vovat | Seasonal Summary (Reply)

I haven't been able to come up with any post topics as of late, so instead I'm just doing a general overview of my recent life. I have watched a few movies that I'm sure I'll review at some point, but since my last WordPress post was a movie review, I've been holding off on that a bit. I'm in the process of reading a few different books, the sort of thing that bothers Beth, as she's the sort who just sticks to one book until she's finished. I did some editing to an Oz story I wrote twenty or so years ago, trying to bring it more in line with other stuff. I don't know that too many other writers care about that sort of thing, but I do. It sucks that some Oz material I'm aware of is pretty much impossible to find. I'm still doing my temporary administrative job, and I had jury duty but wasn't selected. I believe I've been called five times, once for each county I've lived in since after college, and never once been selected. Usually I'm not even questioned. I'm not even sure I'd terribly mind serving on a jury, although it's probably pretty boring, and when I'm on a temp assignment I'd obviously be missing out on money. But I remember learning about the court system back when I was a kid, and being rather fascinated by it. I don't think I realized at the time how slowly everything moves.

This past weekend, Beth and I went to visit her mom and uncle in New Jersey, and we took the cheaper but much more annoying bus that runs from Chinatown in Manhattan to the one in Philadelphia. We had tickets for 6, and by the time we got there the bus was full, and we had to wait for the next one. A Yelp review said that their tickets don't expire, so I guess they're not breaking any laws by overbooking, but it's still pretty shady. There have been a LOT of complaints about the company, and it's apparently been shut down and reopened several times. You get what you pay for, I guess, as Greyhound costs considerably more on weekends. I spent much of my time in South Jersey sleeping, but we also all went to a Christmas hayride in Mullica Hill. Basically, we rode in a wagon and looked at light displays, with a woman in an elf costume serving as the tour guide.

It was very cold that night, and yet the temperature went up to fifty degrees or so (Fahrenheit, that is) today. I think it was a polar vortex, or as Charlie Sheen would call it, a WINNING vortex. Remember that? Actually, I think Trump kind of stole his schtick of saying "winning" a lot, and now Sheen is probably going to be deported. Really, though it's such a bizarre mentality of regarding everything as a contest. But anyway, I drove back up to Brooklyn, and I keep forgetting to call E-ZPass about my non-working tag, so that meant paying cash for tolls. It also meant finding a parking space, which is practically impossible in our neighborhood. It's kind of cruel, really; I see what I think is a space, then it turns out to be next to a fire hydrant or somebody's driveway. I'm going to have to move it tomorrow night anyway, as they sweep the street where I parked it on Wednesday mornings. It's easier to find parking during the day, but, well, I'll be at work then.

I find that Christmas is kind of disappointing as an adult. The thing is, I don't even think I did all that much for the holiday as a kid, but I still look back at it nostalgically. There are childhood feelings you can never truly recapture as an adult, or at least I can't. I'm probably actually happier overall now than I was as a child, but holidays are kind of the exception. I still enjoy the season leading up to it, though. It can be frustrating, but everything is just so bright and festive. We're constantly told that it's the most wonderful time of the year, but I think there's kind of a paradox there. It's because it's a rather lousy time of year, at least here in the Northern Hemisphere, that we need a holiday season. Ultimately, many of the holidays held around the solstice are about a light in the darkness, hope when things kind of suck. Too bad it will be closely followed by an extinguishing of hope when Trump takes office.

Which reminds me of how bizarre it is when people who quite closely echo the beliefs of pre-haunted Ebenezer Scrooge now claim to love Christmas. Of course, they want to change it from a time of peace and joy to one of telling other people what to do. If you're going to get mad at anyone who doesn't use the exact holiday greeting you were hoping for, then I DON'T want you to be merry.