Ay, the façade wants to fall off

I did my best impression of a socially happy person for the holidays, and I could have won an Oscar the following day (aka today).

Everything from my shoulders down hurts. Not aches, but hurts. A significant amount. Maybe doing 3 load of laundry one day after an extremely intense physio session, and then get the beast bird (aka 7kg turkey) roasted to perfection the following day. Fun part was about 3 hours in wooden slat chairs.

Now Wing wants us to go out on a shopping trip? I am going to be a human puddle of pain by end of day. For during the day, I will use pain meds to suppress it for a while. I will be a reasonable facsimile of a human being. Just don't bump too hard, or I might shatter.

Every time I think about calling it quits

Something small, probably insignificant to everyone else in the world, happens.  Maybe it's seeing a bird singing his heart out at the start of the day.  The smell of something in bloom. My cat Loki climbing up for a cuddle

I made it through the hell that's called "The Holidays". It's so hard to keep a happy smiling demeanor plastered on my face, or the look of interest in what someone is talking about.

It's fucking hard. But at least the stress of November through December social shit is over. I need to decompress. I need to sleep. I need to talk to someone who won't dismiss my feelings and mental state as 'just the blues'.  If I have the blues, their fucking indigo.

Is it 2022 yet?

Have I ever mentioned that the older I get, the less I like the holidays? It's not the years, and it's not even the mileage... it's the fender benders along the way.

All I want to do is pull December over my head, and not come out until the 2nd week in January. My left knee is still screwed up, but at least the nerve pain is gone.

The 'kittens' have really adapted to being domestic moggies, instead of feral strays. Still flinch a bit when you go to pet them, and Trance is still being a bully.

*sigh*

Holiday Cheer?

I'm trying to get into it, I really am. But it's more stressful than cheerful. I miss being around family. I know I have Wing and Alan here, but there's Paul and the children, my cousin Mark, Marilyn and Rob... I miss my Aunt Elnore, and Uncle Al.

I probably wouldn't be feeling as bummed out if things had gone differently this year, but for me, I can't wait until it's back to business as usual. And business wasn't so great, but there wasn't all this saccharine smiling going on all the time.

So much for the surprise.

I ordered a 'surprise' holiday gift for our household, and the merchant, instead of packing the two items in a box, as they had done prior, they shipped them in their store shelf boxes. Surprise blown, as the person it was for was the one that accepted delivery.

I filled out their online form, and they replied with long schpiel about how quality of service is their priority. Then asked this:

> For our records, could you please provide photos showing the product's packaging?

I replied "What packaging? The items were shipped in their store shelf boxes, rather battered, with shipping labels slapped onto them."