Dept. of Getting Back on the Horse
Tuesday, 6 January 2015 05:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kaffy_r Winter Freeze, Brain Thaw (I Hope)
It's been far too long since I posted anything, and, as a sort of resolution for 2015, I'm going to try to post something every day. Yes, yes, you in the back, chuckling into your beard, you heard right. What's more, I'm going to try to post something worth reading. And I'm going to try to interact with people on their journals — so what do you think about that?
Ah, still chortling.
Well, I don't blame you.
It's true. My ability to maintain a healthy posting habit has not been stellar in the past. But I swear I'm going to try. Just as I'm going to try to find something positive to say about my life. It probably won't be daily, but I am going to try to do it regularly. I think I read something, possibly on one of my friends' journals, which speculated that forcing one's self to actively think about positives can make one eventually feel more positive. Using externals to force a change in the internals, as it were.
So: what have I been up to?
Let's see ... we had a very lovely New Year's Eve dinner, courtesy of our good friends, then went over to their house to see in the New Year. I got well and truly potted; the dinner was also a wine tasting - four courses, four different wines, plus champagne, and a martini before dinner ... dear lord, how did they handle it, those drunken lords of yore? (Mind you, I had little hangover problem the next day, but really, when BB is kind of snickering at me, it does give one pause.) Still, we saw in the New Year with friends we loved, and that was very important.
We haven't gotten rid of our tree yet; BB came down with a godawful chest cold and that has pretty much wiped him out, while I'm dealing with trying to get back into full-bore work mode after the holidays (and dealing with the jaw clenchingly byzantine fun of the actual Jan. 1 changeover from one employer to another, of which we will not speak.) So it sits, shedding needles like a boss while still being ever so pretty. I stopped watering it three or so days ago, thinking we were taking it out at that point; needless to say, it only goes on for an hour or so each night. It will be gone by this weekend, consigned to the Chicago Park District's mulching pile.
Much of my radio silence was because I actually managed to get stories written for![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandom_stocking . After folks told me that I had until Jan. 5, I managed to crank out about seven (and of course the one I finished up at 1 a.m. Jan. 6 turned out to be the longest one.) I am pleased, not only because I think I've been able to write stories the recipients might like, but because I could write at all. (I also made a greeting card that some folks will get, I think. Maybe.) All in all, though, I am a happier camper about stuffing stockings than I was the last couple of times I posted.
And with that, I suppose I will call it a night. Tonight I get to go out to supper with my union local prez and our executive director (the ones who had, for lack of a better term, a falling out and/or constant lack of communication skills) and act as a facilitator to try to get them to work together. Yes, that's precisely what the dinner is for. I told them they had to pay for my dinner, and pick me up so that I didn't lose my neighborhood parking space. I have also told one of them — and will tell the other when I see him — that if either of them talks over me (or each other), or raises their voice during this exercise, I am taillights. I will get up and walk out and catch the el home.
So wish me luck, especially given that it's dropping into the single digits as we speak, and going out represents a labor of love all by itself. It is cold in the MIdwest, and I do not like the cold.
It's been far too long since I posted anything, and, as a sort of resolution for 2015, I'm going to try to post something every day. Yes, yes, you in the back, chuckling into your beard, you heard right. What's more, I'm going to try to post something worth reading. And I'm going to try to interact with people on their journals — so what do you think about that?
Ah, still chortling.
Well, I don't blame you.
It's true. My ability to maintain a healthy posting habit has not been stellar in the past. But I swear I'm going to try. Just as I'm going to try to find something positive to say about my life. It probably won't be daily, but I am going to try to do it regularly. I think I read something, possibly on one of my friends' journals, which speculated that forcing one's self to actively think about positives can make one eventually feel more positive. Using externals to force a change in the internals, as it were.
So: what have I been up to?
Let's see ... we had a very lovely New Year's Eve dinner, courtesy of our good friends, then went over to their house to see in the New Year. I got well and truly potted; the dinner was also a wine tasting - four courses, four different wines, plus champagne, and a martini before dinner ... dear lord, how did they handle it, those drunken lords of yore? (Mind you, I had little hangover problem the next day, but really, when BB is kind of snickering at me, it does give one pause.) Still, we saw in the New Year with friends we loved, and that was very important.
We haven't gotten rid of our tree yet; BB came down with a godawful chest cold and that has pretty much wiped him out, while I'm dealing with trying to get back into full-bore work mode after the holidays (and dealing with the jaw clenchingly byzantine fun of the actual Jan. 1 changeover from one employer to another, of which we will not speak.) So it sits, shedding needles like a boss while still being ever so pretty. I stopped watering it three or so days ago, thinking we were taking it out at that point; needless to say, it only goes on for an hour or so each night. It will be gone by this weekend, consigned to the Chicago Park District's mulching pile.
Much of my radio silence was because I actually managed to get stories written for
fandom_stocking . After folks told me that I had until Jan. 5, I managed to crank out about seven (and of course the one I finished up at 1 a.m. Jan. 6 turned out to be the longest one.) I am pleased, not only because I think I've been able to write stories the recipients might like, but because I could write at all. (I also made a greeting card that some folks will get, I think. Maybe.) All in all, though, I am a happier camper about stuffing stockings than I was the last couple of times I posted. And with that, I suppose I will call it a night. Tonight I get to go out to supper with my union local prez and our executive director (the ones who had, for lack of a better term, a falling out and/or constant lack of communication skills) and act as a facilitator to try to get them to work together. Yes, that's precisely what the dinner is for. I told them they had to pay for my dinner, and pick me up so that I didn't lose my neighborhood parking space. I have also told one of them — and will tell the other when I see him — that if either of them talks over me (or each other), or raises their voice during this exercise, I am taillights. I will get up and walk out and catch the el home.
So wish me luck, especially given that it's dropping into the single digits as we speak, and going out represents a labor of love all by itself. It is cold in the MIdwest, and I do not like the cold.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: Wednesday, 7 January 2015 11:31 pm (UTC)Seriously, glad to see you here again (and happy new year!). Was wondering where you'd got to :-)
I've pretty much given up on ordinary blogging, not because I lost the desire to so much as because all the sad little semisentient chimpanzees either migrated to Twitter and/or to
The Great SatanFarcebook and/or to arsebrained platforms such as ~spits~ Fumblr/Wankstagram/Crapchat/whothefuckknowsorcares - and sadly, that includes several of my RL shouldknowbetters - or came to their senses enough to leave the internet altogether.Hope you will have or already have had a productive and fullawin dinner meeting and that no taillights need(ed) to be shown!
Also, it was 41C here yesterday. Try picturing that and see if it helps :D
no subject
Date: Friday, 9 January 2015 03:08 pm (UTC)I mislike Tumblr, since communication appears to be contraindicated there.
Facebook was of tremendous use to me when BB was in hospital and in danger of dying a few years ago - it kept people up to date on what was happening. Other than that, or the ability to reconnect with long lost good people, get their info, and communicate in better ways, I think it's too apt to engender All The Rage. I rarely visit my accounts (yes, I also have a business FB, something that was
mandatedurged by a former set of owners, and I hate it, too.)I've never seen or used Snapchat, and know that Instagram exists. That's it.
no subject
Date: Wednesday, 7 January 2015 01:21 am (UTC)Not the once a day tho....I tried that for a month last year and failed I think lmao. So best of luck to you on that ^^
no subject
Date: Wednesday, 7 January 2015 04:20 am (UTC)Heh ... A man's reach should exceed his grasp, else what are the stars for?
Or something like that ... heh ....
Forgive my silliness. I just got back from the union mediation dinner I talked about, and I am reeling from dealing with two unreasonable people. My brain keeps saying "No! Go to Sleep!"
And hey - you commented, and I responded! It's a pretty good start, I think!
no subject
Date: Wednesday, 7 January 2015 05:38 am (UTC)So glad you had a fantastic ringing in of the New Year, even as the aftermath wasn't so fantastic. Hope BB feels better soon - and really...tree being up a little while never hurt anything in my book!
*HUGS*
no subject
Date: Thursday, 8 January 2015 05:37 pm (UTC)And yesssssss call me soon! I have a meeting to cover tonight, but it's an early one (some folks think that 5 p.m. is a good time to meet. Some folks have more money than good common sense, but I digress), and I'll probably be back before 9 p.m.
BB is feeling a little better today, the cough is much less, and he felt like eating breakfast, which is a big step forward.
As for the tree, I think it's leaving tonight. When the lights on the lower limbs fall down because there are no more needles to anchor them, then it's time. Heh.
no subject
Date: Wednesday, 7 January 2015 07:33 am (UTC)Great to hear your holidays finished nicely ♥ Good luck in that dinner, sounds like an adventure, lol. And good luck at work, plus may BB get better soon! ♥
(Ohhh, and writing! Congrats! :D)
no subject
Date: Thursday, 8 January 2015 05:40 pm (UTC)That's the very thought that I had, and I need as many rays of light and silver linings as possible.
The dinner was amazing, and, since I didn't have much of a hangover on New Year's Day, I figure everything went fine.
I hope your 2015 is going well, and I promise to drop by your journal more often; it's fun!
no subject
Date: Friday, 9 January 2015 07:00 am (UTC)Good to hear about the dinner! And aw, thank you :) *hugs*
no subject
Date: Wednesday, 7 January 2015 12:31 pm (UTC)Looking forward to fandom_stocking whenever it eventually goes live. I couldn't do very much at all this time, and keep feeling that I should make use of the extra time, but am not getting anywhere at all. I'm sure your fics are all marvellous!
no subject
Date: Thursday, 8 January 2015 05:42 pm (UTC)It actually went live only a day late, despite the mod being sick with a headache, so I was very impressed. (And I got your stocking stuff, and loved it!)
I had fun writing what I did, and if they make the recipients smile (or put a tear in their eye), then I will be very pleased.
no subject
Date: Friday, 9 January 2015 10:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Wednesday, 7 January 2015 02:45 pm (UTC)Well done for getting a second wind and doing some stockinging:)
no subject
Date: Thursday, 8 January 2015 07:00 pm (UTC)And thank you again for the wonderful stocking stuffer you gave me!
no subject
Date: Friday, 9 January 2015 04:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Thursday, 8 January 2015 04:18 am (UTC)I have been thinking, the last month or two, that my posting has really dropped off. The thing is, I'm writing as much as I always have, just not as many LJ posts. I miss posting, and so I'm going to change that, too. Thanks for the push!
no subject
Date: Thursday, 8 January 2015 07:01 pm (UTC)Testify, sister! (And thanks so much for the lovely story.)
no subject
Date: Thursday, 8 January 2015 06:13 am (UTC)Yeeah, I gave up on that one for another year already m'self, although I did at least start an ongoing project as a framework to encourage myself to make more-regular posts...
no subject
Date: Thursday, 8 January 2015 07:02 pm (UTC)I'm avoidingtrying hard to get to, and such."More regular posts" = much more common sense, I think. Heh.
no subject
Date: Thursday, 8 January 2015 04:43 pm (UTC)Also, good luck dealing with the cold. We had a subzero night in Boston (I had to leave pretty much all my heaters running just to keep the temps in my condo scratching 60 F), which resulted in multiple transit delays this morning.
I imagine Chicago is so much worse, though.
no subject
Date: Thursday, 8 January 2015 08:19 pm (UTC)Whoah ... did the cold do in the regular furnace or heating system? That sucks! Right now the temperature is 6 degrees (at 2:17 p.m., and we've gotten another half inch of snow in the last hour and a half, without the snow appreciably warming anything up. Yesterday it made it up to 4.8 around my neck of the woods.
Cold sucks all the time for everyone, but Boston may get a little bit of the Atlantic current whose name I now inconveniently forget, the one that makes Nova Scotia a little warmer in the winter than you'd think it would be.
no subject
Date: Friday, 9 January 2015 04:44 pm (UTC)Back to balmy mid-twenties today--much nicer!
Yes, Beantown gets the moderating influence of the ocean, but it's still bloody cold. My recollection is that Syracuse was much worse--I was there 2 years for grad school, and my God, winters there are BRUTAL. It's so cold, and it snows constantly from October through April. My second year, we had 200 inches of the stuff!
no subject
Date: Friday, 9 January 2015 08:21 pm (UTC)Urgh. Still in the single digits around here. And you're right, the farther into the midwest you get, you harder the winters are.