Hey! It’s a new post!

So, I took an unplanned blogging break, the longest one ever in the history of this website. And the longer it got, the harder I searched my brain for something to write about. I’m writing today – just writing, no pictures – for the first time in about a month and a half. This is largely going to be stream-of-consciousness, because I really just need to get something written. It’s like ripping off a bandaid, in a way. It won’t be pretty, but at least it will be done.

Christmas is in full swing at work, and I have a cold. Thank goodness for Zicam, which has kicked this cold in its nasty little pants. I sound awful today, but feel much better, which is probably the best possible scenario for pity points. Right? Right?

We bought a tree on Friday, at the onset of my low-grade fever, which meant that we ended up with a six foot MONSTER tree. It made perfect sense at the time. We brought it home and tried to put it into our tree stand, which we’ve used with our four-foot-ish trees for about three years. You can imagine how that worked out. We put the tree in a bowl of water, left it leaning up against a wall, and decided to deal with it the next day.

I had two concerts at work on Saturday. First, we premiered our new children’s holiday sing along, which featured such incredible characters as a ninja, a pirate, a princess, a fairy, the best St. Nicholas ever, and more. Cold medication and a slight fever made the experience totally surreal. Even though I knew what was happening, I felt confused within the first fifteen minutes. Finally, after our second, more “serious” concert, I left work and drove toward home. I could not shake the image of our cats toppling the Christmas tree, so I decided to stop on Polk Street to pick up a tree stand at one of our many locally-owned hardware stores. I parked and got out of the car, only to find myself surrounded by hundreds of totally wasted Santa Clauses.

It was end-of-the-day SantaCon, and I’m sure it would have been a thing of beauty, if I weren’t already so COMPLETELY OVER EVERYTHING ZOMG. I watched as one Santa limped into Walgreen’s, purchased a knee brace, and then limped back out and into the bar next door. As he entered, a resounding cheer erupted. I found my Christmas tree stand at the third hardware store I visited, went home, and blearily ordered Tom Kha from the Thai place down the street. Yesterday was remarkably similar to Saturday, but with a lower temperature and no SantaCon. By contrast, one might even call it dull!

Today is a day off after eight straight days of work – including a 14-hour day and two 12-hour days – and mostly I need to clean the house and take care of some Christmas present shopping. Next week is a seven concert week, and promises moments of magic and exhaustion. And then, starting December 21, the Horse Whisperer and I have a glorious four days off together. We look forward to this every year! We spend our time enjoying San Francisco as if we were tourists. We eat all of our favorite things. We sleep a lot, go to the movies, and take lots of walks. We’ve been counting down the days since late October, and it is now so close that we are both completely wired.

My last “real” post was about taking things personally, and I’m still struggling with that. I realize that this is a recurring theme in my life, and on this website. If I look back over the past several years, most of my biggest “issues” have stemmed from my inability to let things go. I wonder if the universe is trying to force me to deal with this? I’m not a “woo-woo” person, but I do think that something bigger than me often points me in the right direction. Actually, let’s be real here: I might be sort of a “woo-woo” person. Either way, I feel like I’ve dealt with difficult personalities with increasing frequency over the past few years, and I wonder if that’s maybe a hint that it’s time to deal with this personal shortcoming. Maybe it is time to learn how to care a little less about this kind of stuff. Can it be done, while still remaining a thoughtful person? I don’t know. What do you think?

This post is pretty cringe-worthy, but I suppose it gets the job done. I’m going to try and force myself to check in here at least every other day, in the hopes that I get my blogging mojo back. Sorry for the really, really naval-gazey post, friends. I’ll see you soon, I promise!