The season's first real weather event (a combination of overnight and early morning ice and freezing rain), has caused me to miss out on the holiday party I'd planned on going to today.

We were to head up to Boston today and then come back tonight. The other three women who I was driving with are all still going, as far as I know. I spoke to the one who's driving and told her I didn't feel comfortable going. I could clearly see a layer of ice on my lower roof, walkway and drive. Of course they treat the roads but temps were still 29 in my area at 6:30 am, which is when I was supposed to leave to meet them at 8 am. The rest of them live on the shoreline, where temps are higher.

It would have been an hour driving to meet the others at a designated spot, then another 2 hours drive together. An already long day I'm sure would have been really long.

I colored my hair last night and laid out the clothes I thought I'd be wearing, got up at 5:30 am, had wrapped my Secret Santa gift, etc.

I called my manager this a.m. to let her know I wouldn't be there and she said she was sure I wouldn't be the only one bowing out. She had arrived sometime over the weekend, and she said what is normally a half hour drive from where she's staying just outside of Boston turned into 2 hours. So I think I made the right choice, although with slowly rising temps, the ice should melt by noon today.

I had been looking forward to meeting many of the people I work with (on the phone) in person for the first time since I started in October, but guess that's not going to happen now. Perhaps at some later date. I'm a little disappointed, as we were having a holiday brunch, gift exchange and volunteer gig, but at the same time I'm relieved not to have to deal with the long drive back and forth, especially with possible black ice.

Unfortunately, although i have my work laptop with me at home, I have nothing to do, so I'm going to have to call this a non-workday, just at a time when I'm trying to start building up savings (now that I've gotten the new roof on).

I've also had to ask manager if i can work from home Thursday since i have an important doc appt middle of the day and sure don't want to lose any more work time.

Oh well.

I saw another really good documentary yesterday on free Hulu called Milk? I think it's a play on the famous milk ad, Got Milk? If you want to know what goes into a purportedly healthy beverage that many people drink every day, you might want to watch it. Filmed in 2012, so it's pretty new.

Trying to shift gears here to make my unexpected Monday at home productive. I'm thinking I may venture out around noon. Today's the perfect opportunity to hand deliver a small food gift I got for the insurance agent who was so helpful in getting me signed up for an obamacare health plan.

There will be no other time to deliver it since his office closes before i get home from work, and i didn't want to waste money mailing it via the post office when it's just a mile down the road from me. So I can do that today, and also pick up a few food items, including bread so I can make some sandwiches for this week's lunches.

I'm pretty much done with my Christmas shopping, and everything else is also wrapped. I started decorating the house, but since I now know I won't be hosting the holiday dinner (sis is) it seems a little less necessary. Sometimes I don't really get into the spirit of it all until right before the day, and at that point, it's like, why bother when you'll have to out all the stuff away again.