Back to Reality Tomorrow
The title is a bit of a misnomer, because it's not like I got any time off for the holidays, so theoretically I've been working as usual the whole time. The thing is, of course, that the holidays always cause a significant slowdown at work. People take more time off to be with their families, other governmental departments shut down for a few days, etc. So I spent a couple of weeks not having to deal with my bosses (they don't come in on statutory holidays and many of them took time off), and having a significantly lighter workload than is the norm. Tomorrow, though, everyone will be back at work, including the bosses, and all the office politics bullshit will start up again, as well as the regular work. I'm not looking forward to it.
The better news, even though it's still stressful, is that my classes at university start again on Thursday. I scheduled all my necessary days off work in order to attend, and so far no one has refused my leave, which is nice, but there's no guarantee that will continue, of course. After they refused to honour their commitment to paying for part of my education, I wouldn't put anything past them. They seem to have gone out of their way lately to not accommodate even the most reasonable of requests from employees. It's a great management technique, let me tell you.
In university news, my grades have still not been posted, and I may have a quiet nervous breakdown about it. Holy shit. They're supposed to be posted this week, but I guess it could be Friday at midnight, technically, or even Sunday at midnight, depending on how they view their weeks. *lies down on the floor dramatically*
I am more than a little sad to be leaving the comfort of the holiday season. I had a great Un-Christmas with my friends, although my parents got sick at the last minute and couldn't come after all. I had a fine old grown-up luncheon at my house, fed six people (in a way it was good my parents weren't there, because there might not have been enough roast for everyone), and had a wonderful time.
Then I turned 40 last Saturday, and for once in my life I decided to celebrate by having a big party, because you only turn 40 once, after all. My mother, when I had told her about my plans, immediately pounced on the idea, and declared that she would organize it and that it would be my Christmas and birthday present all rolled into one. Honestly, the way she went about it made me think that she has despaired of my ever getting married, and this was her way of sublimating all of her wedding planning desires, which was fine by me. The only point of contention was the guest list, because the venue limited us to 30 people, and she kept insisting that I should invite all of my parents' friends, including people I didn't know.
"You should invite the Smiths!"
"Mim, I don't know them. They don't know me! Why on earth would they come to my birthday party?"
"We see them socially!"
"Well, I certainly don't. We exchanged ten polite words about twenty years ago."
Etc. Names have been changed to protect the innocent. ;)
Anyway, I negotiated her down to a reasonable number of "olds" as they all call themselves now (not technically wrong, most of them are over 75, many well over 80 years old): my godparents and some old family friends, which still added up to about twelve people. I ended up inviting a lot more than 30 people, based on the solid notion that not everyone would be able to attend, and I was right. A few sent their regrets right away, and a few people were unable to make it at the last minute: one simply forgot entirely (oops), three were sick, and one had an accident that required urgent medical care.
The ones who did make it were an absolute delight, of course. The party was catered (my mother does not do things halfway), and the food was absolutely delicious. My mother had also ordered the hugest bouquet of various white flowers (lilies, hydrangeas, white roses, and a bunch of others I can't remember), which was glorious. I don't even have words to describe how beautiful it was (I will have to find photos). I wasn't able to take any pictures, because my phone was hooked up to the sound system in order to provide music.
I was also able to give them their Christmas presents at long last, which was tickets to see Cyrano de Bergerac on the big screen (live broadcasts of theatre and opera are the bomb, yo) as well as a new landline phone for their house, because theirs is twenty-six years old an no longer works, no matter how much they protest that it's "fine." (It's not fine.)
It was a great party, but it was obvious my mother found it taxing. She was just recovering from an illness, after all, and at the end of the party when I took her home (it was literally across the street from their condo), she was wheezing terribly and could barely hold herself upright. I had to immediately park her in the kitchen and scramble to get her inhaler-thingy (I'm not sure if it's still called a bronchodilator if it's for emphysema?), and that helped considerably, but it helped to drive home the point that she really is very frail these days.
In the meantime, things have slowly been getting back to normal for me. No more parties, and I've been trying (I failed last night, alas) to get to bed at a reasonable hour. Tonight I'm aiming for bed at 8 pm (in 5 minutes or so) and lights out by 8:30 pm. I started streaming on Twitch again on Monday after a hiatus for the holidays, and it's amazing how much time that eats up. Even for a 3-ish hour stream like mine, there's a lot of prep that goes into making sure things go smoothly. If I'm not careful, it can swallow a whole day without my doing anything else.
Because I mostly didn't play video games during the holidays, I found myself with a bit more free time than usual, and I ended up diving back into The Dresden files early in the New Year. I hadn't re-read them in a while, and some of the newer books I haven't re-read at all yet. It's been fun getting back into that universe, and indeed getting back into reading at all. I've been having concentration issues for a while now that have all but precluded reading any new novels (I'd find myself having to re-read the same chapter over and over because I couldn't for the life of me remember what had happened or who the characters were), but these are like visiting old friends. I remember enough from when I last read them to keep me afloat, and I'm hoping that I will be able to exercise my reading muscle (so to speak) enough to be able to embark on more adventurous terrain in a few months. We shall see.
On that note, it is time for me to go to bed. I'm finding it a little difficult to both make time and to remember to post here, but I will come back as often as I can. See you on the flip side, folks!
The better news, even though it's still stressful, is that my classes at university start again on Thursday. I scheduled all my necessary days off work in order to attend, and so far no one has refused my leave, which is nice, but there's no guarantee that will continue, of course. After they refused to honour their commitment to paying for part of my education, I wouldn't put anything past them. They seem to have gone out of their way lately to not accommodate even the most reasonable of requests from employees. It's a great management technique, let me tell you.
In university news, my grades have still not been posted, and I may have a quiet nervous breakdown about it. Holy shit. They're supposed to be posted this week, but I guess it could be Friday at midnight, technically, or even Sunday at midnight, depending on how they view their weeks. *lies down on the floor dramatically*
I am more than a little sad to be leaving the comfort of the holiday season. I had a great Un-Christmas with my friends, although my parents got sick at the last minute and couldn't come after all. I had a fine old grown-up luncheon at my house, fed six people (in a way it was good my parents weren't there, because there might not have been enough roast for everyone), and had a wonderful time.
Then I turned 40 last Saturday, and for once in my life I decided to celebrate by having a big party, because you only turn 40 once, after all. My mother, when I had told her about my plans, immediately pounced on the idea, and declared that she would organize it and that it would be my Christmas and birthday present all rolled into one. Honestly, the way she went about it made me think that she has despaired of my ever getting married, and this was her way of sublimating all of her wedding planning desires, which was fine by me. The only point of contention was the guest list, because the venue limited us to 30 people, and she kept insisting that I should invite all of my parents' friends, including people I didn't know.
"You should invite the Smiths!"
"Mim, I don't know them. They don't know me! Why on earth would they come to my birthday party?"
"We see them socially!"
"Well, I certainly don't. We exchanged ten polite words about twenty years ago."
Etc. Names have been changed to protect the innocent. ;)
Anyway, I negotiated her down to a reasonable number of "olds" as they all call themselves now (not technically wrong, most of them are over 75, many well over 80 years old): my godparents and some old family friends, which still added up to about twelve people. I ended up inviting a lot more than 30 people, based on the solid notion that not everyone would be able to attend, and I was right. A few sent their regrets right away, and a few people were unable to make it at the last minute: one simply forgot entirely (oops), three were sick, and one had an accident that required urgent medical care.
The ones who did make it were an absolute delight, of course. The party was catered (my mother does not do things halfway), and the food was absolutely delicious. My mother had also ordered the hugest bouquet of various white flowers (lilies, hydrangeas, white roses, and a bunch of others I can't remember), which was glorious. I don't even have words to describe how beautiful it was (I will have to find photos). I wasn't able to take any pictures, because my phone was hooked up to the sound system in order to provide music.
I was also able to give them their Christmas presents at long last, which was tickets to see Cyrano de Bergerac on the big screen (live broadcasts of theatre and opera are the bomb, yo) as well as a new landline phone for their house, because theirs is twenty-six years old an no longer works, no matter how much they protest that it's "fine." (It's not fine.)
It was a great party, but it was obvious my mother found it taxing. She was just recovering from an illness, after all, and at the end of the party when I took her home (it was literally across the street from their condo), she was wheezing terribly and could barely hold herself upright. I had to immediately park her in the kitchen and scramble to get her inhaler-thingy (I'm not sure if it's still called a bronchodilator if it's for emphysema?), and that helped considerably, but it helped to drive home the point that she really is very frail these days.
In the meantime, things have slowly been getting back to normal for me. No more parties, and I've been trying (I failed last night, alas) to get to bed at a reasonable hour. Tonight I'm aiming for bed at 8 pm (in 5 minutes or so) and lights out by 8:30 pm. I started streaming on Twitch again on Monday after a hiatus for the holidays, and it's amazing how much time that eats up. Even for a 3-ish hour stream like mine, there's a lot of prep that goes into making sure things go smoothly. If I'm not careful, it can swallow a whole day without my doing anything else.
Because I mostly didn't play video games during the holidays, I found myself with a bit more free time than usual, and I ended up diving back into The Dresden files early in the New Year. I hadn't re-read them in a while, and some of the newer books I haven't re-read at all yet. It's been fun getting back into that universe, and indeed getting back into reading at all. I've been having concentration issues for a while now that have all but precluded reading any new novels (I'd find myself having to re-read the same chapter over and over because I couldn't for the life of me remember what had happened or who the characters were), but these are like visiting old friends. I remember enough from when I last read them to keep me afloat, and I'm hoping that I will be able to exercise my reading muscle (so to speak) enough to be able to embark on more adventurous terrain in a few months. We shall see.
On that note, it is time for me to go to bed. I'm finding it a little difficult to both make time and to remember to post here, but I will come back as often as I can. See you on the flip side, folks!