Falalala--la-la-la-laffle!

'Tis the night before Xmas
And Moby's on call.
He bought all his presents
and forgot to mail them all.

He's trying to find clothes
That show little wear
Cuz a movie date with Spike
Puts his hopes in the air.

But first: to his Auntie's!
That crazy old biddy
Whole be drunk and disorderly
And prob'ly quite giddy.

An evening of socializing
In the Yuletide season
And what's more surprising
Is the untold reason.

His holiday spirit,
a poor sickly creature,
has at this Yuletide
become quite a feature.

Good will towards man?
A smile on his face?
To all that do know him
That seems out of place.

But it's been a good year:
Job, home and (maybe) girl.
Cash in the clear!
His head's quite a whirl.

Not bad, all considered,
The twelve months past.
And who knows? Next year
May be just a blast!

So he wishes all well
This cold Christmas time
And if my date goes well,
well,
The season's best is mine.

Winter Solstice

Okay, I may be suffering from that seasonal disorder thing. Although it happens at the height of summer as well, at least I can blame something else this time.

But it has been a depressing couple of weeks. Maybe "depressing" isn't the right word. Listless? Humdrum? Nuanced angst over an unremarkable existence? Yeah, that one. I'm all emo, apparently. Being stuck indoors (and yes, I'm not exactly Grizzly Adams but I do get outside once in a while) may have something to do with it. And as previously, viciously stated my view of Christmas is less than Republican.

I haven't been to the gym more than twice over the past three weeks. I'm not sure if it's this niggling cold that just won't let go or just "I don't wanna go to the gym today" syndrome. And that I've been busy doing, well, not much but all these little things add up. Yes, I know, cheer the fuck up, get back to the gym, smile and bull through the holidays.

Then there's Spike. We managed to do the movies-at-her-place thing on Friday and there wasn't the same back-and-forth we've had. Not sure if it was due to depleted energy reserves (I had worked 70 hours in the previous seven days due to on-call), the weather, being nervous a bit etc. There just wasn't that same effervescent interaction. But her dogs are great!

Well, they can't all be zingers.

So this week: L'il Bro B is crashing on my couch for a few days as he makes his way to and from Lethbridge, three days of (I'm thinking slack) work, Christmas Eve at the Crazy Cat Aunt's place, dinner-and-a-movie with Spike on the actual day, UFC night at Big M's on the weekend. That's pretty active for me. Now if I can just cheer the fuck up I might enjoy.

But now, I'm going to try and hit the gym again. Yesterday I got as far as the car.

Spirit of the Season

This pretty much sums up the feelings that get stirred up for me during the Yuletide season.

Dropped $700 on presents, and I'll still get passive-aggressive grief because I only got so-and-so a card. Packed malls, insane drivers, lousy weather, annoying carols that have been permanently etched into my synapses. Hours, even days lost: not to make the holidays bright, but just to get them bloody well over with.

The unending obligations to relatives you only see once a year. The forced merriment of corporate head-office mandated Holiday Enjoyment Events. Guilt, anxiousness, self- and other-loathing. Stress. My gods, the stress.

"Bah, humbug!" doesn't even enter into it. The Grinch was just mildly miffed. I'll face down the Holiday Spirits with an untested, backpack-mounted atomic-powered proton-colliding device and think very hard about crossing the streams.

Followed, of course, by the driving need to have forced fun one week later. Thinking you're a miserable loser if you don't get a peck on the cheek. And then, and then promising yourself that it'll be better next year.

Not the most wonderful time of the year.

Frozen

Yes, Capa, I know I haven't updated in a while. I'm trying though.

So first off, me and Spike. Things are going. Slowly. Glacial. She did manage to buy a house last week and so now she has some free-ish time. We had planned to watch The Dark Knight at her place on Friday. It was going to be the big test. Meeting her dogs and seeing if they approve is a huge "moment". For those of you who have never dated a woman with pets, they have to like you or it's over. Secondly it would have been our first night in, which is another "moment" that shows levels of trust etc.

But, of course, we got the first serious arctic cold front on Friday afternoon. We called it off for safety's sake (albeit reluctantly on my part) but I knew it was the right thing to do after it took me more that two hours to drive home. And apparently I was on the good roads.

The other good thing about breaking the date is because I'm on call this weekend and the damn phone hasn't stopped chiming. In addition to the plethora of "hit a button, something broke" automated messages, something odd with passwords happened last night and I'm still trying to get someone to have a look to see what the hell is going on. Having to deal with work issues would not have impressed Spike I'm sure and I certainly would have been ... grumpy. I still am of course, but for different reasons.

With the thermometer hovering around -30 with wind chill, it's not like I would have gone for long, brisk walks this weekend but it's always nice to have a choice. Despite the biting cold, it's still a balmy 25 centigrade in my apartment, so at least I'm working in shorts and not much else. And adding insult to injury, half of my team went on a spontaneous trip to Hawaii.

So besides all that, things are basically at a stand-still weekend-wise. I'm hoping for thaws on several levels over the next week, but according to the weather and my bachelor's intuition, that may be a long time coming.