Tag: Christmas

Hello, friends! It’s time for Holidailies! What a year it has been, so I will preface this by saying I’m not sure I’m going to be able to post every day, though I’m going to give it the ol’ college try. I’m moving at the end of the month, so between that, work, and not the best of health, I may miss a few days.

Don’t worry, it’s not my heart. It’s just other crap happening at the worst possible time that makes everything that much more exhausting to deal with. And it’s Gee, You’re Pushing 60 crap, at that. Like, I’m having a gallstone scare at the moment. Right. I’ve become the crone who writes about gallstones. The Gallstone Crone. Santa, if you’re listening, please bring me a new and healthy body to live in, kthnx.

As for moving, I still don’t know where I’m moving to. Oh, it will be somewhere in the county, but I haven’t signed a lease yet. Ye gods, people, what they put people through to apply for an apartment now. They want to look at the deposit history in my bank account, run a criminal background check, confirm my job and salary with my employer, and collect a pint of blood. I once had to get a State Department background check and it wasn’t nearly that much. I asked the guy why all of it was necessary and he said it was because so many landlords are getting scammed now. Beats me. All I know is that from what I’m seeing on the socials and message boards, this kind of thing has only cropped up in the past few years, because I didn’t have to do any of this four years ago. In fact, when I first moved back here 10 years ago from Long Island, I didn’t even have a job. The prevailing attitude was “No worries. If you don’t pay, we throw you out. Simple as that.”

So that’s a bit of stress I don’t need right now.

And now for a Holidailies prompt: What have you been most looking forward to this holiday season?

Holidailies, of course! It has become my favorite holiday tradition, a time to catch up with blog buddies and get into the spirit. I’m going to see the State Christmas trees on Sunday, so I hope to have pictures worth sharing from that. You know, if the lights aren’t green again this year. If they are, I’ll find something else to photograph and post.

In the meantime, here’s the first ornament I bought this year. I got it in Arizona while I was in Phoenix for a work trip last March. It’s a little more golden than yellow, but I had to use a flash so the surrounding lights wouldn’t muddy the other colors.

I’d never been to Arizona before that trip, and what little time I spent there makes me want to go back for a vacation. There is something healing and restorative there. Maybe in March. The weather was lovely when I was there and some locals told me it’s really the best time to visit, before it gets too hot. Something to think about.

Until next time, ho, ho, ho and please pardon any typos.

And so another chill Christmas winds down. Yesterday my sister asked me what I was doing and I said “Just chilling. New Year’s is more my jam.” And it really is. I had to work yesterday and I’m working tomorrow, so today was really more about rest.

Or, more accurately, forced rest. I’ve been working out nearly every day for the past week and I sooooo want to work out right now, as I type this, but I think my quads need a break. Every time I work out, there is cardio involved, so even if it’s not a workout that includes weight-training, it’s still working my legs, such as the inclines on the treadmill and the jumping in the cardiokickboxing. Last night my legs were feeling noodly when I lowered the treadmill from the final incline (12%!), so yeah, rest.

Yeah, not quite Ivan Drago, but it felt like it.

Forced rest on the work, too. I could log in and finish up a piece, or work on a freelance piece, but I find that if I use my days off as actual days off, I’m more efficient on workdays.

Certainly more efficient than goofing off with my gel pens. Hey, look! I finished it!

I had to mess with the contrast, so once again it looks like I spilled something where the shadows are on the paper, but whatever. It’s not art. It’s me binge-watching The Empress and filling in spots with cheap gel pens.

Here’s a better snowflake:

And on that note, to all a good night!