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Dec. 20th, 2024
Finish Line
Dec. 20th, 2024 09:18 amThe last of my gifts for people finally arrived yesterday and I was like THANK GOD because they were slated to arrive anywhere up to the 30th of December, which, you know, wouldn't have been ideal. So, I was able to get my last five gifts under the tree and that means I am DONE (except for Cobin's cookies and Amy's pie which will be done at the very last minute, so probably on the 25th.)
This year we did Extended Family Christmas on the 14th, and we're doing Regular Family Christmas with my little brother tomorrow (the 21st) because he always spends Christmas in Toronto with his daughter and the girls now, and then on the 26th we're getting together with Amy, Brit, etc. (including Sarah and Heather, unfortunately) so we have no actual celebrating to do on the 24th or 25th, but that's not uncommon anymore, especially with my brother heading to TO every year.
I guess since we're all adults it probably shouldn't matter but it bothers me a little bit. I get really stuck in my ways and we used to have the big family Christmas every year on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day and things are just so... different now. I know things change as you get older, but this year at Extended Family Christmas my Aunt Brenda said something about "not having to do this at all next year" meaning Grandma might be gone by then and why bother without her? And that hurt a lot because as much as I love Grandma, she's not the only thing holding this family together.
Or maybe she is, I don't even know anymore. Either way it sucks and I just want to go back to the way it used to be.
.....
Today Mom is taking me shopping. It's early for the month and terrible timing, but even if we waited until the 30th we'd be running into Boxing Week shoppers so I guess whatever. Mom is just going to sit at the McDonald's at Walmart and wait while I get my stuff. She'll take her kindle and be fine there. She HAS to come in with me at Costco, since I don't have a membership (the whole membership thing is stupid anyway, they would still be making just as much money without bilking people out of $60/year like they do but whatever), but otherwise she's just going to stay in the car, basically, because she hates shopping this time of year. Then tomorrow she gets to do it again with my brother.
Yesterday we went to Shoppers to buy pop because if Mom comes with me I get the Thursday senior's discount and it saves me like $10 to $20 depending on the month. This month it was $20 because I bought a cane as well, so I almost got the cane for free. I used to use a cane like twenty years ago when I weighed 270lbs and all my weight was fucking up my joints, and now because of the NAFLD I've gained a shit ton of weight back again and I'm having the same problems, with my already arthritic knees and hips. I won't have to use it all the time, but I am going to need it once in a while from here on out unless my Doctor and I can figure out a way to get my weight under control again. Thinking about it just makes me want to cry.
I'm still mainlining The Walking Dead. I'm up to Season 8, now, I just started it last night, but does Season 1 even really count? It WAS only six episodes, after all. The end of Season 7 is the big battle at Alexandria against the Saviors and Jeffrey Dean Morgan's delivery of "Holy shit, the widow is alive, guns a blazin'!" is possibly the best in the entire series. But then I'm just a fan of JDM in general and he did a really awesome job as Negan, start to finish.
Watching so much TWD has got me brainstorming for My Zombie a bit again, though. I did a ton of it a couple months back, but I still need to write out the plot start-to-finish and get all the details worked out. After TKA I'm going to work on either My Zombie or Freefall next, along with my never ending SPN stuff, of course. I have a new SPN/TWD crossover called Cessation that I've been tinkering with the last couple of days.
Speaking of SPN, I got a review on Storm Season today (or, last night) that made me smile first thing this morning: "THIS SEREIS IS SO IMPORTANT TO ME I THINK ABOUT IT ALL DAYYYYYY.. I've never been more invested in a fic series than I am with this one!!!!!!" SO MANY EXCLAMATION MARKS. SS only has three reviews so far (including this one) but it's really nice when someone is so enthusiastic about my work. I'm pretty much writing it for myself, because of the lack of response from the fandom, but the occasional feedback I do get is really nice.
Right now I'm working on Serendipity (#30) because of course I am. I really need to get back to writing the earlier SS one-shots, Temper Tantrums (#6) is next up on the list, followed by Hunting Souls (#7) but I just keep jumping around and putting them off. I think because even though the IDEAS are there I'm not entirely sure about the execution for either of them. Except for a car sex scene in Hunting Souls that I HAVE already written, but like, what else is new? Jump straight into the smut, says the freaking asexual writer. Figure that one out.
Anyway.
I think I might be developing an intolerance to my anti-nauseant tablets like I did with my sinus pills. This morning when I took my customary Gravol ahead of taking my pills to help keep them down I had TERRIBLE stomach cramps, which is what happens with sinus tabs now. It would make sense, considering the amount I need to take them, eventually your body just says Enough Is Enough, but still. I don't know what I'm going to do about my meds without Gravol to ease the way. At least I still have ginger ale? idek.
A couple weeks back, Pluto over-groomed himself, like a stress grooming situation, until he had a big bald patch on his belly and two bald patches, one on each leg. Juna used to stress groom sometimes, so I wasn't TOO concerned, but Juna also stress groomed himself almost completely bald so I was definitely keeping an eye on it. Pluto seems to have done it over the course of the days that we moved all the boxes out of the basement, moved the sewing desk (etc) INTO the basement, and got put up all the Christmas decorations, though, so it was probably just a "too much change too fast" thing. Pluto doesn't do well with change. But like I said, he pretty much did his over-grooming over that week and then stopped, and his bald patches haven't gotten any bigger since, and the hair is growing back in (slowly) so soon he'll look like a regular kitty again. Right now he's just got like... peach fuzz. It's actually kind of cute.
The other day I got a REALLY good picture of Kaida. The 'lotl's are slowly realizing that they can climb up on TOP of the one hide, that it has a flat top they can rest on, Ryuu was up there a couple days ago, and then the other day I looked over and Kaida was climbing up on it. And Kaida is SO handsome! He's darkened right down to black with darker black spots, and he has VIBRANT purple gills. So I took a couple of pics to share on Insta and show to Mom, and Mom was like "when you see him like that he's gorgeous!" You hear that, Kaida? You're GORGEOUS.
Itsy has been out and about a couple times lately, looking for crickees. He doesn't come out of his hide very often (at least not during the day), so he must be hungry. I'm really hoping Petsmart has large crickets in today so I can get him a good feed. If not I'll have to ask Mom to pick them up for me when she's out with my brother tomorrow.
Right, anyhoo. On to other things.
This year we did Extended Family Christmas on the 14th, and we're doing Regular Family Christmas with my little brother tomorrow (the 21st) because he always spends Christmas in Toronto with his daughter and the girls now, and then on the 26th we're getting together with Amy, Brit, etc. (including Sarah and Heather, unfortunately) so we have no actual celebrating to do on the 24th or 25th, but that's not uncommon anymore, especially with my brother heading to TO every year.
I guess since we're all adults it probably shouldn't matter but it bothers me a little bit. I get really stuck in my ways and we used to have the big family Christmas every year on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day and things are just so... different now. I know things change as you get older, but this year at Extended Family Christmas my Aunt Brenda said something about "not having to do this at all next year" meaning Grandma might be gone by then and why bother without her? And that hurt a lot because as much as I love Grandma, she's not the only thing holding this family together.
Or maybe she is, I don't even know anymore. Either way it sucks and I just want to go back to the way it used to be.
.....
Today Mom is taking me shopping. It's early for the month and terrible timing, but even if we waited until the 30th we'd be running into Boxing Week shoppers so I guess whatever. Mom is just going to sit at the McDonald's at Walmart and wait while I get my stuff. She'll take her kindle and be fine there. She HAS to come in with me at Costco, since I don't have a membership (the whole membership thing is stupid anyway, they would still be making just as much money without bilking people out of $60/year like they do but whatever), but otherwise she's just going to stay in the car, basically, because she hates shopping this time of year. Then tomorrow she gets to do it again with my brother.
Yesterday we went to Shoppers to buy pop because if Mom comes with me I get the Thursday senior's discount and it saves me like $10 to $20 depending on the month. This month it was $20 because I bought a cane as well, so I almost got the cane for free. I used to use a cane like twenty years ago when I weighed 270lbs and all my weight was fucking up my joints, and now because of the NAFLD I've gained a shit ton of weight back again and I'm having the same problems, with my already arthritic knees and hips. I won't have to use it all the time, but I am going to need it once in a while from here on out unless my Doctor and I can figure out a way to get my weight under control again. Thinking about it just makes me want to cry.
I'm still mainlining The Walking Dead. I'm up to Season 8, now, I just started it last night, but does Season 1 even really count? It WAS only six episodes, after all. The end of Season 7 is the big battle at Alexandria against the Saviors and Jeffrey Dean Morgan's delivery of "Holy shit, the widow is alive, guns a blazin'!" is possibly the best in the entire series. But then I'm just a fan of JDM in general and he did a really awesome job as Negan, start to finish.
Watching so much TWD has got me brainstorming for My Zombie a bit again, though. I did a ton of it a couple months back, but I still need to write out the plot start-to-finish and get all the details worked out. After TKA I'm going to work on either My Zombie or Freefall next, along with my never ending SPN stuff, of course. I have a new SPN/TWD crossover called Cessation that I've been tinkering with the last couple of days.
Speaking of SPN, I got a review on Storm Season today (or, last night) that made me smile first thing this morning: "THIS SEREIS IS SO IMPORTANT TO ME I THINK ABOUT IT ALL DAYYYYYY.. I've never been more invested in a fic series than I am with this one!!!!!!" SO MANY EXCLAMATION MARKS. SS only has three reviews so far (including this one) but it's really nice when someone is so enthusiastic about my work. I'm pretty much writing it for myself, because of the lack of response from the fandom, but the occasional feedback I do get is really nice.
Right now I'm working on Serendipity (#30) because of course I am. I really need to get back to writing the earlier SS one-shots, Temper Tantrums (#6) is next up on the list, followed by Hunting Souls (#7) but I just keep jumping around and putting them off. I think because even though the IDEAS are there I'm not entirely sure about the execution for either of them. Except for a car sex scene in Hunting Souls that I HAVE already written, but like, what else is new? Jump straight into the smut, says the freaking asexual writer. Figure that one out.
Anyway.
I think I might be developing an intolerance to my anti-nauseant tablets like I did with my sinus pills. This morning when I took my customary Gravol ahead of taking my pills to help keep them down I had TERRIBLE stomach cramps, which is what happens with sinus tabs now. It would make sense, considering the amount I need to take them, eventually your body just says Enough Is Enough, but still. I don't know what I'm going to do about my meds without Gravol to ease the way. At least I still have ginger ale? idek.
A couple weeks back, Pluto over-groomed himself, like a stress grooming situation, until he had a big bald patch on his belly and two bald patches, one on each leg. Juna used to stress groom sometimes, so I wasn't TOO concerned, but Juna also stress groomed himself almost completely bald so I was definitely keeping an eye on it. Pluto seems to have done it over the course of the days that we moved all the boxes out of the basement, moved the sewing desk (etc) INTO the basement, and got put up all the Christmas decorations, though, so it was probably just a "too much change too fast" thing. Pluto doesn't do well with change. But like I said, he pretty much did his over-grooming over that week and then stopped, and his bald patches haven't gotten any bigger since, and the hair is growing back in (slowly) so soon he'll look like a regular kitty again. Right now he's just got like... peach fuzz. It's actually kind of cute.
The other day I got a REALLY good picture of Kaida. The 'lotl's are slowly realizing that they can climb up on TOP of the one hide, that it has a flat top they can rest on, Ryuu was up there a couple days ago, and then the other day I looked over and Kaida was climbing up on it. And Kaida is SO handsome! He's darkened right down to black with darker black spots, and he has VIBRANT purple gills. So I took a couple of pics to share on Insta and show to Mom, and Mom was like "when you see him like that he's gorgeous!" You hear that, Kaida? You're GORGEOUS.
Itsy has been out and about a couple times lately, looking for crickees. He doesn't come out of his hide very often (at least not during the day), so he must be hungry. I'm really hoping Petsmart has large crickets in today so I can get him a good feed. If not I'll have to ask Mom to pick them up for me when she's out with my brother tomorrow.
Right, anyhoo. On to other things.
