Is it seriously almost DECEMBER already?

I can't believe there are only 35 days left of 2008.

Know what else I can't believe? ...I can't believe my house got evacuated...AGAIN. This time, it's a flash flood warning. I guess the fires not only wiped out 200 houses, but they also ruined the soil or something so that the rain doesn't have anything to soak into? Or something? Joe and I were at my house last night checking out the repairs and getting a couple things (one of which was supposed to be the mail...but I forgot), and this guy came walking down the street and asked us if we'd heard about the evacuation notice. I said, "You mean two weeks ago?" And he said, "Nope. Tonight. Flood warning." So...yeah. I wasn't planning on staying there last night anyway, but now I may come home at the end of this weekend to a floating house. In a post I made a couple weeks back (possibly a private or friends-only one), I said something about, "When it rains, it pours..." And I morphed it into, "When a fire threatens your home and your safety, everything else starts to feel threatened too." Well, now I'm thinking it's more like, "When a fire threatens your home and safety...watch out for the rain." Heh. Anyway, I'm not really too worried about my house flooding, because I live up a pretty steep hill...but like I said in an even earlier post, I'm not immune.

Oh, and let's talk about my room right now. Apparently when I was told that all my clothes and bedding would be taken out of my room to be professionally cleaned because of all the smoke smell, I misunderstood. I thought they would just take my clothes. And my bedding. Instead, they pretty much packed up everything I own, took it away to some place where they work their cleaning magic, and brought it all back in massive boxes and stuck them in the middle of my room. It's like I'm moving all over again. Only I don't have a clue where to find anything. And I'm really not excited about spending endless hours putting it all BACK where it used to go. But I AM thankful for clean stuff, and I guess it's good that they were so thorough, especially with my allergies and asthma. I'm just saying...it would've been nice to know they were gonna do that, because I might have taken a few things out of the house that I didn't want messed with. Oh well...such is life.

Moving on to other unrelated topics...my parents are heading up my direction today to spend Thanksgiving with my extended family at my grandparents'. Joe and I will be heading down in the opposite direction to spend it with his parents. I'm excited. And I'm sure I'll post about how the dinner went later this weekend, because I think I'm gonna meet Joe's grandma for the first time (who is apparently quite a character), and there'll be a bunch of other people (non-family) at the dinner tomorrow night who Joe and/or his parents are excited for me to meet.

And for another incredibly smooth segue...I am an ice cube right now. I feel like my office is a freezer. I'm wearing two sweaters (AND an undershirt), socks, jeans, shoes, and I have ANOTHER sweater over my legs. And I'm really cold. It could be because I'm also sick. And maybe a little bit because it's rainy and freezing outside.

I feel like this post is really scattered and kind of complainy. Which is not good (the latter, anyway) for the day before Thanksgiving. I guess sometimes I forget how easy it is to write about things that are lame or frustrating...or how I come across like I'm mad or cynical even though I'm really quite happy. I AM really quite happy, in fact. And I'm really looking forward to this weekend, and I'm glad to have a clean house, a repaired wall, clean stuff and even a fresh start on reorganizing my room. I'm thankful for the rain, and for family, and for Joe, and for Joe's family. I'm glad I get to work in a nice office (even if it IS really, really cold in here) with a bunch of great people. And I'm glad I only have a cold, rather than, like...cancer or something.

K...that's all for now. Happy Turkey Day Eve!