Giftmas

Have decided I will put a ban on girly pressies for upcoming birthday.
Now have makeup, bathrobe (pink!), cookbooks, frilly knickers, bathstuff, facial vouchers, chocolates, teacups, jewellery, dresses, etc.
All thought about carefully, given with love, and extremely lovely. I'm delighted to receive them.
But for someone who is new to this uber-girly stuff, it's a tad overwhelming.
A small tsunami of societal assumptions/obligations/expectations.
Now I think about it - am surprised I didn't get any candles.

On the upside; Mr M did do well with gifting me a delicious tough black leather bag though. *drools happily*

Making time for dreams.

Okay - so I didn't get my November novel finished this year.
I didn't have a clear plan; wasn't reading for the starting pistol; and then the story took me into areas that I wasn't comfortable with. But I did get some short stories done, and worked on a picture book as well.
Not anywhere near the 50 000 word goal. But any writing is better than none.

Now, NaNoWriMo is a weird and rewarding experience. Basically you cut all the extraneous activities from your life and focus all spare energies on writing furiously for a month.
It's a wonderful new headset to be in.
And following from this year, there's been an email sent out by the fulla that makes the Nano magic happen, that points out how we can get limited by our regular lives and jobs...

(snipped from his email)
"Whatever you think you are, you are more than that. You possess a fearsome array of skills and abilities, and the most satisfying of these may be completely unknown to you now. Your curiosity is a dependable guide; follow it. Put yourself in unfamiliar places. Kindle passions. Savor the raw joy of making things, and then remake the best of those things until they take someone's breath away." - Chris Baty

Lovely to read on the first day of 3 weeks of holidays.
Off now to look for some kindling and matches for my passions :-)

Excellent x-mas stockings - spotted in a $2 store at Wynyard Station:

Lots to say right now. But actually had an after-work beer today. Too zonked and beery to type anything coherently. Going to find food instead.

Must up the self-care stakes a bit lately. Am feeling pretty good about life, but have a hunch I've not been looking after myself as much as I could.

One more chockablock day at work tomorrow, then holidays. Yay!

Tomorrow holds a stocktake, 2hrs on desk, assessing sidekicks work and writing up stuff for their next 3 weeks without me (unneccesary I think - but they requested it :-) and setting up for the work Christmas party.

All this in tulle and heels.

Today was in black and boots. A Librarian excursion around the council area. Some keen colleague wore a pedometer - 8kms we walked. Lots of stairs. It's not a flat part of town.

Mr diabetic-overweight-heart-attack kept up admirably, and talked the whole damn way!

Goth-sidekick jokingly complained about being attacked by the nature. Friend at the Depot apologised for 'the boys' behaviour at the Melbourne Cup lunch. Imagine I'll get more of the same at the Christmas thing tomorrow.

Ah man. I wasn't going to write anything. Wups.

More later.

xx

Point form.

No posts for ages. So here's a wee update:

- Work is getting steadily better. Only had 2 meltdowns recently, and am getting a lot more work down. Sidekicks' enthusiasm is slightly infectious, which is a joy! And the newest sidekick has seen me in anxiety attack mode and didn't freak out, which was good.
- A week and a half until 3 weeks holidays. This is also awesome.

- My Ma is coming to stay for a couple of days which is exciting. Then heading off to my sister's new house which could be politely referred to as in the outer suburbs of Sydney.

- I didn't stop eating sugar as a weightloss thing. It was more for my moods as well as giving my insides a break from it. But I noticed this morning that my favourite work skirt is very long, that is, it's sitting low on my hips now.
- Weightloss could be good for my health. But I'm unsure as to how I actually feel about it. Certainly not super-happy like girls are usually trained to feel about it. This may stir up some heavy head stuff.

And speaking of girl stuff...
- I wore pink. ACK! PINK! A ruffled pastel pink tulle skirt no less. I wore it out Kooky dancing and it was good. The only pink I could find in the house to accessorise were a couple of pink buttons from Mr M's great-aunts' button collection, and his 'nipple' badge that I wore on a necklace.
- Some people thought that the skirt was apricot, flesh, mushroom, or beige coloured. Rotters, the lot of them!

- I am already trying to think of good outfits for New Years' Boots are sorted. Have a shortlist for skirts. No idea what tops to wear.
- Am considering every night out dancing as a training camp (Boot Camp Hahaha!) for the all-night dancing of New Years'. So far so good.

Ah, there's probably more to catch up, but I should get stuck into the work day instead now.
xx