It's All Coming To An End...

It was a weird weekend.

January, of course, is a full stop for me.  The insanity of the 11 hour workdays with only 3 days off the whole month of December comes to a full stop, and suddenly I have time to breathe.  So of course, when they were looking for a volunteer to train someone new, I raised my hand.  It was somewhat selfish, really.  January also found me at the doctor's office having my ribs x-rayed for fractures.  I fell 2 weeks earlier delivering a package.  Stupid really, I was on dry pavement but some ice was in the path and my boot hit it like a marble.  As I laid there on the ground, like a turtle on it's back, wind knocked out of me, I thought "This is it.  This is how it ends."  But no, I assessed the damage, and continued to work for two more weeks straight.  The good news, no fractures.  Bad news is they are severely bruised, and they ordered me a 40 pound weight restriction for the next 2 weeks. Training someone means they can do the heavy lifting.  It also means they are completely prepared for the job that lies ahead of them. And in an office with a 75% turn over rate, that's important.  Because every person that stays means I am one more person closer to getting my days off.

Because my trainee was moving right along, I was able to leave the office at 2 on Saturday.  I took Oldest to dinner and brought home take out for Hubs and Youngest who were returning home from another wrestling tournament.  Youngest went 3-1. One of his wins was up a weight class, which is impressive since he's already a light 152.  A rare night when everyone was in (except for Bonus who was working), we binged season 2 of YOU.  So dark, creepy, and ridiculously good.  Mid binge Youngest came upstairs and announced he had cleaned his room. Which meant we were three for three on the rooms getting cleaned this weekend. Don't be impressed. I think it had less to do with cleanliness and more to do with my threating note left on the bathroom mirror 3 days prior, saying if it wasn't done, I'd be doing it Sunday and no one wanted that.  Stellar parenting, I know.  I'll be accepting my award any day now.

Sunday we all went to breakfast.  All five of us. It was yummy, the conversation involved multiple aspects of political views, completely inappropriate bathroom talk, and it was also the last time we'd all be around a table for a very long time.  Bittersweet, yes, but it's for good things to come.

Once home I started slowly getting things out of the attic.  An ongoing process of letting things go, I bagged up 3 bags for the thrift store. The attic, by the end of the month, will finally be empty.  It's getting harder for me to navigate with the low eves, and the husband with all his 6'2" frame has never been able to get up there.  What I do decide to keep is moving to the basement.  In between bagging things up and the basics of the day we watched the final episodes of Game Of Thrones.  Yes, the ending was spoiled for us a long time ago.  It didn't matter. Another thing from the last decade had come to an end, just a bit later than we had planned.

I also fixed the paper towel holder that's been broken for most of December. The willy nilly-ness of the paper towel roll had been driving me crazy all month, but since I live in a house full of muscle heads who clearly feel the need to take out their aggression on the Bounty, it was not a simple fix.  Two trips to the Depot found me finally with the right bolts and it's now affixed directly to the underside of the cabinet in the reverse direction. Fingers crossed.

Tomorrow morning I will head into work after squaring away some paperwork for Bonus, and the Husband will be bringing Oldest back to school to start his second semester.  He's strategically scheduled his classes this term to incorporate more work study hours, sleeping in a bit, and (most important to him) better access to the gym.  This semester he will likely not resurface here until February which is also bittersweet.  I love the normalcy his return has brought.  His brother, not that he'll ever admit it, has missed him.  He has brought an evenness to the chaos. His absence, although wonderful for him, will be felt everyday here.

Monday will also be Youngest's first day back from vacation.  Back to the grind of classes, practice, and wrestling both on the mat and with the drama plaguing him currently.  He's struggling with his girlfriend of 4 months, which is never easy. Not that he says much, but when he does, all I can do is sympathize and tell him he'll know when he's invested more than he should. I am cautiously hoping he'll work through this in a healthier manner than he did his last serious girlfriend, and bracing for the storm if does hit home. It's a process we all have to learn.  After all, all but one relationship ends, right?  Breaking up is 99% inevitable.

I made chili for dinner tonight.  We set the proverbial table for five for the last night in a while. Bonus of course, had Pop Tarts and root beer, because well, he's 25 and thinks he can eat like that forever.  The rest of us ate at our respective spots on the couches and chairs, Youngest joining us in our Netflix binge when he got home from work.

It was a weird weekend of ends.  The end of Holiday Season.  The end of 2 binge worthy Netflix shows.  The end of smelly bedrooms and attic messiness.  The end of Oldest being home, of arguing of who needed to fill the car with gas, of relationships, of vacation, of willy-nilly-ness of Bounty paper towels. The end of our table for five.

And with every end, there will be beginnings, both large and small.

Its just going to take a bit to get used to our table for four.