Jan
22
Boy, January has really been Januarying, this is the just-gotta-get-through-it month in the best of times and the times are *checks notes, scrabbled in broken lipstick on a mirror along with one aggressive trailing off line* REALLY not the best, amirite. We’re not even done with January, there’s enough January left for all kinds of things. It certainly feels like anything is possibly, literally anything. Civil war, nuclear war, alien invasion, Starbucks is illegal, women have to prove fertility to buy groceries which are just MAHA-approved ivermectin-fortified “Hungry Man” dinners now WHO FUCKEN KNOWS.
I was on a good long sustained upswing for a while and I miss that, I felt a lot more optimistic and energetic and lately I have been dragging ass and going to bed ridiculously early, not to get a whole lot of nice restorative sleep of course but just to doomscroll until my eyes give out. It’s the season, it’s the nonstop heavy news, it’s temporary, I’m telling myself. And it is, this is a dip and that is life, the great thing about being older is knowing bone-deep how the ups and downs come and go.
But man. Hello from the other side, you know? Gonna be glad to be out of the trenches.
Well, here are some good things. Billy had his neutering surgery and seems none the worse for wear, I had him in a mildly hilarious “recovery suit” (pretty much a baby onesie) for the first day but that was it, no cone of shame or anything. Did my part to lower the world’s testosterone levels, by golly. I have been meaning to befriend an older lady in my neighborhood and I did! We exchanged numbers and she came to see the house and meet Billy. I sent a box of Crumbl cookies to another friend and she was so surprised and happy about it, that made me glad. I have been slowly replacing my ugly plastic lightswitch/outlet covers with brass plates and they look so much better. I rewatched The Fall, which I think might be my favorite movie of all time. I made a cottage cheese concoction that sounds absolutely disgusting and is extremely delicious, if you aren’t scared of mid-century Midwestern dairy/gelatin bangers (cottage cheese + cool whip + a packet of Jell-O mix + whatever fruit you like, I used a can of fruit cocktail + chopped nuts, hells yeah). I decided to learn line dancing and I’m going for my first lesson tonight along with a couple friends! (Will report back on that FOR SURE.)
The horrors persist, and so do we. What’s getting you through the January doldrums?
Comments
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But every. single. year. it is the LONGEST most ENDLESS month. How does it do that, EVERY YEAR?
Hi, my name is Daria, I’m from New Jersey.
I was, like you, on the upswing, but this week has been rough. Exercise, water, tea, sleep, gratitude. Not the saccharine kind but the “this sucks, but hey, at least I have my health, and my family is healthy.”
Ugh.
I can’t drink because it’s making me depressed so I get by on green tea. And chocolate.
I am experimenting with increasing my daily intake of processed cheeses. I will report back with results.
Heated Rivalry on HBO Max. I am obsessed.
Exercise. Back to walking, preferably with a friend. Does so much for the spirits.
It’s the worst fucking month. Our dog has cancer and it’s heartbreaking.
My mother has an abundance of illnesses and I work 6 days a week. It’s dragging this month and I go back to work next week for another year of exhaustion. To say I’m dreading it all and waking up tomorrow even is very real. Hope you feel better m! Enjoy the line dancing
I used to teach line dancing back when I was in university – you’ll have so much fun! It’ll at least help buoy you through the slog of what remains of January. Ugh this month is the worst.
Watching dog videos is helping me limp along. Funny story about our a-hole cat. He was a terror as a young cat; he loved to leap out from behind things, jumping onto your leg and digging his nails in. My small kids were scared of him at the time and for good reason. When he was coming up on the neutering surgery, I mentioned that it would make the cat calmer, less aggressive – that’s what the vet said. But, after his snip-snip, the cat was the same – wild and obnoxious . My daughter would quip that he needs another surgery. We still say that when he’s being a jerk, which is almost all the time.
So glad you’re going for the line dancing. Physical activity where music and exercise is involved leaves less time for doomscrolling! I’m living in Canada now and everyone’s just about had it with the whole ’51st state” and “get Greenland the easy way or the hard way” BS.
I’m doing a bunch of “nesting for winter” food-related stuff, such as making big batches of chili and acorn-squash soup to fill the freezer!
My 15 year old recently shared the sentiment “It’s hard to imagine that while Rome fell people were going about their everyday lives.” I’ve been thinking about that a lot when some crazy thing has happened, but now it’s time to go wash the dishes. This week my church’s “everyone is welcome here” (rainbow) banner was torn down and burned on our front steps. I closed the email telling me and picked back up the sewing I was doing.Rome may be falling, but I have a life to live.
*comes bursting through the wall like Kool-Aid man* Are we talking about The Fall? One of THE most gorgeous movies ever filmed