When I woke up, it was 1:30AM. Christmas was officially over. Finally. It couldn't have ended soon enough.
Not to say that it was bad, or anything, because it wasn't. But I always want Christmas to come and go as quickly as possible, so that people just shut up about it and everyone can move on with their lives. It's just. a. day, folks. Yeah, there are a lot of people who it means a lot to, usually really, really Christian people and/or rich people who can afford a ton of presents -- but to me, living alone in Kansas, it was just another Sunday.
This, of course, did not stop me from wishing my friends and family all the best on Christmas, and it doesn't mean any less when I did so. I love my friends and family, and really did want them to have a wonderful day. Most of them did, and seeing my friends and family happy also makes me happy. But again, to me? Normal Sunday.
As for my Christmas, I don't remember most of it, to be honest, because (as you saw above) I was asleep. I don't remember what time I went to bed. In fact, I don't even really remember going to bed, just that I did. All I did was cook up my three little steaks for my "Christmas dinner," call my parents, spend a few of the morning hours on Facebook talking to a few friends, and then at some point I passed out. And just. slept. like a rock.
I'm guessing my professor completely forgot about his offer of Christmas dinner to me, because I received no calls or emails from him. Which is okay, really, like I said. It would've been fun, but really awkward. And, again, I don't have enough gas in the car right now to get to Wichita and back anyway, so it's all okay.
Talking to my parents on the phone this morning was nice, though. My mother got a diamond necklace of some sort with both black and white diamonds from my dad, as well as professionally-done photos of the animals (the dog and their three cats). In turn, she got my dad a remote control helicopter. I'm sure there were other things, but that one was what stood out.
My mom is 51, my dad is 61. My mom got my dad got a remote control helicopter for Christmas. I'm repeating that so that it sinks in for full effect. My parents are awesome.
I also realized that I have about six minutes left on my phone now; don't know where all of the rest of them went (probably texting Suri back and forth during the semester) but the fact that I'm now out of minutes means I wasn't able to call or text anyone else for the holiday. This sucks because I always call my grandmother, at the very least. Instead, as I alluded to before, I sent out a flurry of tweets and Facebook posts. Yes, I felt bad about this, but I'm poor.
My Christmas did not go completely ungifted, though -- the first thing I saw yesterday morning upon getting up was that Brittany had gotten me another $25 Amazon gift card for Christmas, to go along with the one she'd given me for my birthday last week. It was incredibly sweet of her and something that really took me by surprise. I almost thought it was an error when I saw it pop up in my email, but it wasn't. I thanked her profusely. The girl's like my sister, and I really, really miss her being this far away from West Virginia all the time.
I haven't used the gift card balance yet, honestly. I don't know what I'll do with it. The first one, as you may know, I used to preorder the second season of Archer. That should arrive in the mail tomorrow, and I still have about $4 left from that one. This new one I've already applied to my account, but when I spent about an hour browsing through the stuff on the site this morning, I couldn't really find anything I was interested in. I may save it for a while, chamber it, and if something I'm interested in pops into my head over the course of the next few weeks, I'll order it. I wanted a Forever Lazy (yes, seriously, I do want one) but for some odd reason they're like $50 on Amazon. Maybe I'll get the cats some new toys or something. They systematically destroy most of the stuff I get them now. Suri got them a toy for Christmas and they'd broken it within two days. In pieces. I wish I were making that up, but I'm not. It was a hollow plastic fish with a "bizzy ball" ball-and-bell inside it. I found it broken in half at the bottom of the stairs two days after I gave it to them.
I told Suri, by the way, that it's high praise they destroyed the toy, as if they hadn't liked it, they wouldn't have bothered to mess with it or even touch it.
As for my own Christmas plans (which were, of course, scant), I accomplished only half of them. I was planning to watch the Captain America DVD, but as I fell asleep quite quickly, those plans got derailed. I'll end up watching it at some point this week, I'm sure. I have a stack of movies to get through, and that one's at the top of the list. This coming week is when things get interesting, after all -- it's the end of the year, I'm paying my rent tomorrow, and today I'll have to venture out at some point to Walmart (again) because I need cigarettes and a few other things I forgot or didn't purchase when I was there before Christmas. As the last time I looked out the window it was snowing, I'm going to wait a few hours to see if that clears up before I go out. May go back to bed again, too. Who knows. For the next week and a half my budget will be really tight again, as I'm paying the rent and am between paychecks, so if I can avoid leaving the house or spending money on anything unnecessary, I'm going to do so.
I have changed my mind and have decided to stay mostly clean-shaven over the course of the next month or so, shaving down to the skin every three days or so. I'm doing this because not only do I have no one to impress with my manly beard over the course of this next month, but because I'm "prepping my face," of sorts. I've been told by numerous friends that the way to get my beard to grow in both thick and very quickly is to keep doing this for a while on a regular basis, and once my face gets used to these regular shaves, just stop, and it'll grow in thick in twice the time. While I hate being clean-shaven, if I can get my beard to come in thick and fast as soon as the semester starts, I'll be able to keep my face warm throughout the winter months when I'll be outside and in the weather a lot for classes. If not? I found a big, blue scarf that the former girlfriend knitted at some point and never finished (judging by the fact that there was still loose yarn on both ends) that I can wrap around my face and neck if it gets really nasty outside.
I am worried about the car once the weather starts getting bad; she'll go in snow just fine -- I know that for a fact -- but anything icy, she spins her tires and fishtails a little because those tires really, really need replacing. Kansas (and Missouri as well, when I was living there) is known for its ice storms. We haven't had one this winter yet, but it's bound to happen eventually. There was a horrible one last spring on a weeknight in mid-February or so, when the former girlfriend had a late class, and it was not pleasant to drive home in. I have confidence in the car itself, for the most part. I do not have confidence in its tires, and until I can afford new ones, I just have to hope my luck holds out. So much of my life as of late has relied on luck, and that's sort of scary to me -- because if one thing goes wrong, everything else gets screwed up as well.
My "Christmas" packages (or, as one of my friends would say, "winter presents") won't be going out until at least this time next week, if not later. Probably later. I know they'll be really late, but I don't have much of a choice; no money, as you know. I guess that's okay, though, for most people; nobody really seems to mind, and all of them understand my situation. I'll also be getting at least two late packages myself from friends who are in the same situation as I am. Money's tight for everyone this year, apparently. I just have to focus on survival for these next two really tight weeks. It's not pleasant, but it's doable.
So, that's about all that's going on right now, really. Nothing else happening, nothing else planned. Now that Christmas is over and I'll have a lot of free time where I don't have to think about other stuff, I can get into my work a little more on crafting/retooling next semester's lesson plans, working on my poetry, and editing my book(s).
Oh, and (eventually) trying to get myself on a more normalized sleeping pattern again.
No comments:
Post a Comment