I feel like I've got a lot whirling around in my mind right now. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Just is what it is.

On the whole, I'm feeling really good today. I think I've gotten a bit less sleep the last few nights than I really need/want to feel 100% during the day, but I woke up this morning feeling ready to go, so that's nice. I have another late night ahead of me tonight because I'm coaching an all-girls improv group. And tomorrow night we're going to a birthday party in Jersey for a good friend. Saturday night is the HST show and ANOTHER birthday party in Manhattan for ANOTHER good friend. And Sunday I have a business meeting in the morning and then we have tickets to the Bodies Exhibit (rescheduled from when I was sick). Gah! That's a lot. So I don't know when I'm going to sleep...or do the dishes...or vaccuum the living room...or declutter the living room and bedroom...zzzz....Luckily Kevin is a great Mr. Mom, as he likes to call himself, and does a ton of stuff around the house. Just thinking of all those plans makes me want to take a big long nap.

On a rather sad note, one of the attorneys who I assist at work is out of the office this week (and indefinitely) because his mom is dying of cancer. Ugh. It's so sad. She's been fighting it for the last year, but took a downward turn a couple weeks ago, and has gotten increasingly worse in the last couple days. They have no more treatments options left for her and she's at home with hospice care and her family by her side. Her son, my boss, has been at home with her all week, of course. But in this industry (entertainment law), you don't take big chunks of time off work unless it's a really serious matter. Obviously, it is. And it's so sad.

Did I mention he's just 28? Yeah. Not that it's probably much different from someone who's 38 or 48 losing a parent, but you know what I'm saying. His mom is relatively young, his brothers are young, his dad thought he'd have many more years with his wife. It's sad.

I don't know this guy very well. He's very quiet and sort of reserved. And I'm not someone who presses people to chit chat. So we haven't really gotten close over the last year I've worked here. Also, he's been sort of difficult with me, passive aggressively, at times. I'm sure his mother battling cancer hasn't helped his patience with me, his assistant. Anyway, despite not knowing him well at all, I still really feel for the guy, naturally, and am thinking a lot about him and his family. I just hate the idea of them hearing the doctor's say that there are no more treatment options. It seems like just a few weeks ago she was still getting chemo and was in and out of the hospital. How do you even come to grips with the fact that the fight is over? That the inevitable is upon you and your family?

His emails to a few select people at the firm (copying me) say she's sleeping a lot and that the time table is not looking good. How tragic and awful. I cannot imagine going through that. Nor can I imagine returning to a day job afterwards. I feel like this guy should take the rest of 2008 off, if not longer. But this is a very hard industry in which to do that. Luckily we work for a law firm that is very small and very respectful of their employees personal lives. I can only hope he takes all the time he needs. The idea of sending work related emails after your mother just passed away seems more than someone should have to handle. Then again, perhaps the distraction is a blessing in and of itself. I have no idea.

My family and I have really been so incredibly blessed because, knock on wood, we have seen a very limited amount of heartache, at least since I've been alive. I'm really close to my mom's side of the family and not close at all to my dad's side. And out of the members of my mom's side of the immediate family - grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins - who have been around since I was born, none of them have passed away, prematurely or otherwise. Both of my grandparents are still with us, vibrant, strong, fun, and in charge of the family. And besides my grandfather and my aunt both having cancers that were operable, nobody has been sick. That has been such an incredible blessing, I'm sure I don't even really fully understand the magnitude of it.

This Christmas, Kevin and I plan to film some footage of my family, documentary style. We'll ask them questions and get them answering the questions on tape. I'm so excited to commemorate them in this way. I love them so much.

Anyway, moving on to less heavy topics - this Saturday is December 6, aka St. Nicholas Day. This is a holiday most people I know have never heard of. I think it's German in origin. But my family has always practiced it. Basically, the idea is that St. Nicholas comes to your house on December 6th and leaves a little pre-Christmas present for you on your doorstep. But he rings the bell and runs away before you can see him. I've also heard versions where children leave their shoes out at night and they are filled with candies when they wake up in the morning.

When I was a kid, this was a very exciting, and sometimes scary day. Because I would get very freaked out when I heard the bell ring and I imagined that St. Nicholas was outside. The idea of this bizarre Santa Claus-like type figure who was mysterious and sneaky really freaked me out. But I would eventually creep to the front door to see if anything was there. And there was always a big brown paper bag, stapled shut, with little presents inside! It was the BEST.

My mom has kept up the tradition every year since I was a kid, always sending me something small and special for St. Nick's Day. And this year was no different. The package arrived yesterday and I couldn't wait until Saturday to open it! She sent us the most adorable little presents. A pair of earrings for me, a funny rudolph pen that has funny punching fists and a light-up nose, a cute keychain, awesome reindeer pajama pants for Kev, and three AWESOME ornaments for our tree! Two of them are these super neat (I LOVE THEM) cat face ornaments - one is a black cat and the other is a red cat! Just like our cats! We've put the lights on our tree so far, but haven't done the ornaments yet, so we put the Floyd and Chawser ornaments on it right away last night. They look so cool. My mom is the best.

Speaking of Floyd, another lovely treat was that this morning, I woke up around 6am to Floyd curled up sleeping right next to me. He usually sleeps at the food of our bed, if he sleeps with us at all, but he's never once in the entire time I've owned him slept with me, next to my head/torso, on the bed. It was so sweet and lovely. He's a big cat and I loved feeling his funny warm cat body all curled up next to me. He tried to get up a few times throughout the morning, but he just kept getting sleepy and plopping right back down and going back to sleep. I just LOVED it. He took up a ton of room on the bed, but I still hope this is the beginning of a new habit. I'd love to have him next to me every night. I think he's doing it because it's drafty in the apartment at night. Chawser was also curled up in his own little self-made cocoon of blankets on the couch when I got up this morning. He'd dug himself a little cave of covers. They are precious.

In food and exercise related news, things are good. The scale is down and I feel good. I definitely overate on Thanksgiving and I gained a pound last week from all the festivity, but the scale is already back down after a few good workouts. I spent a lunch hour lifting on Tuesday and I'm still pretty sore from it. And I took a nice long 50 minute walk through Central Park on my lunch break yesterday, which felt great. I chose to do that instead of hitting the gym and it was a good decision.

We went out for a friend's birthday dinner last night at a pulled pork joint - and I ate half a pound of pulled pork! All by myself! It was seriously beyond delicious. But I checked this morning and it was only 7 points, or about 325 calories. So no big deal. The upside is that I was SO full from it (Kev and I ate quickly because we had to leave the gathering early to perform our improv shows) that I spent the rest of the night digesting and chugging water and didn't need or want another lick of food. So the scale was actually down this morning, which was a nice surprise.

I'll go workout again tonight after work. I'm thinking some light lifting, some pilates, and a 30-35 minute cardio session. I'm not sure I'll have time for much more. After the gym, I'm going to coach improv, like I said, and won't be home until midnight. Oof. I'm looking forward to coaching though. I've never done it before, so it should be interesting. I think I know what I'm doing. I THINK. ;)

I plan to workout a lot this weekend too. I didn't get in as much as I wanted to last week, which was fine, but I've got the itch again, so I'll squeeze it in when I can. I also need to squeeze in a TJ's run! But I'm thinking of taking a page out of my friend Jess' book and trying to really eat all the stuff in my cabinets!

Workworkwork. Back to work.