life, the universe, and donna

So, Christmas? Yeah, that happened.

It’s been a supremely awesome month. I sold a metric shit ton of soap at Blim on the 18th, which was a great re-introduction to the fun of making All The Soap Ever. I also sold a ton of soap to friends & family, who have given me wonderful feedback. Hooray, my soap is popular!

Now, to get back on this stained glass thing…

Christmas was awesome. Dan & I stayed at my parents place on Christmas Eve so that for the first time in yeeeears, I got to have a Christmas morning with my family. Which was a blast, even though I’d already gotten my main gift from my parents — my new bike, Natasha Pistachio, who I plan on taking out for a ride today.

I was also utterly astonished when I opened Dan’s gift and found a painting by an excellent artist friend of ours, of me. Bret tells the story better, so I’ll leave that up to him.

I also managed to succeed at Christmas. I have this thing where I LOVE buying gifts, and attempt to take pride in thoughtful gifts, but am not nearly as creative as I’d like to be and end up failing miserably. Add to it that Dan tends to just go out and buy something if he wants it. Argh. He claimed that he’d dropped all sorts of hints as to things that he might like, but LIKE I PICK UP ON SUBTLE. He had also mentioned a gift someone had given him in the past that *I* thought was SUPER thoughtful, but he was less impressed with. OH GOD THE PRESSURE IS ON.

I managed to do okay: I got him a kindle, which he hasn’t actually put down since he got it, and one of Bret’s paintings (see link above for full story.) SUCCESS! Of course, his birthday is in a few months and now that I’ve had a success with Christmas, I somehow have to duplicate it… ack.

Much food was eaten, my dog was only a LITTLE idiotic (we have a theory that she’s anti-beard), and we trundled off home to proceed to suffer from the WORST PLAGUE EVER. It was so bad I actually took a day off work — my second since I started working at this company, the first one being when I sprained my ankle and knew the ER trip would make me miss the start of my shift. Damn.

So New Years: So I’ve gone to the same awesome house party for … what, 6 years? 7? More? I have no idea. And the original plan was to go to the party. But as it got closer and closer to the 31st, I found that I didn’t really have an interest. I haven’t kept in close contact with most of the people I would see there, and while they’re utterly fantastic people, I find that I’m going in a different direction… and so in the last couple of days before New Years, we asked kdot & cas if they wanted to come over for an evening of boardgames and sparkles instead. (My shirt provided all of the sparkles, but everybody else took some home. As did the dog, the couch, and the carpet. Ah, sparkles, the herpes of craft supplies.)

I can’t decide if I’m getting boring or if my priorities are shifting. Possibly both, but I had a fantastic night and wouldn’t have had it any other way. Also, I got to be a werewolf, which was great. Am sad not to see all the Awesome People, but I had the New Years I wanted — even if it was a WEE bit different than last years.

Last year was such an interesting thing. It started off with me still being utterly miserable… but fuck that shit. I got better. I never would have expected how MUCH better! Hooray, better!

Next: We’re going to Cuba in April. I’m super stoked. I have the vacation time booked off and everything. Our savings account is growing steadily, and soon I’ll be out buying a bathing suit that actually fits. Excited? Yes, excited. This year is going to be great.