Tis the season

There seems to be some holiday angst going around. It's hit our house, too. I spent the morning shopping with my sister, and somehow came home with no more Christmas money, yet very little to cross off my list. (One culprit is the new lamps for our bedside tables - necessary, since mine went kaput earlier this week, but not particularly Christmasy.

This afternoon I talked to Darren about my irritation over the shopping - I've been doing the lion's share of it, even for our mutual friends, and it started pissing me off. So we're going to make a new plan for the remaining shopping. Even doing it together would make me much happier than slogging around alone amid the chaos. (I'm also making him help me bathe Rocky tomorrow - she threw up several times in the middle of the night a few days back, and is one stinky pooch. It doesn't really take two people to give a nine pound dog a bath, but I'll be damned if I'm going to do it alone, especially when the ridiculous creature needs her hair - not fur - blown dry afterwards.)

This afternoon we also unloaded all the decorations, which are now strewn throughout the house. Our living room in particular looks like a red-and-green bomb exploded in it. One happy realization, though: Just because someone gave us a Christmas thing does not mean we actually need to display it. This was a new and glorious concept. So the worst of the stuff is staying in the plastic bin where it lives the rest of the year.

Otherwise, I'm pretty unmotivated. I probably oughta write some cards before we head out to dinner - our favorite breakfast and lunch place just began serving dinner a few days ago! - so I think that's what I'll do. While I drink a beer, of course. The key to sanity in this endeavor is my latest CD purchase, the Vince Guaraldi music from A Charlie Brown Christmas. It's melancholy and sentimental - perfect for the grinch I am at the moment.