If you've read my blog awhile, you may know I don't celebrate Christmas. (Short version: There's no command in Scripture to celebrate Christ's birth, and the holiday's often treated as a celebration of materialism. I don't have any problem with it being celebrated; I just choose not to, myself.)
That said, I did take Christmas Eve and Christmas off work. Personally, I would've rather worked then and taken some days off next week, but my parents would've pitched a fit, though they don't celebrate Christmas, either. But even with taking those two days off, I got a scolding for "not taking the holiday off," with "holiday" left undefined (despite my inquiry), so I'm thinking this coming year, I'll just schedule whatever days off I prefer, since I'll evidently get a lecture either way.
I'd planned to go finally see Catching Fire Christmas Eve or Christmas, but that plan fell through…because I was in the middle of some things that were just about done. (All* my things are at the new apartment, now! Finally. Everything's a jungle of boxes, but at least I have a little stepstool now and can reach more shelves to put things away.)
*Essentially all. There are a handful of things lingering about my parents' house, but I'll likely get those this weekend.
Granted, part of why the movie plan probably fell through is that I don't care for going to the cinema by myself. If I'm going to see it alone, I might as well wait until it's at RedBox or something. My brother and I may go to the cinema later this week to see The Hobbit part II, but he doesn't want to see Catching Fire until it comes out on Netflix or something.
Note: If you want to join my newsletter, this season's drawing ends 12/31. If you're on the newsletter and in the drawing, great! If not and you want to be, sign up now or you'll have another 3 months to wait. Next Thursday will bring the announcement of who won the drawing.
Writing has felt like pulling teeth, lately, for all the projects I've been trying to get written. (Doesn't help that, in my move, I misplaced/lost my notes for two things that are due to publishers.) Even this post has been written in short spurts, because instead of getting on a roll, I'm getting out a few sentences, then freezing up. I go do something else, open this back up, and add some more.
It'll pass—it always does, because I work at it until it passes—but in the meantime, I'm endeavoring to keep in mind what is getting done instead of what isn't.
In any event, the next several days will be busy-busy-busy…and I just realized my to-do list isn't where I thought it was…but at least it's all doable. Just have to remember not to get overwhelmed. (…And I just found my to-do list, which for some reason was with my set of keys.)
Also on the bright side, I found out why my e-mail was acting up, eating incoming and outgoing e-mails: A system update had added a glitch. I got the patch perhaps a month later. (So if you've sent me e-mail and I've not responded, my apologies. I might not have gotten it, or the glitches ate my response. Please resend.)
So the plans are to wrap up things, redo the lost material to get that sent, and start the new year with as much of the "littles" done as possible. Lord willing, I'll have Katariina and another Misty White short story done, too. I have about 3 hours left on that short story (including edits), but Katariina is looking as if it'll be double the length of the prequel, so there are probably about 8–10 hours left on that.
And then I'm planning to do an extra-long update for AFo??? on Wattpad tomorrow. I know the point I want to reach, at minimum. Just have to get there. And get everything else done. (Two things off my to-do list already, yay!)
On an outside-of-work update, the weather has improved enough over the past week or so that I've started meeting more of my neighbors, which has been pleasant. My health's also improving so I should be able to start exercising in the next few months, because my body's starting to respond properly to exercise. Not quite there yet, but I don't feel ill immediately after exercising, which is a huge improvement.
What are you up to for New Year's?
—Misti
