from work (having all those parking spaces is more valuable than having us try to work while festivities surround the capitol building). I'm going shopping and hope that I manage to take care of several people's gifts. I've got to, because with session starting on Jan. 8th, I'm finding it hard to find another good time to take off work and get more shopping done.

For all of you who are feeling a little stressed out there, my sympathies. Who knew there were only 15 days left until Christmas. I certainly didn't! Good luck!