Days until 42nd birthday: 5
Days until Christmas: 10
Days until holiday PTO starts: 4
After being awake for approximately nine hours, during which I was doing all manner of chores and fulfilling household responsibilities, I crashed out in my chair for several hours. I was then awake for a few short hours in the afternoon before crashing out again and sleeping until 4am, followed by four more hours awake, then another four hours of sleep.
My sleep schedule is fucked, everyone. I don't even know anymore. I will need to drink some strong coffee tonight to reset myself for the last four days I'll be working before the holidays.
Because, yes, we are now in the home stretch -- the last few days of work, the last few days before my birthday, and ten days until Christmas. It will all go much faster than we all think.
I still have a lot to do, of course. Even though I was done shopping for Daisy in October, the TikTok shop swayed me on a number of items, and I'm waiting on them to arrive. I'd like to wrap all of Daisy's gifts at once if possible; it's going to be a long process simply because there are many little things that will need to be individually wrapped. At this juncture, it's going to be a hail mary on whether all of the stuff gets here before Christmas.
Even the stuff I've gotten for myself off the TikTok shop has taken a very long time; the wine red peacoat, for example, is heavily delayed -- it's possible it won't even get here before late January. I've extended it once (if an order doesn't ship within ten days of purchase, you can either cancel the order or say "yes, I still want it" and it'll push it out another month before automatic cancellation). I've gotten a handful of things really quickly, though -- like within 2-3 days after ordering. The rest is taking forever. It's likely going to be a crapshoot if most or all of it arrives before Christmas, given shipping delays and the overall busy-ness of holiday mail.
By the way, as far as I know, Canada Post is still on strike, so I'm guessing our family up there will not get their cards before Christmas. They likely won't get them for 2-3 weeks after the strike ends, as it is much slower up there to get cards (or anything) than it is down here. I've gotten a few cards from friends and family this year already, but as you know it's diminishing returns every year. Last year I got 24 cards in return -- this year I have, at this juncture, received four. I'm sure outgoing mail from Canada is affected too, because why wouldn't it be? So that's likely cutting into the reception count.
Overall, I am getting excited -- getting into the Christmas Spirit™ as it were -- as we inch closer to the holidays. Because I am so ready for them. I am so ready to experience a little joy, a little stress-free time with the wife and the family. My birthday I could really give or take, but the lead up to Christmas? Magical.
To those ends, I've got four more days at work and wow will I be checked out during that time. I am already mostly mentally checked out as it is. I am, as they say, over it -- and if I had the PTO I would've put in for this week as well. I should actually plan that better for next year -- just save up as much PTO as possible and take the 15th through the 30th off or something like that, just to be done with it. I mean, if I'm still working there next year at this time, anyway. Given the way they've been terming folks and yanking others to other line groups and teams, who knows. Over it.
Five days out, plans for my birthday are still murky and up in the air. I've floated several ideas to Daisy but I'm not even really that enthusiastic about most of them. I thought Dave & Buster's could be fun to do on a Friday morning when they first open, when there's nobody there -- but it's still likely to be very loud in there and also an expensive trip. I don't want or need another tattoo right now either. Because I'm having occasional intestinal distress that may or may not be caused by Trulicity, I don't necessarily want to go out to eat -- if we do that, I'd rather just get pizza delivered by our favorite mom & pop local shop, and even that I'm not incredibly enthused over at this juncture. There are absolutely zero movies in theaters I want to see right now. Indoor miniature golf, which we did on our anniversary because we thought it would be fun, was a major letdown.
However, there are a few ideas that I thought might be interesting or fun.
I told Daisy we could go get her hair cut and make an event of it if she wants -- I would enjoy that just as much as she would. She has said she wants to cut it short -- like really short, and I'm okay with that if she wants to do that. I'm just letting mine grow out for the winter and will keep re-coloring it blue and/or purple until the weather gets warm enough to where I don't freeze when I go outside with short hair. She didn't really seem into this idea that much.
Another thought was to go to JCPenney and get goofy glamour shots done of the two of us -- which I would love and have wanted to do for a long time, but...it is very expensive ($150 bare minimum) and the timing isn't great -- ideally I'd want to do that for Christmas card photos, and all of the cards have already been sent. I also can't get those photos done and end up waiting a year before I share them online, no -- they would be posted ASAP for the world to see. Also, you have to make an appointment for this, you can't just waltz in there and say take pictures of us, bitches or something to that effect. It's a decent idea but maybe it's best left for another event holiday.
My other thought was that...I really, really miss the mall around Christmastime, and Omaha does have a big, still rather thriving mall called Westroads. I told Daisy I would just love to wander through the mall, look through various stores, see if there's anything I/we want just to see if I can recapture some of that nostalgic spirit by pretending it's still the 80s and 90s. Daisy thinks I'll end up frustrated and disappointed, and that is indeed possible. Making a run through Burlington is another option. I wish Kmart was still a thing.
This year's birthday just feels directionless for some reason -- in other years we've had set tasks to do, things to look forward to and accomplish to really feel celebratory. A couple of those years it's been tattoos (2019, 2021), a few of them have been tentpole movies like the Star Wars films or a comic book movie, and last year the entire day was spent looking for the cat who would become Empress (we didn't find her until four days after Christmas). I don't want my birthday to be frustrating and unhappy, but I also don't want to just sit at home and be like "well, I'm 42, I guess." I just want to do something fun, and it's so tiring and frustrating to find something I'm actually interested in.
I also know that my energy will be limited, likely; no matter how much rest I get, I will feel like crashing in the late afternoon/early evening hours. When I am off work I am very much a morning person -- I know how weird that sounds, yes -- but I'm the guy who sleeps a few hours in the overnight and is up by 4am, 5am, taking care of things for the day. Daisy is not a morning person and will sleep until noon or later if she can. So, if we're going to do things on my birthday, that will absolutely need to change. I'd like to be out the door and on whatever adventure we're doing by 9am.
Whatever happens I will write about here, of course.
In other news...
Sadie is getting really close to her time, we think. I don't know if she'll make it to the new year. She's just old and her body is giving out, and she's trying to hold on -- I think, for us. I don't really think she's in pain or anything, but the winding-down process is accelerating, and it's now become very noticeable. As I told Daisy, it would be very 2024 of her to just up and die between now and the end of the year. Daisy made the joke that it would be cosmically funny were she to die on my birthday and have dealing with that be my "birthday activity." I told her if that happens we'll be taking care of the arrangements and immediately going to try to adopt a new kitten -- because not only will that not let/make me grieve terribly for the old girl, it would be a bright spot for my birthday.
Let's hope that doesn't happen though, okay? I've had enough emotional trauma for this year.
Plus, I did the whole "let's find a kitten" thing last year on my birthday, and I'm sort of over that as well.
Anyway.
Daisy still has a lot to do before the holidays -- she has to finish up hand-crafting gifts for her sister(s) and we have to get those in the mail, along with the tie-dyes I made for their family and the box of stuff I'm sending my parents. My parents sent me/us a box too, as they do every year; it arrives tomorrow. I have no idea what is in it. I already sent half of their Christmas gifts for the year yesterday, via Amazon -- they arrive on Saturday the 21st, unless Amazon is slower down there. Anything I send my parents I do so with a grain of salt on the delivery dates, because with them living on an island it's apparently just as difficult to do deliveries there as it was when they lived on top of a mountain in West Virginia.
I am still excited though, despite the fact that I have zero birthday plans, our old lady is likely slowly dying, and we both just had Covid -- I have something to look forward to, finally. Every night I'm working this week is one night closer to freedom from that job for ten straight days. Every obstacle can be overcome or ignored for the next four days of work. After that I can sleep when I want, I can eat when I want, I can lounge about playing video games and reading and writing and wrapping presents. I can be free for a short ten days.
That may end up being the best gift of all.
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