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Month: November 2022

Tis the Season

To tell you the truth, I waffle a lot around this time of year. It starts at the beginning of November (but definitely after Halloween.) Gimme carols! Lights! All the pretties! Except–OMG, not that song AGAIN. What do you mean if I want lights, I have to go out to the shed and get them, and probably half of them don’t work? Look, if we put up a tree, it’s just a battle for weeks to keep the cat from eating it or taking it down. And our living room is small enough without putting a big tree in it. (My kid is convinced if it’s not scraping the ceiling, it’s not REALLY a tree. And don’t get me started on real actual go-pick-one-out-every-year formerly-live trees, and the fight there, to get one that will actually fit in the house…) I want to bake cookies! I don’t want to effort. And I really don’t need cookies around. I need to find the perfect presents! OMG, these people are so spoiled! I do everything for them and their legs ain’t broke, why would I give them presents too? I want to give everyone food and hugs! OMG, get away from me. And my bank balance weeps… Seriously. My Christmas spirit sputters like a candle in a drafty window, only it’s one of those joke candles that looks like it’s out, then comes back when you least expect it. Again and again. Christmas always wins. Then I’m that lady, looking for Christmas…

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Gratitude

Sometimes, in the hustle and bustle of daily life, we forget to stop and give thanks for our blessings. I know I do. Frequently. It’s easy to take for granted that we’re healthy, or that we’ve got food to eat, or a roof over our heads. We forget that there are people out there who don’t have those things. And then it’s like, whoa, I am so lucky. I need to thank God/the Universe/whomever for this. Every Thanksgiving I try my best to practice gratitude. At our table, we list our blessings and what we are thankful for. It’s a small but very powerful thing. It reminds us that we should never take anything for granted. As you know, my health has never been perfect. But I am very lucky in that I’ve never had cancer or any other serious or life-threatening illness. I’ve never had to think about what happens after I’m gone in a very real way (versus abstractly right now) or actually make preparations for that possibility or say goodbyes or be faced with options that will either give me three great months or seven horrible ones. I thank God for that all the time. Yeah, I get frustrated with things — the severe fatigue, the sleep issues, the little stuff that pops up…but nothing’s killing me. I’m lucky. So damn lucky. I’m also grateful for my business, my job, which allows me to work from home and not jeopardize my health worse by having to work…

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noooo the holidays cometh

Do you know what’s in a week, friends? American Thanksgiving. Do you know who hosts Thanksgiving and hasn’t ordered a turkey yet? If you guessed me, you’re absolutely correct. (In my defense, the place I always order from went out of business about two months ago, and now I don’t know what to do.) It feels like as soon as November hit everything went full-bore toward Christmas and, for the life of me, I am not ready to do Christmas. Let me enjoy November! Let us at least get through Thanksgiving before we worry about Christmas! But, alas, it seems not to be. For example, the small-ish, mobile one’s school is having their Holiday Market, where they can buy presents without us parents knowing what they’ve gotten us, tomorrow. And I don’t know how many emails I’ve gotten that are titled something like “Haven’t gotten your Christmas cards yet?” I can only imagine how irritating this season is for people who don’t celebrate Christmas. The Christmas market downtown opens Saturday, as do a number of other Christmas-themed activities. Please. Please can we just wait until after Thanksgiving. I don’t even have a turkey. It also adds unnecessary stress, you know? I haven’t done my Christmas cards or bought presents or anything, and quite honestly I won’t until after Thanksgiving anyway, but now I have to worry about it. Thanks, commercialism. Any tips for keeping Christmas at bay for another week? Any tips at all? (help me)

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An American on the Other Side of the World

One of the luckiest folk in the world, here, reporting on her return from one of the most beautiful places in the world. Did you know the Maori only found New Zealand 800 years ago? People have been in Australia for 60,000 years, but New Zealand…? Even the indigenous people have been there just eight centuries. Have another amazing fact—while scientists argue about exactly how New Zealand became so isolated, they are quite certain that only two mammals are native—and they are each a species of bat. (The fur seals don’t count, despite being super cute, as they live in the ocean and haul up on land.) So. Super fascinating, check. Astonishingly beautiful, check. Home of some super cool stuff? Oh yeah. One thing this country is not? Always on. There was a 24-hour kebab place near our hotel in Brisbane. (Australia.) I didn’t see anything twenty-four hour in New Zealand. Even the Denny’s (Yes, Denny’s) that had a “24 Hours!” sign, had a small paper sign next to it that they were open 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. holidays excluded. Also, they sold booze at the Denny’s. In Christchurch, there was a pedestrian mall around the corner from our hotel, full of cafes, bars, restaurants, and souvenir shops. When I went in search of coffee one morning, the café I’d IDed from the internet that opened at 0730 wasn’t open at 0800. I walked on, desperate for coffee—and found several more cafés, all closed. I came back…and the one…

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