Happy Solstice!

Happy Solstice!

I am staying up all night to remind the sun where to come back, but to be honest, that is less of a spiritual choice and more of a "goddamn I have a lot of things to get done in the next 6.5 hours" choice.

Today has been a *very* busy day! I woke up extremely early and was scooped up by Clara and Kyle to go join some other friends-and-folkies as they sang the sun up. It was a really nice little event (ceremony?) despite the fact that I knew almost nobody there. It was very very cold, but I came prepared, in my heated jacket (with a spare battery, even!) although I have to admit the folks wearing cloaks looked more stylish.

They dropped me off at a green line station so I could go deep into the city and get to the Coolidge Corner Theatre in time to watch the Muppet Christmas Carol. I arrived about fifteen minutes late, which means I walked into the theatre just about when Scrooge was walking into his home. This means I missed all the parts where he is horrid to Kermit, and just got all the really good songs!

A Christmas Carol is, fundamentally, a story about how community triumphs over capitalism. The muppets are, fundamentally, the muppets. The combination remains so so good! And the cut the theatre had included the full song of "When Love Is Gone", which I don't think I've ever seen before!

(I cried during "Wherever you find love, it feels like Christmas", and its reprise as well, because damn. Community is good, y'all!)

Back to the green line after, arriving at Old North...just in time to hug choco_frosh who was rushing off on his own adventures after bells. The group had just finished up, so I met them in the antechamber of the church, and Danielle and lauradi7dw and I trailed after Elaine like little ducklings, hoping for a ride to Porter Square.

It is nice to carpool with friends! Good bits of conversation, and then piling out at Porter and all going our separate ways. In my case, that was to the pop-up vintage market operating out of the former PSB location, then way down MassAve to a record store which was a) very neat and b) actual records instead of CDs so not actually helpful for my goals. Swing through Davis and get my meds, and at that point be so very hungry that I can't bear the idea of anything else.

I ate some chips, which fortified me enough to go to the SmallMart bazaar, then to Harvard Sq to get my CDs from Newbury Comics. Arriving at Harvard and looking at the timings board, I sighed, and continued on to Central Sq, so that I could hit up Pandamonium. Then the long ride back home (it was not that long, the red line is doing much better), and reading my book and dissociating slightly to get back home, especially since this is where it was windy.

But I am happy that I did nearly all my Christmas shopping this year at local stores --Newbury Comics was about the biggest, since they are a real chain I suppose, just a local and not-very-large one.

At home I made a more substantial lunch and relaxed a bit, and eventually packed up some giveaway gifts and walked the terrible and arduous path to verdantry's house where there was a little solstice party going on. I spent a very jolly couple hours meeting some of their friends who I'd heard lots about but never met, and talking about math and books and flags and other good things.

Then home in time to feed Nigel --Ezri and Rey are on their own solstice adventures this weekend, and not home-- and the rest of the evening has been varying levels of usefully puttering around the house. I still have quite a substantial todo list, but as noted, I also have over six hours. Sleep? I can sleep when I'm dead! Or at least, on the train to Maryland tomorrow. That'll work quite well.

I feel lucky and pleased to have the house to myself for Solstice, even if I'm not doing much with the space. Maybe I'll try and go out at sunrise and ensure she's coming back today, too. Maybe not --it's apparently getting _bad_ cold out there, and I'm not sure I'll want to be out in it any more than I have to to get to the train.

I hope you are well and happy and living your best life. Happy Solstice!

~Sor
MOOP!

(no subject)

I did not sleep very much last night, but I did manage to do all the things on my todo list and get out of house on time. The red line was a little startling --signal problems mean the only estimation was "every 9-10 minutes" instead of something more useful-- but I strolled into South Station at just the right time to just keep walking straight through the train terminal and onto my train!

There was apparently a downed wire somewhere between Philly and NYC, which didn't slow us down at all until we made it past NYC. Even with that, the Acela was only about an hour-fifteen late. I slept a clear bulk of the time --the rest of the ride was playing silly little video games on my phone. I know what i'm about!

(more importantly, I have been running myself _ragged_ the past week or two, and the only reason I've been able to sustain the godawful pace I've been setting is because i knew I would get the train ride and then get to _rest_ on the train.

Do I get to rest over the break? K...indof? There are family dynamics and oldest sibling stuff that makes me have a lot of responsibility sometimes. But I also genuinely like my family, both the ones blood related and the additional not-quite-in-laws that Lexi and Charlie represent. A lot of my family can be A Lot, in several different ways, but I'm happy to be with them.

Besides, right now is still a tired day. I'm writing my words so that I can go to bed anytime without guilt. TOMORROW I will begin making a giant list of What Needs To Happen When, in terms of organizing the house and creating food and then eventually we have a CHRISSMAS or whatever.

(I'm excited to open presents and spend time with the people I love. All of this is really good!)

And in between any things that Need To Happen, there will also be lots of goofy things that _can_ happen. Like right now is all-parallel-play-all-the-time --we've put a random youtube list of Chapell Roan on the telly, mom's playing a video game from the early 00's, Charlie's braiding Aly's hair while she hangs on her phone, I'm writing my words, Dad's in the other room doing a puzzle, and Lexi and Shannon are working on some recent video game that was explained as an anime tower defense game.

It's all real good! There are movies to force each other to watch, and games to play, and just...general coziness. My family is good and I like them.

(and books to read! So many books to read!)

I hope you're having a nice time of things, and that I can figure out a useful thing to write for three hundred more words!

~Sor
MOOP!