2025-12-22: settling in for christmas

first day of my break. last night i got a text from my coworker, asking if i wanted a ride in today. oops. forgot to update my statuses. so i apologized, then updated them late last night, my laptop lighting the darkness of my basement. my partner has always made fun of me for being able to work in total darkness. but, laptops are backlit, and i can touch type. why waste the electricity?

the plows were out all night, and we got woken up around 6 this morning to the distinctive scraping sounds of the plows doing our street, one machine after another. i fell back asleep. i got up an hour or so later.

after my morning coffee, the dogs got a walk for the first time in what's felt like ages. the weather's been either blizzarding or freezing recently, so they've been cooped up inside. i put their red coats on and took them for a short walk around the plowed streets. they pulled and pulled, happy to finally get a bit of exercise.

i've been into the shortbread my aunt sent us. had three or four cups of coffee, a cup of tea after lunch. i'm buzzing and i expect i'll probably regret it later. but sleep's far off, anyway. it's barely four o'clock. we're making basic grocery store pizzas later. more games await.

my christmases are a lot quieter than they used to be, probably owing to the fact that most of my friends ended up elsewhere: a lot stayed in our hometown (as a lot of people do in a lot of hometowns), and those of us like me who left...well, i'm the only one who wound up here. when i was in my late teens we used to have a tradition of boxing day wandering. we'd go downtown, avoid the big shops, hit up the record shops, stop for chinese food (there was always wonton soup?), maybe a glass of port back at my parents' place. i miss that, but life moves on, you know? we're many different people in our lifetimes. i'm happy to be who i am right now, and looking forward to who i might become.

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