Merry Christmas
The week before Christmas was miserable for me. Let me explain. I have now realized that almost 90% of your christmas spirit comes from decorations and friends/family -- all things I did not have around me. Because I am newly on my own, I don't have any Christmas decorations -- in fact, the only thing I had was 1 Christmas card from my grandparents. As for the friends/family, my close, close, group of friends are now living all over the world. The closest friend/family is a three hour drive from me. In my mind, I kept thinking about what I had last year at this time -- before the "divorce." With all this in my mind, I was in a real melancholy state. Now you have the context, here are the events that pushed me over the edge.
The weekend before Christmas my mom came to visit. We had a fantastic time, then she went home. You know that feeling of when you have to say, "Goodbye" -- then the rest of the day just feels empty and quiet? Yeah -- empty, quiet, and alone. Now the events of the week -- I got really bad news from a close friend, could not sleep all week, my eyes were always red/puffy so I used my old eye drops that I now discovered have a side effect of dilating eyes (party of self-conscious +1), badly burnt my tongue, found a dent (looks like it is from a rogue shopping cart) on my car, bashed my shin into my platform bed (so hard it bled and bruised), I got two (yes, two) canker sores, my face broke out, I still hate my hair cut (and can tell I am losing/getting gray hair -- which is adding to the self-consciousness), and was forcing myself to "keep it together" because I still had work everyday.
When I finally got home to my mom's on Christmas Eve (after a long three hour drive), I walked through the door and said "Hi" and busted out crying. I just could not keep it in anymore. We sat around and talked for a few hours. My mom said it best, I had the holiday blues. I'm so used to being around people. When I was in a relationship I was always around someone, when that ended I was always around my mom, then I went traveling -- always around people. Now, I go to work and come home to an empty apartment -- it is really starting to get to me. Yes, now and then I get together with old friends -- but it is only once in a blue moon.
(Side note: If you know me, while I was writing this blog, my mom's cat (Chloe) just attacked Salem, and I unknowingly yelled, "Morgan, stop!" -- sigh). Anyways, enough blubbering.
Christmas Day, I felt slightly better (still kinda down, but I finally got over 5 hours of sleep). My mom and I opened gifts. I got furniture, home decorations, kitchen supplies, and a 40" flat screen TV (TV has been my closeted friend in Dallas; it talks to me and always has interesting topics to entertain me -- yeah, i'm anthropomorphizing my TV, that's how looney I have been). I got my mom a new Blue-ray DVD player that also streams Blockbuster and Netflix video on demand. I helped her set that up and for the rest of the day we watched movies. It was a perfect gift for her. She loves movies. Now with the Netflix VOD, she can watch unlimited movies anytime she wants all for only $9 a month -- perfect. We have already watched 5 movies.
Saturday I got a full night sleep. My mom and I have been running around catching the sales, mainly window shopping. Sunday, I am going to go visit some old college friends. Monday my mom and I are going down to Houston to shop and see my best friend at the hospital (I have not seen her in over two months -- since she went in for her transplant). Tuesday, I am going to the doctor to get the burn on my tongue checked out and get a general checkup. Then I will head back up to Dallas -- I have work on Wednesday.
For New Years, Pam and Briana invited me to a New Year's party they are going to in Denton -- now I have something to look forward to. My next post will be around New Years. It will include my new year's resolutions, how I plan on making friends in Dallas, and just a small blurb on my fantastic job (I told you I would never write about my jobs on my blog -- but because everyone keeps asking me about it, I will write a small general description). I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas/Happy Holidays!
Christmas
This Christmas was slightly strange. Everyone I talked to said that this Christmas doesn't feel much like Christmas -- may it be the temperature or what. For me, just getting back from Germany through off my holiday feelings. I left the cold, snow, Christmas markets, mass city decorations, and Glühwein behind. When I arrived in Texas, it was 70 degrees (22 C), no snow, no city decorations (other then lights at night), no Christmas markets, no Glühwein, and no Christmas Tree. Sigh.
But, Christmas came anyway. I can tell you this, it began to feel more like the holidays with family and friends around. I went to my mom's house Tuesday night for our annual "Christmas Eve" night. We had a traditional holiday meal -- I cooked the turkey -- making it the second bird I cooked this year. We exchanged gifts too. I got a Roomba iRobot. Yes, I got a Roomba! It works perfectly; it actually does what it says it does.
On actual Christmas Eve (Wednesday), we went down to my uncles house in Houston. He just moved to Texas from Nevada for his job. We spent a nice dinner evening with his family. It was nice to see some of my cousins I never see. Living in DC, and his family in Nevada/California, we did not make it to family Christmas in Utah at the same time often. Now we live less then an hour away from each other in Texas (we met in the middle of the country -- ironic).
On Christmas Day, it did not feel much like Christmas. Mainly because of no Christmas tree (because of moving in December; the house was not decorated). I think having Christmas decorations really enforce the feeling of Christmas. Now, Christmas has come and gone. The next major event: the new year. I am excited for 2009 -- this new year is going to change everything: finishing college, house, finding a job/whatever... who knows...