frosty ruminations

[floatingleaf]

It's hardcore weather out there, man. 14F (-10C) right now, supposed to go down to -1F (-18C) tonight/tomorrow. The wind is vicious. They are predicting "treacherous conditions" during tomorrow morning's rush hour. So my commute to work might prove interesting...:| Should have taken one more day off... Btw, I didn't venture out today, and yesterday I only went to the laundromat, which is right across the street. That brief outing was quite enough to convince me that I did NOT need to expose myself to THIS kind of weather unless absolutely necessary... LOL. Strangely enough, the past four days went by pretty fast, considering how little I have managed to accomplish. Could be because I spent large chunks of Saturday AND Sunday in a semi-catatonic hormonal haze... I wasn't in terrible pain or anything - but I wasn't bursting with energy either, to put it mildly. I cooked some food, watched some Lost (I only have a few episodes left till the end!... *bites lip in distress* ;), read my favorite Dany & Dany yaoi manga for the umpteenth time, wrote a few emails, texted a bunch... Today was mostly devoted to finishing up Christmas shopping (online, obviously; I had thought of visiting a few stores, but the weather took that thought right out of my mind, LOL). So at least that's off the agenda. *relieved sigh* I have to say, though, that it seems more troublesome/time-consuming the older I get, and sometimes I really wish I could skip the whole thing. Btw, I thought I was going to start sending snail mail holiday cards again, since I've got a few new LJ friends who do it... but I just can't seem to fit that into my schedule. So it looks like I'll only be sending ONE card this year.:P [In case you're curious, it's going to meathiel, from whom I have already received one (thanks, by the way!... it's a lovely design!...:).]

Like I mentioned here before (more than once, probably) - greeting cards or gifts exchanged between people who don't actually keep in touch otherwise seem utterly meaningless to me, and it makes me feel terribly awkward to receive them, or to know I am expected to return them. People who don't keep in touch usually exchange gifts that are useless (how do you know what the person actually wants or needs if you never talk to them?... LOL). It's like an empty ritual, a symbolic offering to some petty consumerist god who only cares that you spend some money, because that's what people are supposed to do around this time of year. Well... screw that. Call me rude or selfish if you like, but I am only willing to engage in said ritual with those who talk to me a little more often than once a year.:P Actually, to be even more specific, I am only willing to engage in it with those I feel close to in some way. As in, immediate family and really close friends. If a friendship clearly hasn't endured the test of time, and we obviously haven't felt the need to say "hi, what's up" to one another in more than a few months, then why bother keeping up the pretense with Christmas gifts?... It's not going to change anything. It'll just be more and more awkward each time. I'd much rather donate some money to a charity than spend it on a gift for someone I'm not going to see again till next Christmas... LOL. I just have to brace myself against possible drama/offense resulting from this conclusion, I suppose... *weary sigh*

Which is another way of saying that I fail at the whole "holiday spirit" thing, and mostly just go along with it for my parents' sake. If not for them, I would probably just tell people I don't celebrate Christmas, so they would leave me alone. But I can hardly say that if they know I visit my parents on December 24th every year...

Well... that's it for now. Bedtime. If you've read this far, then please kindly keep your fingers crossed that I don't freeze my ass off on my way to work tomorrow morning...

Comments

[samtyr.livejournal.com]

I am very OCD about weather predictions, lol! I check the AOL 'Skye' app, NOAA, AccWeather and two local stations almost every hour -- or at least every two. ;)

I believe that Mr. Skillig works for WGN Chicago; he has an fb page and a weather blog on WordPress that I follow.