Remember when I used to blog for fun?

Ha! Me neither! It looks like it’s been 95% work around here since… oh, at least November. I feel like I’m always working and yet when someone asks me what I’ve been up to I kind of just stare at them. Uh, I’ve been… working? I mean, I guess I am? I’m always busy, I must be working.

Not right at this moment, I’m not, anyway… I’m torn between trying to remember some things I’ve done lately that aren’t work… and fighting a nap. I really don’t want the nap to win. I mean, if I’m not going to tell you what I’ve been doing lately that’s not work, I should go do productive things like the dishes, and laundry, right?

So then. Stuff and nonsense it is, then!

Back in October, I started to get into Overtone hair color. So far I’ve done …. green, blue, purple, a red and blue blend, a different red and blue blend, and I just did pink. It’s fun. It washes out in about two weeks, so definitely isn’t permanent, hasn’t stained any towels or pillowcases, and it’s vegan so I feel safe using it (who puts fish in hair dye? Who knows?! Better to be safe than sorry, Omega 3, I’m looking at you).

I’ve also been doing these virtual races, and I know, I know, I’ve been meaning to do a blog post on them. I’ve taken a little time off – I pulled a muscle in my hip and/or the statin I’m taking for high cholesterol is causing massive hip muscle pain (I’m eating Tylenol like tic-tacs and slathering on the Icy Hot with Lidocaine like fucking body lotion). So I’m trying to rest and let that calm down. Walking on the treadmill makes my hip feel better during the day, but then on days I walk I also wake up at 4 AM unable to get comfortable from the pain. I, uhm, ran out of the statin drug, though, with our health insurance changing, and I feel better after about ten days off it. So I’m going to start walking again soon (and get my prescription refilled, don’t yell at me; we just got cards a little while ago).

I also went to Sephora and talked to them about makeup and skin care – don’t laugh. I’m 50 years old and still have acne so what the hell! And using the vegan hair coloring got me thinking that maybe they’re doing new plant-based things with makeup and no longer putting Omega-3 from fish in everything. Rather than order a bunch of shit online that I might or might not like, I just braved going down there and being sold to. Huh. Turns out I like the makeup they tried out on me and I’ve been washing my face wrong for like my whole life (turns out I don’t have oily skin like I thought, I have dehydrated skin from overzealous cleaning, that becomes oily trying to fight back from me stripping it dry twice a day). So I’m working on a whole new skin care regimen, adding in a little powder and mascara here and there for social gatherings, and damn if it isn’t working! Huh.

I’ve been working on revamping some things at HaldeCraft — no, no, wait, I want this post to NOT be about work. So ignore what I just said.

Friendsgiving! We had close to 30 people. Next year we might need a bigger house, haha. Thanksgiving never really meant that much to me as a holiday, growing up. We spent so much time with my paternal grandparents that one more family meal wasn’t that much different. It meant more to me the year I didn’t live at home and couldn’t get there, how strange is that?! But I love that we’ve become the house to come to now. People who don’t want to go home, can’t get home, they come to us and we are now their home. I love that. I just wish people would take more leftovers with them on the way out the door!

In December, I had an AMAZING time going to my friends’ Dacia and Dov’s 10-year working-at-Disney anniversary party. That definitely deserves its own post. I mean, I know I put a shit ton of pictures up on Facebook, but I still just have so many feels about the event!

The weekend after that was GLAM, but, again, trying to keep this post NOT about work! Which means I also shouldn’t bring up vending at the Melrose Farmer’s Market, which I started about then as well. What made me think I could take on a weekly event?! I used to do a monthly craft market and burned out hard after about five of them – did I not learn? The same day a week is closer to itself than one day a month is! Dumb dumb!

About late December, early January, when work started to die down a little, I started putting “going to see my friend Bill” on my weekly list of things to do. He’s a friend from high school – not a close friend, we didn’t hang out all the time or party together, but we were in a lot of the same classes and had a lot of the same friends and hung out with a lot of the same people. He was one of those rare guys in high school who wasn’t a dick. Which meant we kept in touch through and after college, including when he lived overseas for a few years (and would send Jenn and I random and awesome stuff from Korea).

A couple of years ago he had a bad stroke and a bad fall, and now he’s in a nursing home/care center, where he will probably be for the rest of his life. He doesn’t get a lot of visitors because chances are good if you grew up in Gainesville you got the fuck out as fast as you could (otherwise, you never left). I’m one of the only people he knows from way the heck back in the early 80s who is still in town, and he knows Jenn from almost that far back, so… so we go to the nursing home and boss him around and tease him and we talk Godzilla movies and old school Gainesville and just generally hang out. One time I went and we both spent most of the two hours I was there playing games on our respective phones, haha. I hope he appreciates me coming to visit, and it’s not that I’m driving him crazy and he just can’t say so – he’s always been a really genuine, fun person and Jenn and I are happy to give him some social interaction that isn’t someone yelling about Jesus from the other room.

Let’s see… what else? Jag came down for New Year’s, and it was so good to spend some time with her. The New Year’s Eve party was same-old, same-old (people! food! drinks! people! food!) but I wedged myself in a corner this time with a couple of friends and got the most sit-down time I think I’ve had at that party in years. Tim’s parents also came down, and as always, it was wonderful to spend time with them. Never enough time with those wonderful people! If it didn’t snow up there I’d wish we all lived closer. (And Bill hates hurricanes so they’ll never move down this way.)

Corwin got an ear infection in January… other than that the animals are all fine. The tortoises are growing, the cats are barfing, everything is normal, haha.

In addition to the yearly small concert by Bill and Jennifer on New Year’s Day, our friend Jenny Parrott came and played a concert at Satchel’s (Tim’s parents were still here so they got to see her, too, and enjoyed the evening). Then towards the end of the month, Susan and Crystal and I went up to Jax to see The Indigo Girls. So January was full of wonderful live music!

And now this month is almost over. Let’s see… we went to the Hoggetown Midevial Faire… my bonus!cousin Michelle came down and we got to see her… the neighbor’s rooster got out and walked around our property for a couple of days… I had an amazing live music experience when my friend Sonya was playing in an orchestra that did a John Williams retrospective (including some scenes from movies and still shots, to really set the mood)… Bill’s dad got him moved from the nursing home in Williston (a little over an hour drive from me) to one in Gainesville, basically cutting my drive time in half on the days I go hang with the man (plus now he’s right next door to the apartment complex a friend of mine lives in so I can go hug her some Tuesdays as well)… and I went to the dentist, where they were surprised that I had cracked my night guard but it does seem that it can be repaired. That’s hardcore, breaking something you put in your mouth to not break your teeth.

So that’s what I’m doing when I’m not working, which it feels is like all the time. Damn, that’s hardly anything! Why am I so tired all the time!?