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<\/center><\/p>\n<\/a>— 1 —<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Saint of the Year.<\/strong> As I have for 13-14 years at this point, I used Jen Fulwiler’s Saint’s Name Generator<\/a>. It gave me Saint Cecelia, so I forecast a lot of music in my future. <\/p>\n <\/a>— 2 —<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Word of the Year.<\/strong> I also did Jen’s Word of the Year Generator<\/a> and it gave me the word “dance”. This should be an interesting year…<\/p>\n <\/a>— 3 —<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Protesting.<\/strong> I took part in the No Kings Day protest in October and the No War\/No ICE protest in downtown Mount Vernon this weekend. It was interesting being at both of them with Daniel. He was a pretty good sport even though it was raining at the No King’s Day protest, and the wind was cutting on Saturday.<\/p>\n <\/a>— 4 —<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Floods.<\/strong> For those watching the news in December, my town was indeed one of the areas that flooded. There’s a flood wall in downtown Mount Vernon that can be reinforced and made larger, and the MAGAt grumps were complaining about the expense of it… and it was shown to be worth the cost when the Skagit River crested at a record high. The reinforced and augmented flood wall held with one foot to spare. My family was never in danger — there’s enough elevation change that I was far above the 100-year flood plain — but I did know people who were evacuated. I described the vibe that week as being like the aftermath of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake<\/a> while we were waiting for aftershocks.<\/p>\n <\/a>— 5 —<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Ouchie.<\/strong> I broke a tooth creatively, and I was displeased to discover that all the emergency dentists had taken the two weeks from December 20th to January off. I managed to get seen on January 2nd, and discovered that referred pain is a thing because the problem child tooth was at the top of my jaw instead of the bottom. It had to be extracted, and I needed A LOT of Tylenol in the 10 days that followed.<\/p>\n <\/a>— 6 —<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Christmas Eve.<\/strong> We had a lot of gatherings over the Christmas period, and Christmas Eve was our quiet day. I had church that night and even had a reading<\/a> (the same one I’ve had for 5 years).<\/p>\n <\/a>— 7 —<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Sandwich generation FTW!<\/strong> My mom had a cardiac ablation on December 8th, and it went off without a hitch. Someone from my parish was assisting with the procedure, and I got a huge hug when she saw me in the PACU. It was an uncomfortable feeling to have my mom as the one who needed care, but I’m thankful for her cardiologist, who is wonderful. It was also a strange thing to be introduced to her medical team by my full first name, middle name, and last name. (Anesthesia is fun.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" — 1 — Saint of the Year. As I have for 13-14 years at this point, I used Jen Fulwiler’s Saint’s Name Generator. It gave me Saint Cecelia, so I forecast a lot of music in my future. — 2 … Continue reading