How can it be mid-November already?

I am sitting here looking at my wall calendar. I live by this calendar. It tells me when I am speaking in a class, when I have an ad due, when I have an event. This wall calendar plays a very important part in my life. As I was saying, I was sitting here at my desk gazing at my wall calendar wondering where on earth the time has gone. This is one of those signs that I am getting old. "Where has the time gone" was a saying I heard my grandmother use often, along with, "If I had half her energy..." It is official, when we start using the same phrases our grandmothers used, we are old.

The Thanksgiving holiday is 2 weeks away. Since I am out of the office that week, I really only have one more week left before December. When we start talking about December, I start panicking. One the one hand, December is great - it means the holiday and the University is closed. On the other hand, it means Christmas and I have been awful this year. I am one of those people who start their holiday shopping in June. I love Christmas. It is very important to me that I find everyone that perfect gift. For some reason, this year I am really slacking. Just this week I went online to Overstock.com and ToysRUs.com and ordered some gifts for my kids. I am going to have to get on the ball. I am not one to wait until the last minute and join the frenzy. My husband does that. It is no fun at all to me. I do not like crowds so I like to finish my shopping early. I just can't get my act together this year.

My daughter's (Zoey) first basketball game of the season is December 2. I love basketball season. This allows us a lot of quality family time. She will play every Wednesday night and Saturday afternoon. She only plays through the end of January so it is short and quick. We all go to her games (me, my husband, and son). We spend lots of time in a gym. Zoey started playing in 3rd grade. She is now a 7th grader so we have spent a lot of time watching her play ball. Jack is not playing basketball yet so all of our attention is focused on her. This works pretty well. Jack plays soccer and football in fall; Zoey plays basketball in winter and then Jack plays soccer and baseball in spring. Maybe that is why I am so tired. I love that they are so involved and have a true love of sports.

Tomorrow is Friday the 13th. I am really not superstitious but I have to admit that when I was very young, my babysitter took me to see Friday the 13th. This was back in the 70s at the drive-in theater. It scared me to death. It left a lasting impression on me so I will try to be extra careful tomorrow. Black cats don't bother me and I'll even open an umbrella inside or walk under an open ladder. Friday the 13th is just scary. I'll keep my fingers crossed that all goes well.