On holiday cheer
Well, it's somehow Christmas Eve. I'm not quite sure how that happened, if I'm being honest.
My car got hit by a plow on Black Friday - thankfully, I wasn't in it at the time (it was in our parking lot, I'm not crazy enough to go anywhere that day) and it wasn't completely destroyed. Still, it wasn't exactly fun for me to find out about, especially since we had just gotten some repairs done on it like two days prior. I've spent the last... three and a half weeks or so commuting to and from work by bus, which is not something I generally do. We live in the middle of nowhere, so the bus comes approximately every hour, and you have to flag it down since we don't really have bus stops - it kind of feels like hailing a very large taxi, haha.
Since I haven't been able to get around much (my car is still not fixed... that's a story for another time), I've been to the store twice since Thanksgiving - once for meds, once for work errands, both of which happened weeks ago by now. Beyond that, we've been getting groceries delivered, which has been maybe one of the only good things that has come out of the pandemic. I'm usually at the store a few times a week, either for work or to pick up food, so not being able to get to places has definitely been... something. (I haven't missed those damn bell ringers though.)
I haven't really seen the holiday light displays that I'm used to. The bus takes me home before sunset, and my route is primarily made up of an assortment of construction projects that are desperately trying to get as much done before we really start getting hit by snow. Someone on our street put out the world's brightest light-up snowmen, but other than that it's been pretty quiet. I used to work Christmas Eve AND Christmas Day every year, and driving around with nobody else on the roads while listening to whatever music they'd play on the radio was kind of the thing to do.
We got a tree on... Friday? My partner had to get one of her coworkers to drive it over for us. I feel like we always get one really late, lol. Last year we didn't get one at all - by the time my partner tried to look for one, everywhere was basically sold out, so I ended up making this weird little tree out of fake branches and cotton balls. I don't really care about the tree part, but I guess most people do. I don't really "do" Christmas, anyway.
It's been a weird holiday season though, probably because Thanksgiving was so late and our mail has been so delayed... and Christmas is on a Wednesday, which is probably the weirdest day to have off. After a long, long year of stress, I've finally gotten some good news at work, so I'm starting to feel a little bit better than I had been previously (even though the whole car thing has been a nightmare and a half). I've been writing a lot lately - I signed up for a N+C holiday exchange and managed to complete five different gifts, which is pretty crazy for me. (Those will all be posted on AO3 tomorrow, in case you happen to be interested.) I feel like I'm finally able to breathe a little easier, maybe not be as paranoid or guarded as I used to be. It's been... different, I guess.
Anyway, I should wrap this up - I've been rambling too much. Here's hoping that you have (or had, more likely) a nice holiday season this year.