As Usual...

A bitmoji cartoon of a fair-skinned
brunette-with-blue woman waving
at the camera, with the caption "HELLO"

Yes, as usual, where usual means for the past five New Years (including today). No resolutions, not even goals. Just a phrase, or a single word, or maybe not even that. But definitely not the resolutions or goals. Check the side links if you want to see them.

I happened to have a therapy session today, and she asked me, "If you could sum up the year as a book with chapters and a summary, tell me what it would be called."

Okay, I like to write, so I can take a stab at this. 

The book is called Rolling with the Punches: The Sequel (because the first book in the imaginary series covered 2016; check out the links on the side for details). The back cover blurb says, "One woman's take on a tough year of injury, uncivil countrypeople, and internet wackadoodles," and I'm sure there are glowing reviews from other authors who like my informal, conversational style and my rants against Grammarly.

The book is broken into five chapters. Winter Blues  (January 1-March 29), No Spring in My Step (March 30-May 28), Laid-Up Summer (May 29-August 9), Frantic Fall (August 10-November 6), and The Story Continues (November 7-December 31). The overarching theme throughout is rolling with the punches, and each chapter has a separate sub-theme indicated in the chapter title... seasonal affective disorder, knee injury at SakuraCon, surgery and recovery, getting kiddos ready for the new school year and me ready to go back to work (since Abby went away to school for the first time; she did her associates degree at our local community college), and all the effort, dread and hope involved in getting Lizzy to a school where she thrives... and my country into a very scary place for people I love. That last chapter would be as frantic as (and more upsetting than) the one before it if it weren't for me going Facebook Lite. 

I even dropped about two hours a day of phone use since I removed FB from my phone and I only access it from my desktop computer. And the only drawbacks I've noticed (I can't access the neighborhood page I admin or photos I haven't kept on my phone) are far outweighed by the lessened stress.

Random Thoughts, December 2024

I'm still going Facebook Lite, though it's been refined somewhat: I took it off my phone but I still have it on my computer. This means that when it's not a workday I'm on a lot more often, but I'm also still curating my feed. I follow a lot fewer public figures than before because I can't tolerate all the hate-follower types. I still get plenty of the jerks who think that Trek/comics/Who/insert-fandom is "suddenly woke" and who assume their opinion is law, but it's a lot easier to ignore those when you're no longer also dealing with the haters on every. single. post.

Regarding the UHC CEO who was killed. Mostly the theories I see are that a) it was a professional hit or b) the shooter lost someone important to them because of denial of benefits. I find it hard to care, in a schadenfreude sort of way. I know some people who are absolutely delighted, but I am not. EDIT, because I was not clear: This is in part because I feel bad for his family and I'm kind of appalled that it has come to this. The other part is because I simply don't have that much energy to spare, especially during Hibernation Season. The most interesting theory I have heard is that the shooter himself is terminal due to denied claims and therefore has nothing to lose. I prefer this sort of thing in episodes of Leverage, myself.

Yesterday was a lot of fun. Lizzy and I drove/ferried over to Whidbey Island to meet my dad and stepmom for brunch and a holiday concert. The brunch was excellent, and the concert was fun, especially during the singalong portions. The fact that I know the cello part and the alto voice part of the Hallelujah Chorus makes for a bit of confusion though. After the concert, as we were halfway up Whidbey Island anyway, the plan was to drive north and take the bridge across to see the holiday light display at the Tulalip Casino Resort. My GPS desperately wanted us not to do this (because of a four-minute slowdown on I-5 southbound) and kept routing us down to the ferry dock in the south end, but in the end, I prevailed.

A very small sample of
holiday lights at Tulalip

We found out toward the end of that drive that the slowdown was actually because of the holiday lights; a lot of them can be seen from the freeway. Silly GPS. We had fun; it was a very nice day/evening. I'm a little sore, in a second-day-of-ski-season way, but I walked more than three miles. The last time I did that was actually at the SakuraCon that triggered my torn meniscus, so I feel pretty good about my improvement there. I'm sure my physical therapist will be pleased!

I forgot how big Whidbey Island is!

Abby should be home for the holidays late this week, so that will be nice. We will have to wait until after her birthday though. 😞  But everything is ready!