And with the dawn of winter upon us, thus falls depression. Five years in Colorado gave me a taste of the sun and my vitamin D intake soared. Now I brace myself for another dark winter.
Things of late:
1) Mused on what to do for the holidays, it seems that they always sneak up so quickly. There I am, always looking for something stupid for that one family member or friend…what would they like? I can’t think…Lately, I’ve been making little lists over the year, writing down things that family members have mentioned wanting or needing.
2) My jewelry has consumed me as I wait and hope for another successful holiday. My new jewelry website hangs in a balance as I continue to add to it, plan, fine tune, etc. My fingers are laced with super-fine glitter, silicone glue pieces stick to my knuckles, my back aches from being hunched over for hours. I desperately try and take pictures for the site when I have light…setting up the tri-pod and staging shots as diligently as I can. However, it’s shocking how little light we have these days, with Seattle immediately plunging into darkness around four-thirty (alas, this will only get worse before it get’s better).
3) A new nalgene bottle sits at my side. I have returned to drinking my doctor required liter of water a day.
4) I continue to lift weights–but only my arms. This is the first year where I have actually followed up on one of my New Year’s Resolutions: Have Some Semblance of Triceps.
5) Counsel, console, and support my husband while he navigates his way through work, side projects, extra schooling, our house crumbling around us; he and I have seen very little of each other in the past month.
6) Walks continue through the neighborhood, the streets littered with stray garbage, leaves, and the occasional Lost Dog poster.
7) I realized recently that my protein intake must be lacking when, eating out at the Mexican restaurant down the street, I devoured multiple chicken dishes as if my life depended on it. It didn’t help that they served us the most enormous margaritas in the world–the size of a small fish bowl. (If you don’t specify they serve you the jumbo margarita on the rocks). In order to cut the sweetness we tossed in an extra shot of tequila into each of our fish bowls (they weren’t very strong). In order to pad our stomachs we ordered off the appetizer menu and feasted superbly for very little money. We drunkenly precessed to the liquor store down the street; so pleased we were by our state, we decided to stock up our liquor cabinet “for the winter.” Normally, we would both be a little nervous going to the corner of Rainier and 51st on a Friday night in the dark, but our light-headed tequila buzz gave us a wonderful sense of “Who the eff cares?” The cop hired to hang out at our neighborhood liquor store eyed us…after all we both looked out of place among the liquor store locals. Josh and I held it together, every little bottle prompting some sort of memory: “Aw, remember us and the Peach Shcnapps at the hotel room on Aurora?” “Remember drinking Maker’s Mark at Gorsuch’s place when it was snowing?” “Remember how much Jager I drank in Chris’ trailer at 12,000 feet above sea level? Remember how I thought I was on a roller coaster all night?” We snickered at the liqueurs and admired the display of scotches. We bought a jumbo size bottle of vodka and a high end bottle of bourbon for hot toddies. Then we stumbled up the muddy alley way that runs along the back of our block and behind our house, with our brown paper bag clinking merrily, the security dogs locked behind fences barking at us furiously until we reached our home and promptly fell asleep at the ridiculous hour of 8:30pm.