I has returned - Holiday recap
Man it has been a long week, and I'm kind of glad this will be the last Christmas I'm going anywhere. Which is not to say the whole week was bad, but the area where it was bad sort of crippled my enjoyment of the rest of it.
And what area was that, you ask? Oh come on guys, I'm sure you could guess if you gave it a try. Why yes, that is right, it was sleep.
I knew going in that I was going to be sleeping in the closet in Daniel's room (bigger than your average closet, but still a closet) and I was not particularly happy about that, but there are six people living in that house (my brother's girlfriend Morgan is basically all but living there now) and we are not a family that entertains much or has people over on any regular basis and certainly not for any great length of time, so the accommodations are just not there. I appreciate that I don't live there anymore and have to settle for what I can get, but that does not change that I have a million and one problems sleeping and there are just certain things that I need to have in place or I can't rest properly.
The thing I thought would be the biggest problem, sleeping in close proximity to a two year old, ended up not being a problem at all; Daniel sleeps like the dead, goes to bed around nine or ten, gets up at a reasonable hour (as far as the rest of the world is concerned, little early for me), gets up quietly and otherwise left me alone. The heat problems too, the heater regularly banging around hard enough to rattle the walls all the way up to the roof (if you didn't know better you would think someone was trying to break in) didn't bother me much either, guess that's one of the perks of being a city girl now. The thing I thought was going to help me out, the inflatable mattress my father lent me so I didn't have to sleep on the floor, ended up being a complete fucking mess.
First night, father gives me the mattress, but the thing that will inflate the mattress automatically has a low battery and needs to be recharged, oh yeah and recharging this fucking thing takes eight hours. Why he didn't do this before giving it to me, since they know how the thing works and knew well ahead of time I was borrowing it I don't understand. So I couldn't inflate the mattress first night because it wouldn't be ready to work until three in the morning and that thing is so fucking loud I couldn't do it while Daniel was sleeping. So I was on the floor that night, only I couldn't sleep there. We likewise has no spare blankets, just two so there was nothing to pad the floor with (and what blankets I did have I desperately needed, that house is, was and always will be a barn), I tried real hard (bearing in mind I got maybe ninety minutes of sleep the night before, and slept like crap the day before that because of severe dry air issues that have hopefully now been resolved with the purchase of a humidifier) but it just wasn't happening; I had to wait until my mother got up to go to work at six in the morning and she let me sleep in her bed. I slept about eleven hours and it would be the only real, decent, restful sleep I would get.
We blew up the mattress the next day, and oh my gods how can anyone sleep on those fucking things? It was covered in indentations, little dips in the mattress so I ended up having support on my ankle and then again midway up my leg and nothing in between, on and on. It may be okay for people who sleep on their backs, which I can't do (stomach sleeper, with few exceptions, mostly on nights when health is poor) or people who sleep with pillows which, insane or not, no I don't usually do. I think the only reason I was able to shut my eyes at all the first night was because it wasn't inflated all the way and my weight was flattening it out. When Renee showed up it got much worse. First the mattress puffed up on my side, so we reinflated it (this at about seven in the morning after trying for hours to make the current situation work), but that only made those indentations all the more noticeable and bothersome. So I go downstairs and get some body pillows I saw lying around, thinking those might help; there were two, both of which were far too narrow for me to use alone and of two different sized (one very flattened out, the other much fatter) so I couldn't comfortably lie on them both, plus I just don't do pillows. Oh gods, we were awake until one in the afternoon that night (I was so tired I was nodding off every five minutes because I was so fucking exhausted and then almost immediately waking up again due to being uncomfortable, I don't ever want to do that again), my mother was in a mood and not willing to let us use her room again, so Phil and I dragged the mattresses that used to be in my old room upstairs and squished them into the closet (there was barely enough room for those mattresses and not for anything else, we'd have to pick up and move as much of our stuff as we could before squeezing quietly out of the door every time we wanted to go to the bathroom). These mattresses suck and have sucked for years, although it was enough of a bed that after hours of struggle I could pass out for a short amount of time. And that was how the rest of the week went.
There were things I wanted to do with some of my free time, things I wanted to write, gods I wanted to talk to, and none of it got done. I had far less of that free time than I would have had I not had to spent so long falling asleep at night, and what time I was awake was just miserable.
Beyond that, family drama was at an all time low this year and that is good, very good. Renee's visit was a success (aside from the sleep shit that affected her too), the family seemed to like her just fine. She met everyone I wanted her to meet, except for my half brother Andrew and really I didn't want her to meet him anyway (Renee did though, just to see if he was real) since already at eight he is such a self important, critical, snotty little shit you can't listen to him talk for more than five minutes without wishing he was ten years older so you could hit him right in the face (gets this from his mother, he's becoming exactly like her just without her discretion). I think it went a little better than my meeting Renee's family did, my family was definitely much cooler about everything (let us sleep in the same room since after all we're both adults and live together anyway instead of freaking out if we so much as spent time together in a room with the door closed; just chatted with us like they would anyone else rather then bending over backwards to show us just how progressive minded they really are, naming every lesbian person they ever knew, like I'm supposed to be impressed, yee haw you have gay friends, want a cookie?). We hung out with the family, played Wii bowling (Phil and Stephanie got a Wii for Christmas, we were having bowling tournaments all week, even my mother that has scoffed for years at all the gamers in her house got really into this one), showed her around Wayland such as there is to see (its not so much look at all the interesting sites as can you believe someone like me came out of this place?). We had a good time with it.
As far as gifts go, as usual my family took care of me. Got a PSP, or as I like to call it People Repellent Part Two (the ipod being part one), something else I can take with me on bus trips to keep the freaks from talking to me (and I could always use things like that); it was wonderful on the train ride home, I'm already deeply engrossed in Final Fantasy VII - Crisis Core (which I bought with a gift card). Got an electric blanket to keep us warm this heatless winter. Got the The Dark Knight, the last of the Dark Tower books I didn't own (five and six), Morgan bought me PS2 game Shadow Hearts that I've been looking to get a hold of since Dominic made me play Shadow Hearts 2 (excellent, excellent game), its out of print and I know its a used copy but I have seen used copies go for about fifty dollars and I hope she didn't spend anywhere near that much on me.
In addition to indulging my gamer obsessions (between those two games, I should be busy for the next month or so :-)), I've had three of the religious books knocked off my wish list. My father bought me copies of scinnlaeca 's Walker Between Worlds, witchy_abriel 's From the Heart, For the Heart: Devotionals for The Trickster and wodandis 's Odhroerir: Nine Devotional Tales of Odin's Journeys. These I understand were the books off my list that would be delivered on time, that was why they were picked out of my list; I'm happy with them and have them mostly read (wonderful work, all of you :-)).
I'm home now, Renee and I are both happy to be here. My princess Discord is following me around screaming for my attention, Nattie once we located her hiding spot (we had people coming in taking care of them, she is not real people friendly), dragged her out of it and held her for a few minutes is now un-traumatized and is screaming for my attention as well (and yeah, so is Ferrari, but really, what else is new?). It will probably take me a few days to recover from the traveling and sleep bullshit. Once that's over I have a spiritual life to get back on track and a festival I want to celebrate at the beginning of the year.
I'm looking forward to a quiet Christmas next year, starting my own traditions. No more traveling, no more traveling, no more traveling.
And what area was that, you ask? Oh come on guys, I'm sure you could guess if you gave it a try. Why yes, that is right, it was sleep.
I knew going in that I was going to be sleeping in the closet in Daniel's room (bigger than your average closet, but still a closet) and I was not particularly happy about that, but there are six people living in that house (my brother's girlfriend Morgan is basically all but living there now) and we are not a family that entertains much or has people over on any regular basis and certainly not for any great length of time, so the accommodations are just not there. I appreciate that I don't live there anymore and have to settle for what I can get, but that does not change that I have a million and one problems sleeping and there are just certain things that I need to have in place or I can't rest properly.
The thing I thought would be the biggest problem, sleeping in close proximity to a two year old, ended up not being a problem at all; Daniel sleeps like the dead, goes to bed around nine or ten, gets up at a reasonable hour (as far as the rest of the world is concerned, little early for me), gets up quietly and otherwise left me alone. The heat problems too, the heater regularly banging around hard enough to rattle the walls all the way up to the roof (if you didn't know better you would think someone was trying to break in) didn't bother me much either, guess that's one of the perks of being a city girl now. The thing I thought was going to help me out, the inflatable mattress my father lent me so I didn't have to sleep on the floor, ended up being a complete fucking mess.
First night, father gives me the mattress, but the thing that will inflate the mattress automatically has a low battery and needs to be recharged, oh yeah and recharging this fucking thing takes eight hours. Why he didn't do this before giving it to me, since they know how the thing works and knew well ahead of time I was borrowing it I don't understand. So I couldn't inflate the mattress first night because it wouldn't be ready to work until three in the morning and that thing is so fucking loud I couldn't do it while Daniel was sleeping. So I was on the floor that night, only I couldn't sleep there. We likewise has no spare blankets, just two so there was nothing to pad the floor with (and what blankets I did have I desperately needed, that house is, was and always will be a barn), I tried real hard (bearing in mind I got maybe ninety minutes of sleep the night before, and slept like crap the day before that because of severe dry air issues that have hopefully now been resolved with the purchase of a humidifier) but it just wasn't happening; I had to wait until my mother got up to go to work at six in the morning and she let me sleep in her bed. I slept about eleven hours and it would be the only real, decent, restful sleep I would get.
We blew up the mattress the next day, and oh my gods how can anyone sleep on those fucking things? It was covered in indentations, little dips in the mattress so I ended up having support on my ankle and then again midway up my leg and nothing in between, on and on. It may be okay for people who sleep on their backs, which I can't do (stomach sleeper, with few exceptions, mostly on nights when health is poor) or people who sleep with pillows which, insane or not, no I don't usually do. I think the only reason I was able to shut my eyes at all the first night was because it wasn't inflated all the way and my weight was flattening it out. When Renee showed up it got much worse. First the mattress puffed up on my side, so we reinflated it (this at about seven in the morning after trying for hours to make the current situation work), but that only made those indentations all the more noticeable and bothersome. So I go downstairs and get some body pillows I saw lying around, thinking those might help; there were two, both of which were far too narrow for me to use alone and of two different sized (one very flattened out, the other much fatter) so I couldn't comfortably lie on them both, plus I just don't do pillows. Oh gods, we were awake until one in the afternoon that night (I was so tired I was nodding off every five minutes because I was so fucking exhausted and then almost immediately waking up again due to being uncomfortable, I don't ever want to do that again), my mother was in a mood and not willing to let us use her room again, so Phil and I dragged the mattresses that used to be in my old room upstairs and squished them into the closet (there was barely enough room for those mattresses and not for anything else, we'd have to pick up and move as much of our stuff as we could before squeezing quietly out of the door every time we wanted to go to the bathroom). These mattresses suck and have sucked for years, although it was enough of a bed that after hours of struggle I could pass out for a short amount of time. And that was how the rest of the week went.
There were things I wanted to do with some of my free time, things I wanted to write, gods I wanted to talk to, and none of it got done. I had far less of that free time than I would have had I not had to spent so long falling asleep at night, and what time I was awake was just miserable.
Beyond that, family drama was at an all time low this year and that is good, very good. Renee's visit was a success (aside from the sleep shit that affected her too), the family seemed to like her just fine. She met everyone I wanted her to meet, except for my half brother Andrew and really I didn't want her to meet him anyway (Renee did though, just to see if he was real) since already at eight he is such a self important, critical, snotty little shit you can't listen to him talk for more than five minutes without wishing he was ten years older so you could hit him right in the face (gets this from his mother, he's becoming exactly like her just without her discretion). I think it went a little better than my meeting Renee's family did, my family was definitely much cooler about everything (let us sleep in the same room since after all we're both adults and live together anyway instead of freaking out if we so much as spent time together in a room with the door closed; just chatted with us like they would anyone else rather then bending over backwards to show us just how progressive minded they really are, naming every lesbian person they ever knew, like I'm supposed to be impressed, yee haw you have gay friends, want a cookie?). We hung out with the family, played Wii bowling (Phil and Stephanie got a Wii for Christmas, we were having bowling tournaments all week, even my mother that has scoffed for years at all the gamers in her house got really into this one), showed her around Wayland such as there is to see (its not so much look at all the interesting sites as can you believe someone like me came out of this place?). We had a good time with it.
As far as gifts go, as usual my family took care of me. Got a PSP, or as I like to call it People Repellent Part Two (the ipod being part one), something else I can take with me on bus trips to keep the freaks from talking to me (and I could always use things like that); it was wonderful on the train ride home, I'm already deeply engrossed in Final Fantasy VII - Crisis Core (which I bought with a gift card). Got an electric blanket to keep us warm this heatless winter. Got the The Dark Knight, the last of the Dark Tower books I didn't own (five and six), Morgan bought me PS2 game Shadow Hearts that I've been looking to get a hold of since Dominic made me play Shadow Hearts 2 (excellent, excellent game), its out of print and I know its a used copy but I have seen used copies go for about fifty dollars and I hope she didn't spend anywhere near that much on me.
In addition to indulging my gamer obsessions (between those two games, I should be busy for the next month or so :-)), I've had three of the religious books knocked off my wish list. My father bought me copies of scinnlaeca 's Walker Between Worlds, witchy_abriel 's From the Heart, For the Heart: Devotionals for The Trickster and wodandis 's Odhroerir: Nine Devotional Tales of Odin's Journeys. These I understand were the books off my list that would be delivered on time, that was why they were picked out of my list; I'm happy with them and have them mostly read (wonderful work, all of you :-)).
I'm home now, Renee and I are both happy to be here. My princess Discord is following me around screaming for my attention, Nattie once we located her hiding spot (we had people coming in taking care of them, she is not real people friendly), dragged her out of it and held her for a few minutes is now un-traumatized and is screaming for my attention as well (and yeah, so is Ferrari, but really, what else is new?). It will probably take me a few days to recover from the traveling and sleep bullshit. Once that's over I have a spiritual life to get back on track and a festival I want to celebrate at the beginning of the year.
I'm looking forward to a quiet Christmas next year, starting my own traditions. No more traveling, no more traveling, no more traveling.