Confessions of a One-Track Mind

The internet keeps cutting out, but since it's borrowed, I can't kvetch too much. While it was down this afternoon, I spent an hour cleaning off my desk. Might not meet everyone's standards of "clean"---I didn't get the whole thing down to bare wood and scrub it---but I got rid of lots of little scribbled on post-its and index cards, crumpled reciepts,empty envelopes and the like.

The shoebox that gets odds and ends dumped into it has been emptied and organized. (Albeit loosely.) There's a pretty gift bag that tends to collect jewelery (I have a habit of coming in from wherever, turning on the computer to check my email, and shedding whatever ornaments I'm wearing) that I still need to go through. I know if I do, there will be moments of "Found!" squee and I will have "new" pretties to wear during the sparkly season.

I've been trying to find some stamps I *know* I have so I can get the fracking holiday greetings sent out. I manage to do cards about once every five years or so, and this, dammit, is going to be The Year. I already have them addressed---and my industry was rewarded when I found an envelope with a relevant address on it. That's one's addressed too. And I found most of a sheet of stamps, but alas! They're only 41/45ths of what I need. Hmm, I think it's time for a trip to the post office, oh yay.

Did a round-up of trashcans and got a full sack (30 gallons) from the office, bed and bath. AND took it outside. My sink is empty. Now I should probably clean out my fridge. My food stamps reload tomorrow, so I know I'll be out and about restocking. GooI'll be going right past the post office...I can get stamps and mail the cards so people will actually get them in a timely manner. Less than two weeks, y'all!

Next Sunday, we're having a potluck at church. Publix is having a BOGO on Ghirardelli brownines, so that's what I'll be taking. It's also what I'm probably going to be giving the few people who are getting anything from me this year. Everybody likes brownies, right? There's a recipe for banana bundt cake in this months BHG that sounds yummy, but I'd rather not risk an unknown quantity that calls for butter, cream cheese and four eggs---it's probably delish, but it's pricey if I goof up.

I have plans for Christmas Eve---the C's are hosting their usual get-together. Haven't heard anything from Mb in a week, save for Facebook dross, and the only thing I've heard from J is a request for money for the phone. She's SOL, that's a very distant priority; (and again I repeat, since when is a Christmas gift supposed to cost the recipient money?!) as it is, I'm taking deep breaths and hoping Santa stuffs money into my g-string stocking to cover the real bills.

Meh. I need to go do some laundry.

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I got my first card of the holiday season (pwcorgigirl wishing me a Cool Yule) today, huzzah! Thursday, J is taking me to a party for the local dog training club...I wonder if I'll run into anyone I know, as I was active in the local kennel club for a few years after S got Macs and made noises about showing him. We're celebrating solstice and having a gift exchange at church on the 20th. CapeGypsy is inviting fellow UUs to her place on Christmas Eve for food and frolic. Nothing else carved in stone, but the month is fairly young.

Both of the homes J and I visited last weekend were decorated, the new people next door have lights up---the old ones never did---and I've been unpacking a few tchotchkes.

One thing I've noticed over the years is, a lot of folks have a particular symbol they favor for the decor scheme of the season. For instance, missybrat is into teddy bears. VermontChick likes moose, ThunderBunny is into snow people, a former coworker had a thing for penguins before penguins were as "in" as they are now. Other friends are into angels, stars, snowflakes, Santa Claus/Father Christmas. *points at icon* Nutcrackers are my shiny, dating back to my seventh Christmas, when my dearly departed brother took me to see the ballet.

(That was followed by the album the following year, along with "The Messiah"---Peter was a huge classical music/opera buff. I'm not an afficianado to the extent he was, but I can listen to it at full shriek and not turn a hair.)

Apparently, there are trends in ornaments; a few years ago, nutcrackers were everywhere. This year, they're few and far between. Still, I have enough for a grouping on my computer tower, I have a ceramic tree for the dining room table and a wreath with white lights and wooden candy canes (deployment undecided). Or I might do a bowl with glass ornaments on the table...it remains to be seem.

So---do you have a favorite decoration or decorating theme? What are you doing this year to celebrate the holiday of your choice?

At the moment, I'm basking in a glow of well-being. Life is good. I got a super AU story as my yuletide big gift, my recipient had squeeful things to say about my gift to her (Later!), I got a delightful treat story, and there was good feedback on my last-minute submission, too. (Last minute is right---I kept track, there were only NINE stories uploaded after mine!)

Am probably going to be browsing for the next week or so, but the Anne McCaffrey section is excellent. I've read my way through all of it, some of it twice. Another story answered one of my requests so perfectly that it was like getting another gift. (There was a lot of that going on---all four of my fandoms got some kind of response. The other two being Devour and The Catch Trap. Surprise, surprise!)

The non-electronic part of Christmas was good, too. Got to sample my pamplemousse rose body scrub, washed my hair, defoliated my legs and applied polish (glitter over silvery blue pearl) to my fingers (no pedi because I had one eye on the clock).

Went to dinner at Schnauzerland, which went very well. S baked an awesome spiral-cut ham, we all gorged---it was her and T and her adult daughter J and me---and afterward, we watched Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull on their big honkin' HDTV. It was okay, but I'm kinda glad I didn't spend any of my own money on it.

Came home with a dozen cookies and a box of chocolate-covered cherries from J, a cucumber-melon bath set and some cash from S & T...well, technically I started out with a dozen cookies, but I munched a few during the movie. You know how it is....

From GK came books and a calendar, the Fiestaware pitcher is the perfect shade of turquoise, and the Estonian "sewing kit" consists of a bag of various buttons, padded with a leopard print pillowcase and contained in a great little zippered black bag printed with "Easily distracted by bright, shiny objects...". She knows me so well!

Tomorrow I have to work, AND it's payday, so I'll probably be scampering out of the house early. I hope y'all had a great Christmas, too!

Today has been incredibly blissful. Yule at church, gift exchange, nice, low-key. Payless after---my brown mocs are showing a lot of wear, so I found some cute little brown shoes for $8. WalMart after that, gifts for the folks at Schnauzerland and the usual staples. Came home and have vegitated, knowing I don't have any more looming deadlines and all I have to do is deal with the phones on Tuesday and the 2008 holiday season will be over.*

Can't think of anything interesting, but Cool Yule, Y'all!


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*Except for the shouting afterward about who didn't get what and who got the wrong thing and all that jazz.

We take a moment from our regularly scheduled programming to bring you this special announcement:

There's an incentive bonus at work---they started with a pot of $50,000, to be evenly divided between the people whose adherence to schedule was at 90% or above for the month of December. They've been posting percentages for a couple weeks, but they finally started putting up money numbers for the ones who are still in the running. I'm still in the running, unless some kind of disaster strikes between now and the first of the year, and the dollar amount can only go up. It looks like I'll be getting at least $238! Go me!
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Wow, it's been an interesting couple of days. The job has been okay, especially since I'm not doing the whole mandatory overtime thing now, and the callers seem to have realized that they've run out of time in which to place orders, so that's slacked off. It's mostly people wanting to know where their orders are, and a few people treating themselves to new things, no rush. Sweet.

My flurry of posting has given me a mailbox full of comments and reviews to hug. Some of it was old business: the Chase-fic and the PotC smut were stories I wrote last summer but didn't post because they were pretty dark, for me, the Winchester Christmas fic I wrote a couple weeks ago (I try to hold off on holiday fic to closer to the actual holiday), and the two SPN ficlets were posted on the same day they were written. I need to buckle down and get more written---I have *counts on fingers* four? things in the works, and really need to get at least one of them done before the New Year. Luckily, I haven't actually promised it to its intended recipient.

Blessed Yule!