MOOD SWINGS

Yesterday I received a "mood ring" from my sweet sister-in-law fresh from Antartica via New Zealand along with the following note:

Dearest Carolyn,
This mood ring chart will help you read exactly how you
are feeling. It should turn blue when you feel "normal" (whatever
that means) and purple when you feel very happy. However, when you
feel angry, it will leave a big fucking red mark right in the middle
of Jim's forehead.
You better warn him.

:)

Don't try this at home: I've been feeling remarkably good (yeah!) with the notable exception of an ill-advised adventure on Saturday. We drove up to Jim's mom's house in the mountains and took the civic instead of the subaru because it wasn't snowing when we left, and we're, well, cheap (and stupid). Needless to say, it was blizzard conditions by the time we got up there, and the poor little Civic made it about 1/2 way up their crazy dirt road before giving up. Jim set to the precarious task of trying to back down the road without sliding off the cliff... Liam was screaming and stressing him out, so I had the not-so-brilliant idea to just walk the 1/2 mile up the hill with the baby to go get help (I'm so brave, remember...) Yeah, well... 15 minutes later uphill through a blizzard with a screaming, wriggling baby (who has an uncanny knack for head-butting my chest where the port is) I arrived like "a little match girl" (as Carol put it) feeling the worst I've felt. I don't remember what color the mood ring was when I arrived, but Jim kept a fair distance, needless to say.
The lesson I learned (other than to try not to be an idiot, a tall order, apparently) was that I should really really try not to over-exert myself (and that I really do feel well, relatively). An excuse to be lazy-- yippee!!